Sometimes passwords feel like more of a pain than a plus, so I like this 2.5-inch SATA HD enclosure that uses an RFID tag to protect your data. Unlocking your precious files is as easy as waving one of the 2 included RFID tags over the enclosure, and you just repeat the motion to lock everything back up again. It’s compatible with 2.5-inch SATA hard drives up to 160GB in size, but I can’t help but wonder if the dirt cheap $16 price tag from Chinavasion is an indication of how well this thing really works.
Freecom is selling this 2TB external hard drive for 350 euros. What’s great about it is that it can only be accessed if you happen to be carrying one of two AES-encrypted, RFID-enabled, credit-card sized keys on your person. No key, no access.
The bad part now. For one, 350 euros is a lot of cash for 2TB. But worst of all, it’s out of stock, and no ETA.
Bummer. Still, you can check out the product page and obsessively refresh every day until there’s stock if you’re seriously that concerned about privacy.
At times RFID technology gets a bad rap, but that’s because it’s not always the best solution for every situation. (ie Passports etc.) However, here’s one example where the technology really shines. Developed by DeWalt, Tool Link is a $1,120 option for Ford trucks that uses RFID tags to keep track of your tools so that you don’t accidentally leave one behind at a job site.
The system comes with 50 tags that can be attached to tools and hardware from any manufacturer, an RFID scanner plus software that runs on the truck’s in-dash computer, as well as a couple of RFID antennas located in the truck’s bed. Once you’ve created a database of your hardware the system can keep track of what items were in the truck at the start of the day, and what items are missing before you leave the construction site at the end of the day, before they go missing permanently.
While sheer paranoia isn’t the best thing to have dictating your gadget purchases, there are some instances where paying a small premium for that extra level of comfort and security might make sense. Freecom’s Hard Drive Secure is a run of the mill external HD, except that you can’t access the data on it without swiping an encrypted RFID card the size of a credit card past the drive. Swipe the card again and the drive locks itself. It’s not too terribly expensive at $120 for a 500 gig drive, although $410 for a 2TB drive it just a little crazy.
What Freecom doesn’t make clear is just how the encryption on the drive works… It sort of sounds like while the encrypted keycard locks and unlocks the drive, the data on the drive itself is not actually encrypted. This sort of system might keep your porn stash safe from your kid brother, but anyone with a mediocre amount of computer experience (which your kid brother probably has) will just remove the drive from the case and access it directly. Even having the locking system on the drive itself won’t thwart someone who is casually determined. And irrespective of the encryption on the drive, having to swipe your card a second time to lock the thing is just stupid. It should be set up so that if the RFID card leaves, the drive locks itself. And of course, I won’t even get started on the security flaws in RFID.
So yeah, there are some instances where paying a small premium for an extra level of comfort and security might make sense, but this is probably not one of them.
Jonathan Oxer’s RX-8 is equipped with a 3G connection running on a tiny little Ubuntu Linux system that’s always on. Besides turning the car into a 24×7 internet hotspot, it gives Jon the ability to access the car’s systems from anywhere in the world, and using an iPod touch he can turn the car on and off, lock and unlock it, and even pop the trunk. The browser based interface also gives Jon the ability to monitor engine telemetry, and even shows the position of the car on Google Maps.
As if that wasn’t enough, the car has an RFID reader mounted in the back right window, so when Jon walks up to the car, it reads an RFID tag implanted in his arm and then unlocks the door and starts the engine. This means that he doesn’t have to worry about someone stealing his keys, but he does have to worry about someone stealing his arm, which is just the sort of thing that keeps me up at night.
There’s no question that technology plays a big part in modern sports, particularly when an athlete relies on a piece of hardware like a pair of skis. But instead of improving how the skis perform, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany are using RFID to improve how a skier’s performance is monitored during training. Typically, coaches and athletes have relied on videos of a run to analyze the weaknesses in a skier’s technique, but that approach lacks concrete data or accurate measurements.
But RFID transmitters attached to the front and back of a pair of skis in conjunction with receivers alongside the slope can be used to continually and accurately measure the position of the skis to within 3 centimeters. So at the end of a run not only do you have empirical data about whether or not a skier has drifted from the ideal path, or if they’re carving and cornering properly, but you can even tell if the skis were parallel to each other.
The new system appears to still be in development right now, and it will need to be perfected to the point where it doesn’t affect a skier’s performance or even drag during a run, but I’m sure down the road it will be responsible for the demise of a few Olympic records.
This just in: social networking doesn’t happen exclusively on Facebook. Sometimes, you meet actual people (IRL), most of whom do not include an associated “Add as Friend” button stamped on their foreheads. This is where Poken come in, um, handy. Poken are little tiny plastic character things with freakishly large left hands. You program your Poken with your contact info, and if you find someone else with a Poken, high five them to swap phone numbers, emails, etc. via RFID. When you get back home, rip off your Poken’s hand and plug it into your USB port to add your new friends to your Poken social network.
The problem with Poken is, of course, that in order for them to be at all useful, enough people must have them that you can reliably expect to Poken or be Pokenized. Otherwise, there’s not much point to carrying one around, is there? The pricetag of $20 is quite reasonable, it’s really just a question of whether they’ll catch on or not. I’d totally use one, if a.) it would work with my iPhone and b.) I could get it in some slightly less fruity design.
Marketing vid for your enjoyment, after the jump. (more…)
Yes, I know, your dog is the best dog ever and you just have to know what he’s doing all the time and share that information with the rest of the known universe. Well, get yourself a SNIF tag and you can do just that. Hooray. The SNIF tag uses and accelerometer to guess what your dog is most likely doing (walking, running, napping, licking itself, etc.) and then transmits the information wirelessly to the SNIF base station, where you can monitor your pet real time through the SNIF website and post updates to your twitter account every 30 seconds. If your dog is out of range, the SNIF tag stores the information, which you can retrieve by docking the tag with the base station later. You can compare the activity levels of your dog with other dogs of the same size and breed, and see how your pooch stacks up to the competition.
In addition to activity monitoring, SNIF tags also contain a unique ID. When your dog meets another SNIF tag equipped dog, the tags exchange IDs through RFID, and your dog as made a “friend,” who you can check out later by accessing your dog’s social network via the SNIF website. And hey, if the owner is cute, “you have the choice of becoming friends, or maybe more.” Um, right. The big downside to the SNIF tag that I can see is that it’ll just provide conclusive proof that your dog is much more fit, and has a lot more friends, than you. Oh well, you knew it all along.
The SNIF tag starter kit costs $200 for a limited time here, and it costs $89 a year to access some unspecified “premium” online features. An extra perky user review of the SNIF tag (OMG it accessorizes and lights up!) after the jump.
Curious about RFID? Overprotective of your beer? Have 30 minutes of free time? The latest episode of Systm (starring David Calkins, who knows a thing or five about robots) shows you how to make your very own RFID locking system. It costs around $100, which is a heck of a lot of replacement PBR, but you don’t have to just use it on your beer fridge. The setup that you learn how to build is modular, and can be attached to pretty much anything… your front door, your cookie jar, your cat, whatever. Check it out:
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