WEBVTT - Becoming a Microchipped Cyborg 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.039 Text with Technology with tex Stuff from hast works dot com. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:15.120 Hey there, and welcome to text Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:19.160 senior writer, Jonathan Strickland. I worked for a hell stuff 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.560 works dot com and we look at the entire universe 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:25.960 and break it down for you one topic at a time, 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:29.080 and today I wanted to cover something that was in 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:31.720 the news recently, at least as of the recording of 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:34.839 this podcast. If you're listening to this and I don't know, 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.000 then it happened a long time ago, but it's recent 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.880 as of the recording here. Recently, this company called three 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:46.440 Square Market made the news because they were moving forward 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:51.120 with an interesting and some would say troublesome plan involving 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:55.959 employees getting microchip r F I D implants. Now, some 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.600 headlines made it sound like this was a compulsory decision 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:01.600 that you would come into work, you would clock in, 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:05.399 go under the knife, and get a grain of rice 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.959 sized microchip implanted under the skin between your thumb and 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:11.959 your forefinger, and then your tracked for the rest of 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:16.200 your life. Other headlines were a little less reactionary and 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:19.440 gave a better indication of what the story was actually about. 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:23.720 But to really appreciate what this means and why it's happening. 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:25.440 I thought it would be good to do a full 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:28.839 episode about r f I D technology and the history 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:33.440 of human microchipping, because, despite what some outlets claimed, this 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.840 is not the first time a US employer offered up 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:40.480 this option. In fact, the first example happened more than 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.600 a decade ago, in two thousand and six. But we'll 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.840 get there first. Let's talk about the concept of r 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:51.520 f I D in the first place. The basic concept 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.559 is pretty simple. R f I D stands for radio 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:59.640 frequency identification technology. It's a way to identify something wirelessly 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.840 through radio frequency transmissions, and some would argue that this 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:06.800 concept dates all the way back to World War Two, 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.120 although obviously not in the form of r f I 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:14.560 D D r f i D tags, but rather just 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:19.680 the concept of using radio frequencies to identify something. During 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.840 World War Two, radar was proving its value as a 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:26.840 detection and tracking tool for both the Axis and Allied powers. 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:30.800 But one thing radar could not do was actually identify 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.560 what it was tracking. So if you were a radar 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.919 operator and you picked up a signal on your apparatus 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:40.840 and indicated that there was a plane that was flying 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:44.400 toward you. You couldn't be sure that the plane was 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:47.800 one of yours or one belonging to the enemy. And this, 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:51.360 as it turns out, is a very important distinction during 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:54.520 times of war. You kind of want to know is 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:59.520 it one of ours one of theirs? And with basic 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.640 radar all you got was a blip saying, whatever it is, 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.840 it's coming this way. Now, the access powers came up 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.280 with a kind of cluege way to get around this problem. 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:12.960 German pilots would execute a role maneuver. As they approached 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:17.120 their home base. Radar operators would see that the radio 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.040 signals that were bouncing back were being reflected in a 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:24.320 different way over the course of the role, So the 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:27.800 surface of the plane that was reflecting radio waves back 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:31.880 to the radar operators was changing because the orientation of 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:37.080 the plane itself was changing. By establishing this specific maneuver 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:42.360 when approaching a home base, they were able to distinguish 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:48.960 the German planes from other planes. So the radar signals 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:50.880 themselves would hit different parts of the planes as they 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:55.080 completed their roles that would be reflected in those returning signals, 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.680 and in that way, German radar operators would know who 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.720 was coming towards them, and thus they wouldn't launch an 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:06.040 attack against their own planes. Over on the Allied side, 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.200 there was a very secret operation in which British pilots 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:14.080 had their planes outfitted with an active I f F system. 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.680 I f F in this case stands for Identify Friend 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:22.840 or foe. This was a transmitter, uh specifically a transponder. 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.359 It would activate only when it came within range of 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:28.400 an outgoing signal from a base, and then it would 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.480 transmit a signal of its own, indicating that the plane 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:36.240 belonged to the Allies. So transponders are transmitters and responders. 