World's Smallest RFID Reader Touted 121
An anonymous reader writes "Innovision Research & Technology, a UK company, has developed a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader that supports Near Field Communication (NFC), a new standard that will allow electronic devices to interact when "touched" together.
The NFC standard is being backed by Nokia, Philips and Sony. It's meant to let users access content and services by simply touching 'smart objects' and connecting devices just by holding them next to each other. Some services include swapping music and buying movie tickets. Once a connection has been established between two NFC-enabled devices, another wireless technology such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth will be used to actually transfer the data. By adding support for NFC, Innovision says it's getting ready for when mobile users will be able to download music tracks by just tapping their device against a poster."
Re:the world's smallest RFID (Score:5, Interesting)
Excuse me, I have to get the phone....
The future is here (Score:4, Interesting)
This is sci-fi. And i even think RIAA will be able to get money from this. (don't know if i like that)
Lots of useful applications (Score:5, Interesting)
Imagine also walking into a high street music shop with your MP3 player in hand where all of their CDs are embedded with rfid tags. Tap your MP3 player against a CD case to get the rfid tag, then your MP3 player connects to the store's wifi network and requests a sample of the album using the rfid tag.
Limit it to a couple of samples per person per unit time to avoid abuse, and you've got yourself a very powerful means of marketing CDs.
Doesn't seem like it'll kick off (Score:2, Interesting)
IR is still a better option it appears.
We all float down here. (Score:1, Interesting)
"The NFC standard is being backed by Nokia, Philips and Sony.
And will include MPAA/RIAA tagging technology to automagically bill your auntie for each and every bit transferred!!
Beep-Beep, Richie.
Re:uhh noooo... (Score:2, Interesting)
what was I thinking...you obviously believe two things-It will be unhackable and indy artists who have no ties to the RIAA won't be able to use the technology..
Re:The future is here (Score:3, Interesting)
The RIAA will be happy to collect their slice of this pie. And don't think for a second that they won't be right there, with their hands in the customary 'palm up' position, as this technology is rolled out.
Not that I would have a big problem with the RIAA if they just didn't act like such imbeciles. I'd be happy to see them get their cut if they fostered innovation in music and actually helped the creative process. Instead, like any other large conglomerate, they are more interested in the bottom line. So, what we'll get are more waves of Auto-Tuned Britney, Xtina, and Justin clones.
Sad, really...
Elegant solution to 802.11 security (Score:5, Interesting)
This idea could solve the wireless security problems in a really secure and convenient way (if only the standards folks can get the crypto right this time
Re:Movie tickets? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Movie tickets? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:This would make a great addition (Score:3, Interesting)
They have a part of the book online [amazon.com]. Click on the central image until you get to page 14, halfway down the system is described.
For the rest the novel is a good read, if you like Neal Stephenson or William Gibson. Same sort of writing style and setting.
why not just use IR? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:why not just use IR? (Score:4, Interesting)
Very cheap - good point. And something not mentioned in the article. What would really drive the adoption of RFID - and make available the advantages of the technology that are mentioned elsewhere (i.e. RFID tags would be much cheaper and smaller.) would be announcement of the worlds CHEAPEST RFID reader. That would be news. Sure, the price of anything will come down with volume, and volume comes with widespread adoption, but to speed up the rate at which this technology gets adopted - and have super-small readers embedded in all kinds of devices - not only do the tags have to come down in cost, but the readers will have to be cheaper too. Is there something about how they put this together that will, all other things being equal, give this a cost advantage over other ways of putting readers together?
Oh, and to be able to compare, does anyone know anything about the cost of a typical IR reader of the type used in phones, PDAs and laptops? How about the cost of other RFID readers? While I am sure that device manufacturers are assuming that the costs will be or become equal, any idea as to when this might realistically happen?
Re:The tap initiates the transfer (Score:3, Interesting)
You'll be walking through a sea of RF signals. How does your hardware know which ones to ignore and which streams it's supposed to intercept, decode and save? Unless the RFID transciever was authenticated first, the signals would be ignored.
Re:The tap initiates the transfer (Score:3, Interesting)
If you are in a music store, they have 70 posters, and thousands of CDs. Which samples do you want? How are you going to scroll through them all?
