Chaos Review

Its long since RFID has entered the supply chain in the retail market. Even the US passports have been mandated to have RFID chips in them for security reasons. And now Thinkgeek has come up with MyKey RFID Digital Door Lock for our homes.

Stop worrying about loosing the keys and calling a locksmith to resolve your problem. Just enter your PIN correctly in the keypad and reprogram your RFID cards or keyfobs with the new secret code. Resume using this lock as usual after this. It still works fine with the new PIN.

The Digital lock does not have any keyhole or slot and there is no possibility of lock picks happening. Just wave your RFID card or keyfob in front of the circular button with a glowing blue halo. Slide up the front panel and enter your secret PIN. The door unlocks.

Add-ons the come with the RFID Digital lock

• 8 RFID Smart Keys (4 wallet cards, 2 keyfobs, and 2 tags).
• 4AA batteries.
• External contacts for a 9-volt battery (in case AA batteries are completely drained).
• Mounting hardware, screws.
• Installation guide

Additional features

• Burglar alarm can warn you when the door is forcefully opened.
• Night Deadbolt mode where you can disable the door opening from outside and have a sound sleep at home.
• Automatic locking mode, which auto-locks the door every time you close it.
• Manual locking mode where you will have to lock the door with your card/keyfob and your SECRET PIN every time you close the door.

The catch

• You have to ensure that you mount this lock, which is not exposed to rain/snow.
• The lock is quite costly and it sells at $299.99.
• ‘If someone tries to unlock your door with the key you lost, will the person be able to do so even after you have changed the secret PIN?’ remains a moot question.
• The question whether you and I will trust this innovative lock to secure your/my home remains unanswered.

Have you ever rented a car at Zipcar Inc.? Have you used their zipcard? Do you know about the ingenious technology the zipcards use for driver authentication and for wireless vehicles’ administration? The idea and the utility of the RFID technology that the company uses currently is just amazing.

Zipcar Inc., Cambridge, Mass.-based Zipcar is one of the car-sharing company in North America, rendering self-service, on-demand cars that can be rented by the hour or day.

Steps to rent a car at Zipcar Inc.

1. Check out the eligibility criteria and join the zipcar community to receive your zipcard.
2. Make a reservation online.
3. Pick up the car from the location that’s very near your home.
4. Open the car using your zipcard
5. Park it back in the same location.
6. Details of payment to me made are sent home and that makes it easy.

The innovative technology behind the zipcard

Zipcar Inc., has parked around 2,000 cars across various locations where they offer service unlike any other car renting company.

The details…

• To use the car, you just  wave your zipcard in front of the windshield.
• The RFID reader, which is associated with the windshield of the car, reads the information on the RFID tag in your zipcard.
• A separate unit is embedded at a concealed location within the car and this enables the transmission of the driver’s data to the central database via the wireless Cingular network.
• After verifying the reservation data and the driver’s login details on the RFID tag in  your zipcard, the doors of the car open.
• You can use the car for the stipulated period of time and park the car back in the same spot and just walk home.
• Payment details are sent home with ease.

What’s more?

Zipcar makes use of this RFID technology for driver verification and for remotely administering their vehicles. Even when the user forgets to switch off the headlights, the RFID system embedded within, sends signal to the head office enabling better maintenance of the vehicle. This innovative unit also assists the company in monitoring the fuel data and battery drain out conditions. That’s reality though its unbelievable and the ease to rent a car contributes to Zipcar’s popularity.

Recently, I came across a great presentation tool called SplashCast which is sort of a slideshow viewer but where “slides” can be images, documents, and videos. What I’ve done is taken the fractal images that have previously appeared on this site and created a slideshow in SplashCast. If the SplashCast is working properly, you should also hear a background track, Lily Blossom, that is a raw, unedited composition of mine on piano and synth, written around 2002.

For those of you concerned about the little RFID chip on your contactless credit card or smart card, think twice before taking a hammer to it. Some blogs are suggesting this a means to disable RFID chips in credit cards and passports. Doing so to the latter might get you fined for tampering. For the former, keep in mind that credit cards usually have a bit of fine print that says the card issuer owns the actual piece of plastic and that, if requested, you have to turn it over to them. It’s rarely enforced, as far as I know, but it’s something to think about.

If you don’t want to use a credit card with an RFID chip, I suggest you call up your issuer to have it cancelled, then dispose of it in their suggested manner. But if it’s concern that a lurker with an RFID scanner might skim information off of your card, try anti-RFID wallet or pouch such as those sold at DIFRwear or Emvelope.

D-Wave, a private Canadian company with headquarters in Silicon Valley, California, demonstrated what they claim to be the world’s first commercially viable quantum computer. Such computers would be a complement to digital computers, not a replacement. Quantum computers can supposedly solve what in mathematics are called NP-complete problems, which often crop up in the life sciences, stock market studies, and even commercial areas.

As the son of a retired math professor, I find this especially exciting. NP- complete problems definitely cannot be solved on paper, let alone digital computers, except by brute force methods because of the amount of data and combinations of possibilities that need to be crunched. D-Wave’s new computer has a processor that is based on quantum mechanics - a landmark in computing history.

Have you seen the movie Minority Report, in which people passes through a billboard in a shop and it greets them by their name and tell them the products they would be interested. Its the work of RFID. Even though Minority Report is a futuristic movie, that time is not far away.

In fact, it is presently being implemented, thanks to the innovative mind behind the idea from Mini Coopers. The idea is simple. You, the proud owner of Mini Cooper signup for Motorby programme which is an interactive billboard promotion. Now, whenever you drive by a billboard, some personalized message which you have pre-approved will flash in them.

The RFID enabled KeyFobs will transmit these messages to the billboard. And there by distracting your fellow travelers. This program will be tested initially in Chicago, NY, Miami and SF. And ones it becomes a success, you can hope that it might be implemented throughout the country.

In Kathleen Ann Goonan’s novel Queen City Jazz, a near future Earth has cybernetic bees that help build and rebuild society when the need arises. Buildings also build themselves with nano-technology, if I recall right. Well it’s not quite what Israel is doing, but they are building [Antara] tiny, remote controlled vehicles called RPVs (Remote Pilot-less Vehicles) about the size of a hornet. The device would by used as a miniature spy vehicle, able to track militants, take pictures, and even launch a tiny rockets. Maybe Israel should talk to the Pentagon about the latter’s robot bugs.

Dubai Airport Using Contactless Cards
Contactless RFID (radio frequency identification) smartcards are being used at Dubai International Airport - one of two such airports worldwide - to allow registered passengers to pass through [Contactless News] automated entry and exit gates faster. The cards are swiped at a terminal and a three second fingerprint scan is performed, after which passengers are authorized to pass through the airport. Zebra Card Printers are being used to create the cards, of which over 100,00 have been made.

Singapore Gets Biometric Credit Card
Citibank is issuing [Find Biometrics] biometric credit cards in Singapore. The cards require a fingerprint scan and a PIN number. Not surprisingly, the cards are being issued to participants between the ages of 25-34. Unrelated research shows that this age group is more receptive to RFID and biometrics than older generations.

Watch Out Romulans
Was it the Klingons or the Romulans on Star Trek that had cloaking devices? No matter. Now earthlings have the ability to cloak [Ferret] small objects using microwave beams and a deflector. Wonder if Criss Angel knows about this.

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