Japan-based chemical and tech company Asahi Kasei has developed a small healthcare product that should make life for paramedics, emergency doctors (and patients) easier: the portable device (pictured) makes it possible to instantly access all medical data on a specific person with a PC or smartphone, via RFID. → Read More
IDENTEC Group, a global RFID solutions provider, announced today that it has completed a $7.5 million equity capital round with private investors. IDENTEC says it serves more than 2,000 customers in 16 industries.
The company currently holds 100% or significant ownership in nine RFID solutions businesses and boasts sales and marketing operations in the US, including four US-based RFID companies. → Read More
Hitachi subsidiary Hitachi Information Systems has announced [JP] the development of a next-generation RFID tag today. What’s new about it is that the tag withstands the heat of welding: in other words, companies don’t need to drill screw holes anymore to put them into place. Hitachi says that their new tags can be welded into place in just 10 seconds, whereas conventional ones take around 5… → Read More
Well here’s something to freak you out as you brave the Black Friday crowds today. (Remember: Matt wrote a nifty little survival guide for today’s insanity.) A local TV station in Florida has warned its viewers to be on the lookout for so-called electronic pickpockets. Using “a credit card scanner attached to a battery pack,” an evildoer can quite easily obtain sensitive credit and debit card… → Read More
According to an FCC filing, the folks at Keurig (they basically make a single serving coffee machine) could be adding RFID tags to their pods in order to allow the machine to sense the type of coffee being placed into the device. This would, in turn, allow the machine to change temperature, milk type, and whatever else the coffee requires. → Read More
The following is in the interest of saving you money, which is probably my number one goal here at CG: preventing you from spending money when you don’t have to. I’ve seen ads on Drudge recently pimping RFID-blocking wallets produced by a company called Identity Stronghold. The idea behind the wallet is to block the RFID chip found in your credit card from being surreptitiously scanned. Now, I’m… → Read More
Just think of all the fun you could have if the iPhone could interact with RFID tags. But you don’t have to wait for Apple for iPhone version 7 for this feature. Nope. You can build your own iPhone compatible RFID reader right now. → Read More
I question the actually utility of this, except for in corporate ID badging. It is cool though, combining OLED, RFID, and 3D into an ID. Plus, how is that for an alphabet soup of acronyms? Thanks to NetbookNews for the tip. → Read More
One of the more interesting booths at CEATEC is that of the Tagged World Project. It aims to deploy many RFID tags around an elderly person’s domicile, and then equip their slippers (or other house clothes) with RFID readers that will read the tags in its proximity. Then a variety of analyses can be performed on the data collected to determine, ostensibly, how healthy and active an older person… → Read More
You always remember your first time, right? That heady rush, the embarrassment that turns into passion, that sense that this, this moment right now, is what you’re living for. You could stay this way forever or die today – it didn’t matter. I think Bryan Adams said it best when he wrote: I got my first real RFID sensing smartcard reader Bought it on the Internet Coded ’til… → Read More
I don’t buy into a lot of cyber-scares, but having my vital statistics accessible to anybody who feels like snatching it out of the air is definitely something I’d like to avoid. It’s not a new threat, but it seems that RFID-enhanced IDs are fast becoming the standard instead of a high-tech option. And since the security surrounding them is laughable to any serious hacker, it’s dangerous… → Read More
RFID technology seems to be on the rise lately. After Mitsubishi announced a super-efficient tag reader last month and NEC said it was able to dramatically cut production costs for RFID two weeks ago, it’s now Hitachi’s turn: The company has announced today that it has developed the world’s smallest RFID chip. → Read More
The Nikkei, a major Japanese business publication, is reporting that NEC is planning to sell RFID tag readers/writers, which are priced less than 10% compared to existing products. The company seems to have made major advancements “in the field of semiconductor research”, resulting in the drastic price cut. → Read More
Someday in the future, presumably before flying cars and floating cities, there might be tiny implants to help manage pain. These RFID-powered chips the size of rice should help with chronic pain and neurological disorders similar to the large, external packs being used right now. Unlike the current crop however, these would be wirelessly powered and controlled via a computer or PDA, which should… → Read More
Americans, virtuous and true, would you use your cellphone as a credit card? That is, instead of whipping out the plastic in front of some high school kid manning the register at Target, would you wave your connected-to-your-credit-card-account cellphone in front of a scanner? In the blink of an eye your transaction is completed, with the total amount being charged to your credit card account. → Read More
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags are widely used today to identify and track persons or objects using radio waves in a number of areas: payment systems, electronic toll collection systems, transportation systems, logistics etc. Existing RFID tag readers can only be used for tags moving several km/h, but now Mitsubishi has developed a device that’s able to read tags moving as fast as… → Read More
Remember Nabaztag, those little rabbits that waved their ears to notify you whether you received an email, your stock was going down, or if North Korea has launched nuclear war against China? Well, now you can put those buggers – and anything else, really – onto the RFID-reading Mir:ror and then program interactions with everyday objects.
