RFID technology

[suspicious_mind]

In Europe we already have a chip in our passports containing biometric information. Since this year they also include 2 fingerprints and in the near future a 3-D scan of your face.

Is this also the case in the US yet?

[Holding Pattern]

In Europe we already have a chip in our passports containing biometric information. Since this year they also include 2 fingerprints and in the near future a 3-D scan of your face.

Is this also the case in the US yet?

Nope. My driver's license has my photo and text on my height, weight (they take our word for it all)

Passport is the same.

No biometrics yet.

A small aside...I heard a news report on the new barcodes that are coming out. For all the tin hat I have, I like one thing... at the register it will tell you if something is out of date and will not allow the purchase. They make sell by dates so thin on some things (yougurt) that it can be hard to read and for my wife's vision problems, this will be nice. The rest of it, ppppttthhhhh

[Never alone]

My newest passport has a chip in it. In fact, there was a news story on how easy it would be for people on the street to scan the information from your passport with some kind of a reader. You can buy covers for you passport that protect against any scans. Weird times we are in.

[Holding Pattern]

If you just happened to drop something heavy, such as a hammer, onto the cover of the passport repeatedly it might have an effect on the ability to be scanned. But I wouldn't know.

[StumbleButWeFall]

Technology has come a long way. Just accept the way God made you. Your all beautiful, and unique in God's eyes. If you change that the government can track you down by your added pieces, not to mention you might and up looking like Michael Jackson by the time your all done. The police were able to identify Jasmine Fiore by those fake boobs she had implanted.

[Pendragon]

Nope. My driver's license has my photo and text on my height, weight (they take our word for it all)

Passport is the same.

No biometrics yet.

A small aside...I heard a news report on the new barcodes that are coming out. For all the tin hat I have, I like one thing... at the register it will tell you if something is out of date and will not allow the purchase. They make sell by dates so thin on some things (yougurt) that it can be hard to read and for my wife's vision problems, this will be nice. The rest of it, ppppttthhhhh

if you had your DL or Passport renewed in the last year and half yes you do have some level of biometrics

[Holding Pattern]

It is illegal if you knowingly tamper with the microchip in passports, etc...so if my 3 year old nephew got ahold of it, they don't know enough other than they like to pound things with hammers.

if you had your DL or Passport renewed in the last year and half yes you do have some level of biometrics

Please explain in detail. They asked me my height and weight, and hair color, no fingerprints. Possibly from the photo but they can do that from any photo taken anywhere.

And how by renewing when you can do it in the mail in many states?

and if we're going on the photo...they can take your photo from any license previous picture and extract the necessary data so if you've ever had a license or any form of ID then the data can be extracted .

If you've seen many of the European and Asian passports/licenses much of the biometric info is visible.

[carol1948]

It seems to me that since most criminals are repeat offenders that they would restrict use of this system to people who are arrested frequently or actually convicted of a crime; as well as those who commit a non-felony, e.g. illegal immigrants, DUIs, etc. Wouldn't you think that such an intrusion or the threat of such an intrusion would motivate a person to NOT commit whatever unlawful act he/she is contemplating?

[Buzzardhut]

If you just happened to drop something heavy, such as a hammer, onto the cover of the passport repeatedly it might have an effect on the ability to be scanned. But I wouldn't know.

and it might have an effect upon your entrance into your destination

[deafgl]

this would be great for nursing homes because they get their clothes mixed up with the others. I don't see as a big deal because it is the same as name label but more electronically.

[suspicious_mind]

Not sure if this one was posted before, I found it very interesting!!!

[Holding Pattern]

and it might have an effect upon your entrance into your destination

1. Hasn't yet
2. Imagine the million and one things that can happen to a cloth/laminate backed passport. Even keeping it in a back pocket and carelessly sitting on it could damage it.

Somehow I don't think that the Bahamas, Spain, Samoa, etc. are really interested in investing the money necessary to have our proprietary scanner technology to read one country's technology. I think it is to keep track of us within our borders and to tell when we leave, passive scanning technology, that's what RFID is.

A small chip in the passport cover, imho, is a test run. It's not meant to last, first generation never is.

[Phillip_19]

if you had your DL or Passport renewed in the last year and half yes you do have some level of biometrics

That's true. When I got my DL this year, I had to give a finger print (or a thumb print... I can't remember).

[antsinmypants]

In Europe we already have a chip in our passports containing biometric information. Since this year they also include 2 fingerprints and in the near future a 3-D scan of your face.

Is this also the case in the US yet?

It's being worked in. All new passports MUST have biometrics. However, the older models are fine until they expire or laws change. I have an older passport, but I believe my Visa has biometrics. Since it is in my passport.. well...

