(via Engadget)
With the recently announced RFID passports we’ll be getting here in the states soon, some folks are wisely concerned about their electronic safety in a world were RFID signals are easy to pick-up. Given a desire to protect RFID identities in the coming age where you will not be able to be sans RFID, the folks at RFID-guardian have worked on a device to protect you and all your RFID-ness.
The Guardian has three main components: an RFID tag emulator (that consists of a receiver part, a transmitter part, and an antenna), an RFID reader (also with antenna), and an embedded computer.
. . .
The Reader that is built into the Guardian is used to perform periodic scans of all tags that the Guardian owner carries around with her. If tags keep turning up in those scans, they will probably belong to the Guardian owner, so they must be protected from interrogation or corruption by unknown RFID readers. The Guardian decides this for itself, but it can (of course) be overridden by its owner.
. . .
The RFID Guardian could eventually be integrated into a PDA or a cellphone, but our research prototype is currently built on a breadboard (the next one will be on a single PCB). The current prototype consists of three separate parts:
- some electronic circuit boards, one for its tag emulator receiver, one for its tag emulator transmitter, and one for its reader (plus some voltage translator boards)
- a number of radio frequency antennas
- an embedded computer that performs all the software tasks. This is an XScale PXA270 (an ARM descendant manufactured by Intel) on a development board, the Triton-270 sold by Karo.
There is no estimate yet on how much this will cost.
[tags]RFID, anti-RFID, privacy[/tags]