Revenge of the Homework... Again.
Because I am evil. All I have to do is my NRM thing and my math and Polisci reading. So first, NRM. That will be a good place to start since I'm already online. For NRM I have an article write-up, the exact details of which I totally forget. So I'll be right back, after I grab the assignment. Ok, the damage is this: 2 pages of summary, which includes the topic/summary or the article, high points of the article, and my response. Time to hit the bathroom then start wasting away from lack of sleep.
Now to stop wasting any more time and actually get down to the assignment. The article I would like to use for it is a thing on RFID tags from the February 008 Scientific American. First, a summary. By which I mean, find the text on sciam's website and copying and pasting. Oh... did I say that out loud? :)
OK... Ctrl-V now.
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, an electronic alternative to bar codes, are becoming increasingly common. They mark shipping pallets and library books, for example, and are key to remote toll-paying systems.
Hitachi, which already produces a tiny chip for use in such tags, has announced a prototype for an almost invisible chip.
The company intends for the new chip to be incorporated into high-value vouchers such as gift certificates, tickets and securities to thwart counterfeiters.
Now to make that my own.
I chose to write on something I have a personal interest in, Radio-Frequency IDentification (RFID) tags. They are commonly being used as an "electronic alternative" to UPC (barcodes), and are now being found everywhere. According to wikipedia.com, it "cost[s] about US$0.005 to implement a barcode compared to passive RFID which still costs about US$0.07 to US$0.30 per tag." Still, they can be found all over, in library books and shipping pallets. They are necessary for remote toll paying systems (ie. FasTrak, that thing on the Golden Gate).
I usually try to avoid anything looking like definitions in my papers, but there is no easy way around it with RFID. It is modern (almost futuristic) technology and incredibly complex. Basically, there are a few components necessary for RFID. First, the "tags" as they're called. There are two types of tags, passive tags and active tags. The major difference is that active tags have a battery, more on this in a bit. The main part of the tag is some Read-Only Memory (ROM) that contains an "immutable identification number." The rest of the circuitry is to connect to a reader. Which leads to the next part, the reader. The reader, depending on what type chips it is looking for, scans for a tag and then sends the number the tag contains to a computer, which can then use the number as is fit. It is a little more complex than that, but that is the short version, which seems to have taken up near half a page. So, back to the article.
Hitachi, which already produces the tiny chip for use in RFID tags, has announced a prototype for an almost invisible chip. Tag size is limited by how small the chip can get. For example, the chip in a current library tag measures 1mm by 1mm by 0.18mm. Tiny, no? Well, Hitachi's new "powder" chip measures a minuscule 0.05mm by 0.5mm by 0.005mm. The chip is almost invisible to the naked eye, and can actually be embedded into a sheet of paper. The article then goes into some detail about how Hitachi is trying to make their powder chips, and faster and cheaper than the current large chips.
So what is so important about all this? Primo, it is really awesome that a multi-digit code can be transferred wirelessly from a distance. It could be embedded in sidewalks to aid wheelchair navigation programs. It could be built in to each and every sheet of paper, making inventorying almost instantaneous. There are about as many uses for RFID as there are grains of sand on the third monkey to the left from the wildebeest. Secondus, there are the privacy concerns. This is my personal favorite part, because I love arguing, and there is nothing to get a good argument going like questioning someone's right to privacy. I am a big proponent of keeping private things, well, private. RFID tags are likely to go into everything if it becomes cheap enough. How would you like it if someone were able to walk up to you with a little homebuilt RFID scanner, scan the clothes you are wearing, and find out you paid too much for those pants because they were the "stressed" (or whatever) pair from Abercrombie and you cared too much about your so-called "image" to go down to Goodwill and by a pair of slightly worn jeans. Oh, and grab the number of the credit card you used to pay with and then the Social Security Number linked to the card, then your date of birth, then walk over to you and say "Cool, you're over 21 and I love the Aber(whatever) pants, lets go get a drink at a bar." Then pays with your credit card and then goes on a shopping spree and then starts collecting unemployment under your name. I'm not paranoid, I just have an active imagination, and understand that everything I just listed there could be possible. Be afraid. Be very... Ha. Tertius, it could be used to prevent counterfeiting. If every bill over say five dollars had a little tag in it, that was registered in a national database, it would be pretty hard to copy (read: nearly impossible).
So at the possible expense of some privacy, we have a pretty beneficial piece of technology that could make everything from warehouses to coffee mugs to money more secure. Personally, I think Hitachi can take their powder and snort it, I would prefer to have my privacy.
