p2pnet.net News:- RFID spy chips are on the way in. Guaranteed.

RFID (radio frequency ID) transmitters the size of a grain of sand can be used not only for tracking sales and inventory re-stocking, but also as spy chips for reporting on people.

p2pnet definitely isn’t a senator Patrick Leahy fan, but his call for the US congress to take a hard look at RFID is right on.

A school in Japan is using RFID to track pupils, spy chips were used to bug prime ministers and presidents, among others, at the World Summit on the Information Society, a Mexican attorney general says he has one embedded in his arm, a US state prison will try out the tracking technology, and IBM and Philips say they’ll work together in the RFID sales business.

Now Wannado City, a role-playing theme park in Flordia, is riffing children with spy chip wrist-bands.

“The WannaFinder wristband communicates information, including a person’s location, via radio signals to a series of TI and RF Code readers and makes the information accessible through the many WannaFinder touch screen kiosks situated throughout the park,” says Texas Instruments, which makes the trackers.

“RF Code’s TAVIS data management software collects and consolidates data from the active RFID tags, while SafeTzone’s patented Real-Time Location Module draws associations among the passive and active data to identify and locate each member of a group. Groups can easily and securely access the real-time location of their members, on a map of the park, at any time of day in English or Spanish simply by scanning their WannaFinder wristbands at any kiosk. While the active tag communicates a person’s location, the passive RF tag automatically identifies visitors as they approach the touch screen kiosks and scan their wristbands, linking them to onscreen icons marking the individual location of any member of their family or group within the park.

“The instant, real-time location of group members and amenities enables parents and guardians to know where their kids are, while at the same time empowering them to explore career roles with their young peers with unprecedented freedom and safety.

One assumes the tags will also allow Wannado’s owners and marketeers to see what the kiddie-consumers do, where they do it, and for how long, among other things.

And do users have to provide any kind of personal information when they get the wrist-bands?

Just asking.

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See:-

hard look - Leahy wants national RFID study, p2pnet, March 26, 2004

embedded in his arm - Mexican AG has spy chip, p2pnet, August 2, 2004

WannaFinder - RFID Technology from Texas Instruments and RF Code Helps Kids Play it Safe at Florida’s Wannado City

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 16th, 2004 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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