attach digital info to anything, from stuffed animals to business cards, with do-it-yourself radio chips
Posted 02.03.2009 at 3:39 pm
5 Comments
Get It
TikiTag Starter Package, $50; tikitag.com
Satoshi
Create a business card that automatically places a Skype call when waved near a computer, or a photo that opens an online video of your vacation. A new kit makes it easy to devise your own uses for radio-frequency ID tags, something that previously only programmers could do.
TikiTag’s kit comes with an RFID reader, plus 10 stick-on chips that transmit data over short-distance radio waves, just like the chips in electronic security badges and PayPass credit cards. When scanned by the reader or a reader-equipped cellphone (such as the Nokia 6212 Classic), each chip emits a unique signal. Software on a computer or phone looks up this ID in TikiTag’s online database, which stores your instructions for what program to trigger next.
TikiTag can pass commands to several programs, including Skype, iTunes and Web browsers, and others are in the works. Soon a tag could connect to home-automation applications to open the door when you swipe, or act as a store’s frequent-user card, updating the online database every time it’s used.
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Those things are useful.
The world needs an RFID homing device, so that I can attach the tags to my keys, TV remote, wallet, and anything else I lose on a regular basis. Then I can pick up the pocket PC device with the long range RFID scanner, pick a missing item from the list, and walk around playing Marko Polo.
Of course, when the scanner gets lost, I'm pretty much screwed.
All we need is wide spread RF readers so that Laptops and Music players with built in RFID Would be very difficult to steal.
And of course so that the government can implant chips in our heads for mind control :o Tinfoil hat time :p
Then I can pick up the pocket PC device with the long range RFID scanner, pick a missing item from the list, and walk around playing Marko Polo. http://www.biancaboya.com