My son's passports are biometric (by law he has to have one for each country). My DH's (German) is biometric...

So far, drivers licenses in my home state are not biometric. I do not have one any longer as I have transferred mine over so I can drive once we can afford a vehicle.

I do know there are passport covers one can invest in that prevent the trasmission to/from the passport, but they are a bit expensive... probably worth it though. (Here's one for an example)

[NORAD]

The patch's active UHF tag contains a thin-film battery as well as circuitry printed on an organic substrate, so that it can be worn as a small bandage or sewn into a hospital gown.


The Georgia Tech medical RFID patch contains a thin-film battery, as well as a printed RFID tag antenna, circuit traces and connecting pads for other components.

Apr. 8, 2009—A group of scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology has created a thin medical patch containing an ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) active RFID tag and a sensor designed primarily to monitor the health and whereabouts of its patients. The researchers, working at the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC), launched the project in 2007, and are now talking with health-care organizations and medical device companies to create commercial applications for the patch.

The patch is known as the Prototype of the Integrated RFID-enabled Agile Sensor Lab (PIREAS)—and the Greek city of Pireas also happens to be the hometown of Emmanouil Tentzeris, a professor and leader of the GEDC's RFID activities. The tag's antenna, circuit traces and connecting pads are printed on an organic substrate using silver inkjet technology. The tag's other parts—the IC, temperature sensor, battery and oscillator—are connected to the substrate using silver epoxy

Because the tag is so thin and flexible, it can be affixed to a patient with an adhesive backing, or sewn into a hospital gown. The researchers did not employ plastic-type substrates because plastic would not be comfortable enough for wearable electronics; instead, they used organic fiber. "This is one thing that makes our research different," says Li Yang, a GEDC graduate research assistant working on the project. "We've made this on an organic substrate, which is basically a fabric-based substrate, and we've used conductive ink. That means this tag can be made into clothing, it can be bent, it could be a small Band-Aid. It is very low-profile." The substrate, Yang adds, has a hydrophobic (water-repelling) layer coating the surface. "Otherwise," he says, "fiber will absorb a lot of conductive ink and increase the material cost."

The most recent version of the patch has only a temperature sensor, and would need to be affixed as an adhesive bandage. But the group is considering other sensors as well, including one that works with electrocardiograph (ECG) sensors that measure the heart's electrical pulses. The active RFID patch could be sewn into a gown and connected to the ECG sensors on the patient's skin with leads, then wirelessly transmit data from the ECG sensors.

The active RFID tag utilizes a proprietary communications protocol to transmit a 904 MHz signal encoded with its unique ID number and temperature data. The signal can be received and forwarded by other patches, hopping from one to the next, until it is received by an RFID reader.


The hopping extends the range," Yang explains. The patch is designed to hop the information to any nearby tags. The number of patches through which hopping can occur is unlimited, though the researches have thus far tested hopping only in up to four patches. Without hopping, he says, one patch has a read range of 50 to 200 feet, depending on the environment's complexity.

Readers can be hung on a wall or embedded in a ceiling, Yang says, and be connected directly to the Internet. The system uses triangulation to pinpoint a patch's location to within a radius of 10 meters (33 feet). Employing Web-based software developed by the researchers, a computer can display a patch's location via Google Earth.

The patch is powered by a thin-film battery. Initially, Yang says, the team tested the patch using a 3-volt Lithium-ion coin cell, but the thin-film batteries have a lower profile and are easier to integrate. At present, he notes, a patch's battery will last for only about one or two months because the RFID tag is designed to automatically emit its ID and temperature data periodically, every few minutes. In order to increase the battery life, however, the team is working to develop a reader that can awaken a dormant RFID tag at defined intervals, then direct that tag to transmit the information. "This would reduce a lot of data redundancy," Yang says, "and extend the life of the battery, possibly up to a year."

To protect any intellectual property (IP) related to the patch, the research team has submitted an "invention disclosure" to the Georgia Tech Research Corp.'s Office of Technology Licensing, which works to protect Georgia Tech's IP and ensure that those involved in the innovation process remain in compliance with IRS rules, as well as with regulations involving such issues as export controls and conflicts of interest. The Office of Technology Licensing also manages the licensing of technologies and any royalties that may be produced by such a license.

According to Yang, the team has already met with several companies—which he is not at liberty to name at this time—that have expressed interest in partnering to develop commercial applications. One firm, in fact, is interested in working with the researchers to create a patch that operates with ECG sensors
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/a...view/4760/1/1/

I was just thinking... aren't the UHF signals what TVs used to broadcast on and didn't the gov just buy them up?