The $29.95 kit includes two tiny rabbits and three RFID… → Read More
I was on the SXSW Meatbus last night and I met a charming young lady from England, Renate, who introduced me to the Poken. Poken is a tiny USB key with an embedded RFID reader/transmitter. When you press a little button on the dongle and place it next to another Poken it passes all of your pertinent information to between Pokens – Pokenii? You then plug the Poken into a laptop and connect to… → Read More
Sometimes passion and adrenaline gets in the way of recognizing early signs of heatstroke, but maybe this system developed in partnership between Hothead Technologies and Kennesaw State University can help. The system embeds a RFID tag with integrated thermal thermometer and a transmitter into a football helmet to broadcast stats to a handheld PDA up to 500 meters away which trainers would use to… → Read More
Does your passport look like this, with a strange-looking symbol on the bottom? Then you’re in luck, for your passport contains an RFID tag! Now, we’re not exactly the tin foil hat types, but news that one of those security researcher types has managed to copy sensitive data off various passports in San Francisco without the owners’ knowledge does annoy us. What’s worse is that the pertinent… → Read More
You know what’s the most annoying word in this whole technology song and dance? The word “revolutionary.” It’s a word that should only be applied to certain items. In the official CrunchGear chat room, we decided that we’d use the word to describe the iPhone (first mass market touchscreen smartphone), the Wii (it prints money) … → Read More
http://www.viddler.com/player/3c2d32b6/ Ever lose your hotel keycard? Ever have it get de-magnetized? Both of these are simple to resolve – just go to the front desk – but wouldn’t it be better if you didn’t need to worry so much about the darn things? Nokia is working with VingCard to allow you to use your cellphone to open your hotel door. As described in the video above… → Read More
If someone asked me to help them steal a gigantic cactus, I’d be like, “Have you ever touched a cactus? Those things are really prickly. Find yourself another cohort, kind sir.” But apparently the giant Saguaro cactus, found mostly in Arizona, can sell for over $1,000 which, in turn, has given rise to a pretty active poaching trade. In order to cut down on such thievery, officials at… → Read More
Details of the much-discussed Oyster card hack have been published and released at a security conference that’s being held in Spain right now. What a long, awkward sentence. The hack takes advantage of a security flaw in the Mifare Classic RFID chip. This chip is used in, among other locales, the Oyster card that’s used in the London public transportation system. The researchers have… → Read More
So many people have raised the issue of RFID security that it’s practically common knowledge, even among technophobes, that they are easily cracked. Verayo has announced an augmented RFID chip with “Physical Unclonable Functions” (I don’t know whether PUF is pronounced “puff” or “poof,” either way it’s hilarious). PUFs are, I’m guessing… → Read More
Adam Savage of Mythbusters basically busted the myth of RFID security – and the Discovery Channel wouldn’t air the segment. Here he talks at the HOPE conference about the experience. → Read More
Aluratek announced this week their Tornado plus line of external hard drives which feature RFID security key data encryption. Available in two different sizes, (2.5”/3.5”) the USB 2.0 drives come in capacities from 160GB to 1TB. By swiping the RFID key by the hard drive, data is encrypted and kept locked up until a second swipe releases it. It’s important to note that each device ships… → Read More
Your RFID-enabled pooch now has the ability to take control of their own ”inside or out” fate with this automatic doggie door. As the dog approaches, the door slides open. Assuming this thing works as it should, as the dog walks by, the door will open. As the dog runs into the kitchen for dinner, the door will open. All this magical door sliding is bound to confuse the dog, right? Perhaps if… → Read More
The Last HOPE is entering its final day today, and Gearfuse of all sites (!) is doing a genuinely passable job of covering it. That lanyard up there is the show’s entrance badge, the same one with built-in RFID that makes tracking attendees a cinch. If you’re anywhere near the Hotel Pennsylvania (34th Street & 7th Avenue in Manhattan), you really ought to attend. → Read More
The EU-funded SMART project is looking to finalize the technological hurdles that have hindered the widespread acceptance of the data containing tags. Utilizing radio waves, the information can be shared at a distance. → Read More
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