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:40.039 They respond to an incoming signal with their own signal, 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.520 and that way British radar operators knew it was one 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.120 of their own boys coming back. Whenever they sent out 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:48.800 a signal and this one returned to them. If it 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:51.839 didn't return to them, they would know that chances are 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.760 it was an enemy plane on its way in. Now, 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.080 this concept of using radio waves as a means of 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.880 identification is the very heart of r F I D, 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.640 though the implementation of r F I D is a 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.440 little bit different. The first r F I D patents 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:11.200 were filed in nineteen seventy three. One of them was 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:15.680 by Mario W. Cardulo, who filed a patent for rewriteable 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:19.760 r F I D tags. Charles Walton also filed and 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.680 received a patent for a door lock system in which 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:26.919 a passive transponder would respond to an active reader to 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.039 unlock a door. The active reader would send out signals. 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.400 When the passive transponder would come in within range, it 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:38.440 would return a signal, and that returning signal would tell 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.480 the scanner, Hey, this guy's got a key for the door. 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:45.279 Unlocked the door. It's the essential basis for card based 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.240 security doors that we use today. But that leads us 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:53.919 to another question. What exactly is a transponder? You know 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.440 those devices in those British planes were transponders. Essentially, the 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:01.239 ones inside these cards were transponders. They received radio signals, 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:04.279 they transmit a different signal. It is a combination of 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.160 transmitter and responder. But the ones in the British planes 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:09.080 were different from the ones in the cards. They were 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:12.120 larger for one thing, but they were also active transponders. 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.240 That means that they relied on a power source inside 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.520 the plane and that would boost the outgoing signal. It's 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:24.040 kind of like an amplifier. They were actively transmitting their 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:29.520 signal to those radar operators, but they're also passive transponders, 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.480 like in the case of that card. These harvest energy 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:36.520 from incoming radio waves sent out by the signal generator, 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.839 the reader in other words, that security reader that's typically 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.520 mounted on a wall somewhere. Then they respond with their 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.240 own signal by harvesting that energy and generating the return signal. 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:48.960 The more on that in a minute, We'll get into 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:52.480 the mechanics, or or rather the technical aspects of that 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:56.240 a little bit later on. Early uses of r f 0:06:56.320 --> 0:07:01.080 I D technology included not just simple locking mechanism for doors, 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:04.159 but for stuff that could have an impact on national security, 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:09.520 like nuclear materials. Los Alamos National Laboratory developed an r 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:11.920 f I D tracking system for such material at the 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.560 behest of the Energy Department in the United States. Trucks 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:19.520 shipping nuclear materials were to carry a transponder that would 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.560 respond to readers at gated facilities, So a signal sent 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.720 out from the reader at the gate would activate the 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:31.160 transponders aboard the trucks. Those transponders would then send a 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:35.480 and identifying signal back. That signal would carry information with 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:39.160 it like the identity of the truck, what it was carrying, 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:42.440 and sometimes even the person who was assigned to drive 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:46.679 the vehicle. Eventually, this proprietary system became a commercial product 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:48.760 and it was put to use in the civilian world, 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:51.040 often as part of a toll system for bridges and 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:55.040 tunnels and that sort of thing. Los Alamos also created 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.880 a passive r f I D tag system to track cows. 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:01.680 It's one of the elighest implementations of r f I 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.360 D tags was to track cows, and it was to 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:06.600 make it easier to keep track of those cows as 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.960 they received various vaccinations and injections. The tax system allowed 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:13.520 farmers to keep track of which cows had received the 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:18.400 treatments and avoid double dosing or missing a cow. That 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:22.200 we're now talking about microchipping employees, and we were originally 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:25.680 talking about tracking cows seems a little poetic to me, 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:29.480 but maybe that's the cynical side of me showing. Now. 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:33.360 Over time, technologies with r f I D became smaller 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:36.200 and more efficient, which led us to the possibility of 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:40.600 microchipping things like our pets and even ourselves. The person 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.840 credited with having the first r F I D implant 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:48.760 is Kevin Warwick, a British scientists sometimes referred to as 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.920 a cyborg, though personally I thought that was going a 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:56.920 bit far now. Warwick's implant interacted with various electronic systems 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:00.720 in his office, including office lights and doors. It was 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:04.640 only a temporary arrangement. He only had the implant for 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.960 a short time I think maybe a week and a 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:10.160 half or so before he had it removed. He underwent 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.440 another surgery later on with a slightly more sophisticated implant 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:14.760 that was a little bit more than just an r 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:17.040 F I D chip. But I did a full tech 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:19.640 stuff episode about him in the past. The important thing 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.360 to point out here is that this happened in nearly 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.720 twenty years ago, when we had the first human getting 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:30.520 a microchip, totally voluntary and mostly as kind of a 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:34.120 proof of concept to show what could be possible in 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:38.520 the future. This idea of having an electronic component to 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.840 your identity and it's always with you, and it allows 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:45.160 you to interact with your environment in interesting ways, and 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:49.760 you don't have to use things like passwords or other 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:54.200 types of authentication in order to get access to various 0:09:54.240 --> 0:10:00.120 systems or interact with things like lighting or other technology. Now, 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:02.839 the first story I saw about employees electing to get 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:06.640 microchips as part of their work did not happen in TV, 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:09.760 as some headlines have stated where they say this is 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:13.000 the first time ever. It happened in two thousand six. 