Using RFID Tags Around the House? 254
Attacked-by-gremlins writes "I have a larger family and various items in the house (some tools, some pieces of clothing) 'travel' unexpectedly. We joke about gremlins doing that, but it's tiring never to be sure that I'll find an object where I left it two days ago. For the sheer hacking fun of it, I'm thinking of sticking RFID tags on some and trying to triangulate a position with several tranceivers placed in the house. Has anyone have any suggestions for this amateur 'Google Home'? Thanks."
Try UHF RFID Readers; they have better range (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Why Not? (Score:1, Interesting)
Yeah - make the interface family-friendly (it can be as simple as an alphabetical list that's easy to pull up quickly on any house screen) and take notes about how it's used and how it changes with how family interacts with "stuff" and each other. As the thread parent suggests, this is a bit of a shift, like individuals being always contactable by personal cell phone was, so there's new things to be learned. Not necessarily bad or good, but different. Making the interface daily-appliance-easy is important to keep the interaction from being coloured by tech novelty.
Also, WHO ARE YOU? "Attacked-by-gremlins" is not a
Simple: BUY BIG STUFF (Score:4, Interesting)
They sell those giant-sized remote controls at Walgreens or your local random-crap-mart. Buy one, you'll never lose it again. It can't fall between the cushions of the couch because it's friggin huge. If the thing you don't want to lose doesn't come in giant-size, permanently attach it to something which is too large to lose but still portable. Gas stations have learned this lesson, that's why the bathroom key is attached to a huge plank.
To make it even easier, paint it something bright and garish.
Why triangulate? (Score:3, Interesting)
TOP SECRET FACT:Most cars tracking RFID ALREADY! (Score:2, Interesting)
TOP SECRET FACT:Most modern cars have tracking transponders ALREADY!
Spy transmission chips embedded in tires that can be read REMOTELY while driving.
Yup. My brother works on them (since 2001).
The us gov T.R.E.A.D. act (which passed) made it illegal to sell new passenger cars lacking untamperable RFID in the tires allowing efficient scanning of moving cars.
Your tires have a passive coil with 64 to 128 bit serial number emitter in them! (AIAG B-11 ADC v3.0) . A particular frequency energizes it enough so that a receiver can read its little ROM. A ROM which in essence is your GUID for your TIRE. Multiple tires do not confuse the readers. Its almost identical to all "FastPass" "SpeedPass" technologies you see on gasoline keychain dongles and commuter windshield sticker-chips. The US gov has secretly started using these chips to track people.
Its kind of like FBI "Taggants" in fertilizer and "Taggants" in Gasoline and Bullets, and Blackpowder. But these car tire transponder Ids are meant to actively track and trace movement of your car.
Taggant chemical research papers
 http://www.wws.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/byteserv.prl/~ota/disk3/1980/8017/801705.PDF
(remove spaces in url from slashcode if needed)
The chips in your tires are for forensic "after the fact" database tracking, from databases collected on highway choke points, It can be done in real time too though.
I am not making this up. Melt down a high end Firestone, or Bridgestone tire and go through the bits near the rim (sometimes at base of tread) and you will locate the transmitter (similar to 'grain of rice' pet ids and Mobile SpeedPass, but not as high tech as the tollbooth based units). Sokymat LOGI 160, and Sokymat LOGI 120 transponder buttons are just SOME of the transponders found in modern high end car tires. The AIAG B-11 Tire tracking standard is now implemented for all 3rd party transponder manufactures [covered below].
It is allegedly for QA and to prevent fraud and "car theft", but the US Customs service uses it in Canada to detect people who swap license plates on cars when doing a transport of contraband on a mule vehicle that normally has not logged enough hours across the border. The customs service and FBI do not yet talk about this, and are starting using it soon.
A secret initiative exists to track all funnel-points on interstates and US borders for car tire ID transponders (RFID chips embedded in the tire).