Shelby Munsch
aka JESUS IM TIRED
only with more betters grammer
Now to stop wasting any more time and actually get down to the assignment. The article I would like to use for it is a thing on RFID tags from the February 008 Scientific American. First, a summary. By which I mean, find the text on sciam's website and copying and pasting. Oh... did I say that out loud? :)
OK... Ctrl-V now.
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, an electronic alternative to bar codes, are becoming increasingly common. They mark shipping pallets and library books, for example, and are key to remote toll-paying systems.
Hitachi, which already produces a tiny chip for use in such tags, has announced a prototype for an almost invisible chip.
The company intends for the new chip to be incorporated into high-value vouchers such as gift certificates, tickets and securities to thwart counterfeiters.
Now to make that my own.
I chose to write on something I have a personal interest in, Radio-Frequency IDentification (RFID) tags. They are commonly being used as an "electronic alternative" to UPC (barcodes), and are now being found everywhere. According to wikipedia.com, it "cost[s] about US$0.005 to implement a barcode compared to passive RFID which still costs about US$0.07 to US$0.30 per tag." Still, they can be found all over, in library books and shipping pallets. They are necessary for remote toll paying systems (ie. FasTrak, that thing on the Golden Gate).
I usually try to avoid anything looking like definitions in my papers, but there is no easy way around it with RFID. It is modern (almost futuristic) technology and incredibly complex. Basically, there are a few components necessary for RFID. First, the "tags" as they're called. There are two types of tags, passive tags and active tags. The major difference is that active tags have a battery, more on this in a bit. The main part of the tag is some Read-Only Memory (ROM) that contains an "immutable identification number." The rest of the circuitry is to connect to a reader. Which leads to the next part, the reader. The reader, depending on what type chips it is looking for, scans for a tag and then sends the number the tag contains to a computer, which can then use the number as is fit. It is a little more complex than that, but that is the short version, which seems to have taken up near half a page. So, back to the article.
Hitachi, which already produces the tiny chip for use in RFID tags, has announced a prototype for an almost invisible chip. Tag size is limited by how small the chip can get. For example, the chip in a current library tag measures 1mm by 1mm by 0.18mm. Tiny, no? Well, Hitachi's new "powder" chip measures a minuscule 0.05mm by 0.5mm by 0.005mm. The chip is almost invisible to the naked eye, and can actually be embedded into a sheet of paper. The article then goes into some detail about how Hitachi is trying to make their powder chips, and faster and cheaper than the current large chips.
So what is so important about all this? Primo, it is really awesome that a multi-digit code can be transferred wirelessly from a distance. It could be embedded in sidewalks to aid wheelchair navigation programs. It could be built in to each and every sheet of paper, making inventorying almost instantaneous. There are about as many uses for RFID as there are grains of sand on the third monkey to the left from the wildebeest. Secondus, there are the privacy concerns. This is my personal favorite part, because I love arguing, and there is nothing to get a good argument going like questioning someone's right to privacy. I am a big proponent of keeping private things, well, private. RFID tags are likely to go into everything if it becomes cheap enough. How would you like it if someone were able to walk up to you with a little homebuilt RFID scanner, scan the clothes you are wearing, and find out you paid too much for those pants because they were the "stressed" (or whatever) pair from Abercrombie and you cared too much about your so-called "image" to go down to Goodwill and by a pair of slightly worn jeans. Oh, and grab the number of the credit card you used to pay with and then the Social Security Number linked to the card, then your date of birth, then walk over to you and say "Cool, you're over 21 and I love the Aber(whatever) pants, lets go get a drink at a bar." Then pays with your credit card and then goes on a shopping spree and then starts collecting unemployment under your name. I'm not paranoid, I just have an active imagination, and understand that everything I just listed there could be possible. Be afraid. Be very... Ha. Tertius, it could be used to prevent counterfeiting. If every bill over say five dollars had a little tag in it, that was registered in a national database, it would be pretty hard to copy (read: nearly impossible).
So at the possible expense of some privacy, we have a pretty beneficial piece of technology that could make everything from warehouses to coffee mugs to money more secure. Personally, I think Hitachi can take their powder and snort it, I would prefer to have my privacy.
Shelby Munsch
aka JESUS IM TIRED
only with more betters grammer
posted by Shelby at
10:52 PM
1 Comments:
OMG, don't do that ever again you retard
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