The Relationship Between RFID Technology and ID Cards

The relationship between RFID technology and ID cards is close and personal. While both types of identification work extremely well individually, their efficacy together is amazing. For example, while it is conceivable that even the best ID cards can be forged, or lost and used by unscrupulous individuals, a card using RFID technology offers numerous protections.

If a card is lost, but has an RID tag, it can easily be tracked. While this may not lead to the apprehension of the individual who originally took it, it could lead to the card itself, and any damages could then be reversed.

Another, simpler way that RFID technology helps in the use of ID cards is via readers, the strongest of which can scan information up to thirty meters or more away. This displaces the tedium of a physical reader and allows people in the area to use the system more effectively.

This is especially important in work environments and places like schools with a high volume of people. If people simply have to flash their card at a reader, this speeds up traffic a great deal. Besides work and school environments, RFID technology and ID cards work in many other ways as well.

A scenario that this combination would prove extremely capable at aiding would be traffic crossing tolls on bridges. An ID card could have an RFID tag that would allow for a prepaid toll card. The driver would then flash the card at the reader as they drove by; they would only have to slow down, not stop, and wouldn't have to fumble for change or money.

In fact, RFID tags are used in this way already, although without the ID card, in the Bay Area as an optional payment method for traffic crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. Called the 'FasTrak' the tag is mounted in the window and operates on a prepaid system so all the car has to do is slow down to be read and then continue on its way.

The areas in which ID cards and RFID technology can be combined and used are many, and their increasing use together portends greater levels of security for those in work, school and other environments.

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Marcela De Vivo writes for the Discountid.com

Wireless Shopping with RFID

So wireless networking has got rid of your network cables and your USB cables... what can it do next? Well, the answer might surprise you: wireless is going shopping. There is a small army of uses for this technology and many are in use at this very moment.

RFID: Electronic Barcodes

Yes, that's right: RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a replacement for the barcode, using wireless radio technology. But what's wrong with barcodes, you ask? Well, they need to be scanned, for a start. Supermarkets and other shops have small armies of staff in their stores, in fact, doing almost nothing but scanning barcodes and taking money.

RFID lets barcodes be replaced with radio signals, which can automatically be scanned. In theory, you could have a shopping cart full of RFID-labelled products, put it near an RFID scanner, and the things in your cart would be detected and their prices added up instantly.

Imagine being able to stop in front of a machine at the supermarket's exit, and do nothing but put your credit card in a machine before you leave (if your credit card is RFID-enabled too, you might not even need to do that). You can checkout in a matter of seconds! It's a win-win situation: it saves you time, and it saves the supermarket money. The only people who lose out are the ones getting paid to sit around scanning barcodes, but hey, that's technology for you.

How on Earth Does It Work?

Believe it or not, RFID tags contain tiny antennas, allowing them to transmit small amounts of data by radio. The majority of tags in use today do not have their own power supply (a power supply makes the tag larger and more expensive), which means that they must rely on power they receive through the air by radio. This is such a tiny amount of power that it is only just enough to transmit an ID number. This does work, however, from as much as five metres away.

For shopping use, tags that send numbers are sufficient -- a barcode is just a number in the form of lines, after all. These tags are now as cheap as 40 cents, and mass production means the price is only going to come down -- RFID is likely to become widespread in the next decade. The smallest RFID tags are already thin enough to be almost invisible.

Privacy and Other Uses of RFID

There are privacy concerns around the use of RFID, simply because it makes it so quick and easy to tag just about anything -- and the tags can be scanned without any human interaction. This, however, is also what makes the system very useful.

Pets are already implanted with RFID tags so that they can be identified if found, and the idea of humans being made to have RFID implants as a replacement for identity cards isn't as science fiction as it sounds -- it is possible today. As long ago as 1998, a professor was able to implant a tag in his arm. The technology is being considered for used on prisoners. In countries that already have ID cards or that will have them soon, RFID tracking probably won't be far behind.

If RFID shopping tags are left on things, then people could leave tags on their clothes or other products without realising it. This has all sorts of implications -- someone might be able to point an RFID scanner at your house and get a list of everything in it that still has a tag, for example.

RFID is already widely used in many industries. Warehouses use them to track pallets of goods, some libraries put them in books and airlines use them to track baggage. Usage is particularly common in building access control (the ID cards for employees that open the door automatically).