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.440 That's when two employees of a company called city watcher 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:20.280 dot Com elected to do this. City watcher dot Com 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:24.720 is a surveillance equipment company, and these two employees elected 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:28.199 to have r F I D microchips implanted in their forearms. 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:30.440 They're a little bit bigger. They were about twice the 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.520 length of the ones that have been talked about for 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:37.240 three square Market. Now, the tags that the city watcher 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:40.800 dot com employees got gave them access to special vaults. 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:44.520 It was essentially a security measure, and those special vaults 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:48.360 contain sensitive client information like surveillance footage and other stuff 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.800 that you wouldn't want falling into the wrong hands. Now, 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.199 it's a lot harder and honestly a lot more grim 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:57.880 to steal someone's arm than it is to steal, say 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:01.960 a security card. So story a three square market is 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:05.640 not unique. It has happened before, not on as large 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:09.079 as scale as what three Square Market is hoping to do, 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:13.520 but it certainly is not brand new. But what is 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.000 going on with three Square Market? Well, first of all, 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:20.560 the company is in the business of making vending services. 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:25.640 They make micro markets for one thing. Now, a typical 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:29.760 micro market kind of looks like a simple refrigerated display 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:32.760 that you might see in a grocery store, and it 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.880 contains stuff like sandwiches or salads and drinks that kind 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:39.719 of the stuff. And as a customer, you typically pick 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:43.000 up an item from this display. You would go to 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.520 a kiosk that would be part of the display, and 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.720 you would enter in the item that you wanted to buy, 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.600 perhaps scanning it. A lot of them have optical scanners 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.560 attached to them, and then you would use the kiosk 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:59.600 to pay for this item. Typically you would use a 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:03.360 credit hard maybe it's a tap credit card, or maybe 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:06.559 it's a chip and pen, but however you would do it. 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:11.480 You would interact with the device in this way. Uh 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.199 then you go on your merryway and you'd eat your snack. 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.720 At some point, some companies contract with three Square Market 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:20.559 to provide these sorts of vending machines in their break rooms. 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:24.440 How stuff works isn't one of them. But then we 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:26.200 also have a lot of free snacks, so I really 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.520 can't complain on that. On that front, three Square Market 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:32.679 is now giving employees the option to have an r 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:36.400 F I D microchip implanted in their hands to get 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.240 somewhere around the between the thumb and four finger area. 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.560 As I understand it now, those implants would allow employees 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:44.319 to do a lot of different things without ever having 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:48.920 to fish for various security cards or dongoles or credit cards. 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:52.000 For example, they could be used to purchase items in 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.000 the break room micro market. You just stroll up to it, 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:58.840 grab a tagged Cobs salad, and then the system would 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:00.960 I detect that r f I D chip in your 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.520 hand and charge it to your account, so you don't 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:05.520 have to fish for a credit card or put any 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:10.760 information in It's all automated and it's seamless. Other implementations 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.400 could include the stuff we've talked about already, things like 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.560 getting access to security doors. You know, you just hold 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.000 your hand up close to the reader and it picks 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:22.880 up on the transponder signal and thus unlocks the door 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.320 for you. Or you might use it to unlock computers 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:26.880 so that you don't have to use a password. It 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.320 just identifies that you are, in fact the person you 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.559 say you are. Essentially, you could program the r F 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:35.479 I D chip to hold information linked to the respective 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:40.880 employees identity. That information could then be linked to other 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.440 data on the back end, So in other words, you 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:47.079 don't necessarily have to encode everything that the chip will 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:50.040 be able to do on the actual chip. You just 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.120 have to establish a unique identifier, and then on the 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.080 back end you could have all the functionality so that 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.640 when it came into contact with that unique identifier, it 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.960 would spawned in the appropriate way. So for example, if 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.960 I have a microchip and I have access to every 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.520 door but one in this office, then when I come 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:14.880 to that one forbidden door, it won't activate, not because 