The governement can then either look back in databases to see wheere and when your car drove, and OCR liscense plates at tool or Customs can
build the database up even better without the feds needing to visit your home to get your RFID GUIDs.
More sinister, it is near impossible to buy tires without the vendor in the USA filling out federal paperwork of what VIN the recipient car is!
Photos of tracking chips before molded deep into tires!
http://www.sokymat.com/index.php?id=94
PLEASE LOOK AT THAT LINK : Its the same shocking tire material I have been trying to tell people about since the spring of 2001 on slashdot.
a controversial dead older link was at http://www.sokymat.com/sp/applications/tireid.html
(slashdot ruins links, so you will have to remove the ASCII space it insertes usually into any of my urls to get to the shocking info and photos on the enbedded LOGI 160 chips that the us gov scans when you cross mexican and canadian borders.)
You never heard of it either because nobody moderates on slashdot anymore and this is probably +0 still. It has also never appeared in print before and is very secret.
Californias Fastpass is being upgraded to scan ALL responding car tires in future years upcoming. I-75 may get them next in rural funnel points in Ohio.
The photo of the secret high speed overpass prototype WAS at
http://www.tadiran-telematic
Re:Can RFID triangulate at short ranges? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why Not? (Score:2, Interesting)
errr...no, i don't have kids. but i'll bloody well be sure to beat them soundly on a regular basis. for the sake of the future.
monitor doorways (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Range (Score:5, Interesting)
Anonymous Coward (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:$$$ budget? (Score:3, Interesting)
For two dimensions, I understand it as follows... place one reader in the plane of the objects, and one outside the plane. The circle you get from combining the data from the two readers will intersect the plane in two points, so at best you can get a set of two possible locations for the object. If the readers are sufficiently accurate (and precise!), and the readers are placed close to each other, the circle can be small enough that the two points of intersection with the plane are within your margin of error... note that the margin of error will at any rate have its upper limit as the distance between the readers. I'd assume that cost goes up as accuracy does.
But how does one triangulate in three dimensions with only three receivers? At best you can get a set of possible locations... any mathematicians care to walk me through this one, since I seem to be geometrically challenged right now? Or is it just a matter, as with two dimensions, of highly accurate and precise readers placed very close to eachother?
Re:Can RFID triangulate at short ranges? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Can RFID triangulate at short ranges? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:hah (Score:3, Interesting)
A little off-topic but one thing that annoys the hell out of me is maintaining food in the fridge. Just how far is the range on a passive RFID?
For example it would be really cool if things like mayonnaise jars came with RFIDs and your refrigerator had an RFID reader + internet connection. Then you could run a database on the fridge and when you were away from home you could figure out hold old the mayonnaise is without having to open the fridge. In fact we could go one step further and have the fridge email you when the mayonnaise gets too old or automatically add it your shopping list. So the next time you hit the store you'll have a preprepared list of items to buy without even having to think!
Re:Remember 'The Meaning of Life" (Score:2, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_rat [wikipedia.org]
Pack rats are prevalent in the deserts and highlands of western United States and northern Mexico. They also occur in parts of the eastern United States and Western Canada. Pack rats are a little smaller than a typical rat and have long, sometimes bushy tails.
Pack rats build complex nests of twigs, called "middens", often incorporating cactus. Nests are often built in small caves, but frequently also in the attics and walls of houses. Some Neotoma species, such as the White-throated Woodrat (N. albigula), use the base of a prickly pear or cholla cactus as the site for their home, utilizing the cactus' spines for protection from predators. Others, like the Desert Woodrat (N. lepida) will appropriate the burrows of ground squirrels or kangaroo rats and fortify the entrance with sticks and bits of spiny cactus stems fallen from Jumping and Teddy-bear Chollas.
In houses, pack rats are active nocturnally, searching for food and nest material. A peculiar characteristic is that if they find something they want, they will drop what they are currently carrying, for example a piece of cactus, and "trade" it for the new item. They are particularly fond of shiny objects, leading to tales of rats swapping jewelry for a stone.