You browse as normal. Tap, and then continue to walk around the store while you listen to the samples or songs you just bought.
NFC vs. iButton (Score:3, Interesting)
Chip H.
New Frontiers (Score:2, Interesting)
"Tap your Windows CE device to this poster and get a kewl new game!"
Now, I don't own any devices that would potentially use such a service but I really don't see the value in this. It seems more like the clam before the RFID storm. Get people to accept the technology as good and then become more intrusive. Common tactics. Of course, when I read it, some things went through my mind. Such as:
This hurts my head with so many possibilities that are malicious or otherwise.
it's distrust of the misuse of technology, not... (Score:2, Interesting)
From my POV, the idea of getting microchipped, or handing "them" the ability to track me/surveil me/ whatever in every single thing I do by putting RFID tags in every conceivable place and for every conceivable situation is totally abhorrent. Totally. It's disgusting, and I've been speaking out against it as long as I have been aware of it, because it's incredibly easy to do a logical progression and see what is going to happen. I am almost completely against the entire concept of RFID, and certainly don't want my life to revolve around that technology, although I thoroughly enjoy and use many other aspects of modern technology. I'm as much a gadget freak and tool user as anyone else here, but some things are just better left alone, not to be used, IMO. You see it's called "choice", and millions of us choose privacy, and not turning over our lives and our souls to some corporate profits at any cost technofeudalistic society. We don't want the borg to win, in other words. We've seen what just implicitly "trusting" them has caused. It's not all good, far from it. blindly just adopting technoloyg just because it's new and shiny is not all that smart. sometinmes it turns out whatever was created was a pretty bad idea. Socially, we are still millenia behind where we need to be, technology is just "out there" but it is not being used *wisely* in any manner of ways or places.
In fact, that's a public line in the sand for me, anyone trying to force a microchip, for ANY reason they concoct,iiregardless of any authority they purport to be or represent, on me, against my will, is going to be met with instant ultra violent force from me TO them, in the most efficient and technologically advanced manner I am capable of at the moment. In addition, I will personally shun any human I am aware of that has accepted any sort of embedded "chip" no matter the stated purpose. I would literally harangue, yell at, cuss out, and spit in the face anyone who wanted to microchip "shake hands" with me. And I encourage others to do the same.
A lot of us out here are not in any way, manner, shape or form interested in becoming cyborgs, or being part of some hive mentality-termite society, which is the obvious direction this technology is leading us to, along with some other technologies.
Others will choose differently, and so it goes. Guess what, men will win, machine men will eventually lose. It will be a big fight, but pure humans who value "human-ness" over all else will win. Call that a prediction.
This microchip crap and tagging, etc, is just *wrong* and SO wrong that it can and will cause a lot of violent revolutionary action against it. Eventually. Not sure when, but I am fully confident it *will*. It is also wrong to assume people who value their privacy/indivdulaity/personal soverignty and who think that this complete fascist blend of government and international business that all of us are currently serfing away under are in any way "luddites", far from it, we just think "they" have enough power/control/information about us and over us already, they certainly don't need more than what they have now, and we don't care how "convenient" it makes it for them, or how much more "profitable" it is for them to use this technology. SCREW em basically, enough's enough.
And THAT is why you see more people at the cash line, and less at the borg line. One of the reasons anyway. Another is, is that for casual purchases, CCs are stoopid. People all over are using CCs less, because they got burned so bad in the dot com alleged "boom" years. That's why they keep having to drop interest rates, people noticed it is more "interesting" to stay within a budget,to hang on t
Re:The future is here (Score:3, Interesting)
Heh - "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." -- A.C.C.
I knew some Albanian refugees who came to the States. My wife took them shopping at the grocery to show them how to do it. She had to get some cash, so she went to the ATM and got some out. The Albanians stared in disbelief as she simply removed cash from a machine to buy goods. It had to be explained to them that it was her money from the bank.
I had this idea that in the future that vechicles would be driven on a rental basis. Any person could simply get into any car and start driving it because their tag would dock them the money it cost to use it as long as they were driving it. To the observer from our era, it would look as if the person was stealing the car!