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.360 that door wasn't programmed in my microchip, but because in 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.880 the back end computer system, when it looks for the 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:26.160 numbers that are associated with the access level for that door, 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.640 it does not find my number, and thus I do 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.640 not get access. So it really just means where do 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:33.760 you put the work? Do you put it on the 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:37.760 chip side or on the back end side. Now you 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:42.800 could just put a tag inside a piece of equipment 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.880 and have the employee carry that around like a wrist 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.600 band or something. You don't have to implant it in 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:51.280 an inside a person. Although if it is i'mplanted in 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:54.360 a person, it does decrease the possibility that you will 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:58.640 misplace it. It doesn't completely eliminate it. There are gruesome 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:03.560 accidents that can happen, but it's severely reduces that risk. 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.920 And it is also important to remember that that backside approach, 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.040 the having the back end handle most of the work. 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:17.080 It's pretty important when you're talking about a a method 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:20.640 that might involve surgery, even if it's minor surgery to 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:25.520 get a microchip implanted under the skin. Obviously, if it's 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:27.440 a type of r F I D where you would 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.880 need to switch it out in order to get more access, 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.400 that requires another surgery, something that a lot of people 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:38.520 probably wouldn't look forward to. Now, this process is completely voluntary. 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.240 They are not compelling any of their employees to undergo 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:45.200 the surgery, and according to The New York Times, about 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:48.600 fifty of the eighty employees of three Square Market have 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.840 already signed up for the procedure. The company also states 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:55.320 that the technology will not be used to track employee 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:59.800 movements and activities, but obviously those are things people should 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:04.040 be concerned about. There are potential misuses of this technology 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:06.840 that pose very real threats to privacy and security. I'll 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:10.000 cover more on that in just a little bit. Now, 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:13.800 before I get all doom and gloom, I've got a 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.000 lot of other things I want to say about how 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.880 r F i D technology actually works. But first let's 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:29.800 take a quick break to thank our sponsor. All Right, 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.320 I'm going to really just concentrate on what are called 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:37.320 passive r f i D systems here, because active and 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:41.040 semi passive r f i D systems tend to use batteries. 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.520 That makes those tags much larger and not practical for 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:48.160 lots of implementations, including implants. You don't want to have 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:51.080 to have a battery implanted underneath your skin if you 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:54.560 don't if you don't absolutely need it for some medical purpose. 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.160 So we're really looking at passive r f i D. 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:02.360 And this idea kind of goes back to radar. You 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:06.200 have a reader or a scanner. Typically these devices are 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:10.160 just constantly sending out a radio signal of a specific frequency. 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:14.280 Early implantable passive r f i D systems used low 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:18.040 frequency radio signals that around a hundred twenty five killer hurts. 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:22.320 These were small enough to work as implants for cows, 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.960 but they had a limited range and low data transfer rates, 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.040 so if you wanted something that worked at a better 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.840 range and had faster throughput, you needed to use a 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:34.960 higher frequency. So the next generation of r F I 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.360 D tags moved to that part of the electro magnetic 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:42.280 spectrum at the thirteen point five six mega Hurts range. 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:47.840 Number hurts is telling you how many UH waves passed 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:52.400 through a given point within a second. Every hurts represents 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:56.720 one wave for that second, so h hurts tells you 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:01.359 that a hundred twenty five thousand of those wavelengths past 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:04.320 a given point within a second. Thirteen point five six 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.280 tells you thirteen point five six million hurts. Because it's 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:12.840 mega hurts past that given point within a second. That 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:16.680 means the wavelengths are significantly smaller and the frequency is 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:22.920 much higher the range, and that frequency is mostly unregulated 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.320 and unused throughout the world. There are very few places 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:30.320 that have that says, aside for specific reasons, so there 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.600 was little worry about interference. Using thirteen point five six 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:35.879 mega hurts is the range for r f I D tags, 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.359 and it also offered a better read range and faster 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:42.800 data transfer rates than the lower frequency r f I 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:46.879 D tags. This frequency is used for lots of access systems, 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:49.560 whether it's a door or a computer terminal. They're also 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:54.680 used in lots of payment systems and contactless smart card systems. 