Travel is another growth area: many parts of the USA have the option of using RFID cards to pay at toll booth's, and the London Underground now uses RFID payment cards known as Oyster cards. There are even RFID car keys that can open the door while they're still in your pocket, without you doing a thing.

Environmental Concerns

As a footnote to all this, many people are concerned about the environmental impact RFID could have. Although they are small, using computer chips as a replacement for barcodes could lead to the equivalent of many thousands of computers being thrown away every year.

Information supplied and written by Lee Asher of Eclipse Domain Services
Domain Names, Hosting, Traffic and Email Solutions.

Documenting the Undocumented with RFID Chips or Cards

Here is an idea which came out of one of our recent thinking groups meetings regarding border security, which seems to be appropriate. First we seal off the borders and only allow crossing thru certain border check points. Robots patrol, if they see you they warn you to stop and go back in Spanish, then warn one more time. Then shoot non-lethal shot. If the perpetrator continues to the next zone, they are warned to go back twice and then if they continue they are shot dead. Running persons in reverse direction and back the country can continue without hassle as long as they keep moving out of the zones.

Any person coming over the border into our country must go thru approved points of entry and must have an RFID enabled card or implanted Chip. Which has all their information on it, including name, dates of shots and last check up, job and regional location where they will be, basic humanly identifiers such as: Finger Prints, Facial Recognition, DNA sample, retina scan. Also encoded would be various other information as we see fit.

If someone who is undocumented is caught without their card anywhere in the country, they are deported. If they commit a crime they are deported. Upon deportation a sample of DNA, retina scan and finger prints are taken and logged in. This person can never come back to the US and is barred from lifetime re-entry. Anyone caught with an RFID Chip, which is forged is to be biometrically identified and then sent back. Anyone caught with someone else's card is sent out of the county and card confiscated and barred from lifetime re-entry after they work off their fees they were suppose to pay in the first place as listed below.

To get an RFID Card or chip, you must have shots against known diseases, no criminal record, a skill, and $500.00 on person if going to work. $100.00 on person if going to shop. You must also pay if you donot have shots $60.00 to get shots and $155.00 for the Card or $50.00 for the Chip which goes under the skin.

Card is good for 2 years. A new card must be attained and another fee of $155.00 or $50.00 (implant version RFID) is paid, with updated information.

These tags ping the satellite on Fri, Sat, Sun nights and on Wednesday, with random variations during the week days sometimes Mon, sometimes Thurs, sometimes Fri, sometimes Tuesdays.

Once a person has a card they may come and go as they please provided they have $100.00 on person, ATM Card or credit card balance with them when entering. The reason being if you have no money, then you might have to do something illegal on the way to where you are going to work. If you are going to shop you will need funds or you cannot come to the country. The fees can be paid by someone else, such as a sponsor. If paid by someone else that person is guarantee their will be no criminal activity for 3 months (90 Days) if there is a fine of $10,000 goes to that person which must be paid before any Government Services are rendered to them. This includes, health care, education, social security, etc.

Businesses can sponsor workers too, the company is then liable for the $10,000 catch and release across border fee, which must be paid. This way businesses will try to hire locals first, if not the cross border workforce will be considered second.

There are 35% Illegal aliens in CA and AZ prisons. For every year one of these people is there, we could send six young men or women to a University for that same year. Crime has a rippling effect on our economy and economic development.

This system satisfies the need for Mexicans shopping here and helps bring back the money flowing out of the country into Mexico for various things.

If a person makes it without any major law violations for 4 consecutive terms of RFID Tag 2 year programs or (8-years). They can become a US Citizen.

If they lose their job, they must replace it within 4 weeks and notify the system, join our military or surrender card and go back. Failure to do this means deportation. Deportation means lifetime exile from the greatest nation in the history of mankind.

IF...? We are really serious about Homeland Security then we must do something about the borders, if we are simply using this for another reason to create fear, spend money or control power base, then there is no reason for a border at all, because it leaks like a garden hose on full blast during a drought. With an estimated 15.7 million illegal aliens in this country now, something must be done if we are serious, if not simply open up the borders and stop the charade. The cost of illegal immigration is higher than we think along with the out of country money flows going back into Mexico, it spells economic disaster, increased debt, government bankruptcy and collapse of social services.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington