RFID Research Center

Met with Justin Patton at the RFID Research Center, which is nestled in the giant Hannah's Candles warehouse in south Fayetteville. It was a good meeting and he has pledged support for some of my project ideas using RFID for "artistic purposes." Looking forward to working with them out there.

I, Beast Exhibit at IDMAA

I, Beast Exhibit
Originally uploaded by thapgood.

I showed "I, Beast" last week at the International Digital Media and Arts Association at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The exhibit was titled "IDEAS: Emerging Codes of the Digital." During the gallery talk, we had a good discussion of the work and of RFID. Every time I show it, more people are thinking about RFID and that's a good thing.

University of Arkansas RFID Research Center's Bill Hardgrave

I met today with Bill Hardgrave, the executive director of the RFID Research Center here on campus. He, too, was very accessible and friendly. I found it important to talk to him, representing the main "opposing viewpoint" of Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre and the privacy advocates and concerned Christians. He brought out an amazing array of gen 1 and gen 2 tags, as well as a vial of liquid containing many RFID chips about the size of a grain of sand, literally (made by Alien Technology). He seems very genuine and passionate about the potential of RFID and the changes he believes it will bring to the world. It was a good meeting and I look forward to further meetings with him and his lab staff.

Cigarette age verification with RFID. This is good, right?

This is a perfect example of the confusing mass introduction of RFID.
Japan to roll out age-verifying cigarette machines
It's not actually based on some type of payment method using RFID, but on an age verification through some type of official RFID-enabled card. This is a good example of the classic "wait, this is good, right?" Then again, in 20 years, when I'm at the store checkout line with my bacon and eggs, and I get red-flagged by my health or life insurance provider, I'll regret thinking this was a good idea.

Barnes & Noble Flash 8 Tag

A funny note about the purchasing of Spychips Friday at Barnes & Noble. I only looked at one other book, Macromedia Flash 8 Advanced for Windows and Macintosh : Visual QuickPro Guide, and as soon as I opened it up, a tag dropped out. I'm pretty sure it was RFID, with the telltale little black dot of the chip surrounded by the antenna. It was so ironic I had to tell someone, so I showed the BN worker who happened to be stocking in that aisle and she appreciated the irony.
UPDATE: It was actually an EAS tag, not the typical RFID tag. This tag doesn't probably include individualized data, but probably a 1-bit anti-theft tag, an identical tag that any other book in the store might have. Oh, well, still some "irony" value there somewhere...

Spychips' Katherine Albrecht

I had a great conversation with Katherine Albrecht, founder of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN) and co-author of The Spychips Threat: Why Christians Should Resist RFID and Electronic Surveillance. I found her very accessible and friendly. She seems to be genuine and definitely has done her homework. I have finished half of the book and it's a great read. I'll post more about our conversation later. Here's her Spychips Web site.