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:58.000 So you might find a system running on this frequency, 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:02.240 that is, for a subway. You might have a subway 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:06.280 card and you tap it against a little UH sensor 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:10.720 and it ends up completing this transaction that allows you 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:15.440 to pass through and it deducts, however much from your account, 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:18.000 or if you have an account that is based on 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.560 a certain amount of time, then as long as you're 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:26.439 within that time limit, you're allowed to pass through. Anti 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.359 THEFTO heisis in. Some cars also use this as a 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.560 reader inside the car will scan for a returning signal 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:37.800 from a transponder contained within a plastic key housing. UM. 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:39.879 I have a car, it's like, well, my wife has 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:42.119 a car that's like this, where it's not gonna go 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:45.320 anywhere if it doesn't have the actual one of the 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.840 actual keys inside the car. UM, if it doesn't detect 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:53.920 that key, it won't turn on. Also, if you try 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:56.240 to leave the car with one of the keys inside it, 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:59.000 it will tell you because it can detect the fact 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.120 that the key is still there while you are obviously 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:03.440 trying to walk off to get into Wally World, which 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:05.320 by the way, is closed. The moose outside should have 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:10.080 told you. In the ninety nineties, IBM began to work 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:14.000 on ultra high frequency or UHF r f i D systems. 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:17.359 These had a read range of around twenty feet, which 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:20.240 is pretty strong, and it had even faster data transfer 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:23.240 rates than the Mega Hurts range. This technology has found 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.679 its way into various warehouses around the world and is 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:30.960 used as a sort of inventory management system. In Amazon 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.480 announced a partnership with the r F I D Lab 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:36.359 at Auburn University to explore ways to use r F 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:40.800 I D tags to optimize Amazon fulfillment centers. Those tags 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:43.440 would help these centers keep an accurate count on what 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:46.520 was and wasn't in stock at any given time, and 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:50.760 thus help Amazon fulfill orders and make delivery times. Warehouse 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:55.480 inventory is insanely complicated stuff because you've got new merchandise 0:20:55.560 --> 0:21:00.000 moving in and orders moving out constantly, so keeping an 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.600 accurate inventory record is crucial if you want to meet 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:06.520 incoming orders. As for how it's working at all, it 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:09.639 comes down to two critical components on the tag itself 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:12.960 and antenna and the transponder, And it helps if we 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:17.480 take a quick refresher on radio here. So let's say 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:21.320 you want to transmit a radio signal and you've got 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:23.480 a scanner or a reader, or in the case of 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.879 traditional radio, you've got a broadcast station. You would create 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:31.000 an electrical signal, you would modulate it in some particular 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.960 way to create the frequency you want, and you would 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:39.639 send this signal into a transmission antenna. The electrical current 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:44.119 running through the antenna will generate electromagnetic radiation in the 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:48.240 form of radio waves. Radio waves will travel outward from 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:52.600 the source the receiving antenna you use the radio or 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:56.480 r F I D tag. The antenna itself has to 0:21:56.480 --> 0:22:00.159 be the right length to pick up those frequencies. If 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:03.200 you were to take a traditional radio, it would most 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:06.760 likely have two antennas. You'd have one antenna that would 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:09.200 be the FM antenna, which an old radio has tended 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:12.320 to be a telescoping antenna that you would extend from 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:14.840 the set, and then you would have an AM antenna, 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:17.720 and that usually was a wire, a much much longer 0:22:17.800 --> 0:22:21.560 wire than the FM antenna, and normally it would even 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:24.400 be contained with inside the radio itself, so it would 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:27.760 just be a coil of wire that's wrapped up inside 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:30.520 the radio. You can't even see it. Some radios or 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:34.359 sets did have that wire extend out from the radio, 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:37.879 but that ends up becoming a tripping hazard. Now, the 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:40.920 reason that you would have two different lengths of antenna 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:45.280 is that the radio wavelengths of FM and AM are 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:49.440 very different. AM radio waves are much longer than FM 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:52.480 radio waves, so the antenna for a M has to 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:56.920 be longer to pick up those frequencies effectively. Generally speaking, 0:22:57.359 --> 0:23:00.719 the antenna's length needs to be about half a wavelength 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:04.200 of the radio wave itself, or it could be a 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:06.960 quarter of the length of the wavelength itself in order 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:10.360 to effectively pick up the signal. So if you've got 0:23:10.400 --> 0:23:14.439 a signal that's a meter long, ideally you would have 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:17.240 an antenna that's half a meter long in order to 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:20.200 pick up that signal. That was just a random example, 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:24.000 by the way. So let's say that you want to 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:27.960 build a very simple radio. You could get an antenna, 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:31.200 which could just be some copper wire that will pick 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:33.840 up radio frequencies within a certain range based upon the 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:37.159 length of the antenna itself. Um, you would have to 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:40.159 have antenna that's long enough for it to pick up 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:44.399 a M frequencies. This really works with a M radio. Now, 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:48.720 when it encounters this electromagnetic radiation in the form of 0:23:48.840 --> 0:23:53.000 radio waves, those will induce an electric current to flow 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:57.800 through the antenna. It makes electrons wiggle, essentially moving back 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:00.520 and forth along the length of that antenna. If you've 0:24:00.560 --> 0:24:03.440