Invisible RFID dust, ID-dust, to track people. Sprinkle a perimeter around your museum or government installation or airport security zone then track intruders in real time:
By invitation, I recently visited a remote facility in northern Virginia to see a demonstration of NOX – a new Intelligent Perimeter Defense system deployed by the FBI that uses covert Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to track people and assets without their knowledge.
That’s right, using RFID to track people without their knowledge. This system is exactly what the privacy advocates have long feared: Big Brother tracking us with spy chips. As Orwellian as this sounds, the undisputed fact is that this system catches thieves and does so at a fraction of the cost of traditional security solutions.
NOX combines high-resolution video pictures and RFID for identification, tracking and tracing, overlaid in real time on a facility map to show the movement of people and assets. The system allows security officers to see theft as it happens, even if the stolen object is inside a briefcase, under a jacket, or stuffed inside a sock.
What makes the NOX system I saw different from traditional security systems is that it uses RFID for clandestine surveillance: RFID readers are hidden inside walls, floors, and ceilings; RFID tags are discretely placed; and only the security personnel know that the system is in place – until the thief gets caught. Then, all the thief knows is that he or she was caught in the act, on video.
I wonder how easy the NOX system will be to use once everyone is using it? All those different dusts being tracked everywhere… I forsee a sudden obsession with cleanliness, more people insisting guests take their shoes off and so on. Also, how lung-friendly is this ‘dust’?
Anyone know anything about this?
Sounds like science fiction. Amazing that it’s real. I wonder how far the radius is. >>Also, I’d think somewhere in the building they’d probably have a sign saying they have surveillance equipment, without spelling out what kind it is.>Morgan Mandel>http://morganmandel.blogspot.com>http://twitter.com/morganmandel
Have you read Neal Stephenson at all? I’ve brought him up a few times before. He’s pretty alright. His <>Diamond Age<> book takes these sorts of micro- & nano-tech as givens. You might enjoy it.
Good gawd. It keeps getting deeper and deeper.
<>morgan<>, welcome. RFID signals are designed for their purpose, anything from a few inches (supposedly–ha ha ha) for passports and sub-q pet tags, to tens of feet for shipping containers.>><>mordicai<>, I’m familiar with Stephenson’s work (I honestly thought <>Diamond Age<> would take the Nebula and kick <>Slow River<> to the curb) but don’t really get on with it. Sort of like Jeff Noon’s work–it just doesn’t speak to me. It makes me head feel…too tight.>><>steadycat<>, I think it’s kind of cool, actually, but it’s the ‘dust’ notion that bothers me, in terms of health.
Well, he does have those currents of dust/germ/nano fighting dust/germ/nano. Like, sure! Somebody will put spy dust on you OF COURSE THEY WILL. But then your spy dust will fight theirs! Or your government's! Or your corporation's (if those terms are different/mean anything in the future). Or whatever. Or maybe YOU will be the SPY DUST OOOOOOOOOWwwwwww spoooooky.>>Stephenson's problem (I think) is that he can't stick a landing– he ends all of his stories with “& then I threw the kitchin sink at it– a sink not seen in Checkov's kitchin– & the end.” At least in Snow Crash the characters just walk away from the end.>>Noon seems to me to be so opposite Stephenson– sparse & lyric versus what my friend called “Gibson's hyperactive little brother.” Then again, Noon has a lot wrong with him– I think only Vurt, Nyphomation & surprisingly Cobralingus are “great.” I thought Cobralingus was going to be a mess, like Needle in the Groove, but I was really charmed by it.
I don’t know anything about it, but I don’t like it. The prevention of crime stuff is the biggest wedge int the constitution. Scare them with crime, baffle them with technology and watch our rights go out the window.
>Sounds like science fiction.>>indeed. it sounds remarkably like the 'scintillas' deployed in linked works by christopher priest–circa 1975. scintillas were motes that cobbled together and transmitted video back to home base. thus, having been dropped from enemy planes by the billions, they erased privacy in priest's imagined world, which he depicted in stories including 'the watched.' i think the overarching title was 'the dream archipelago.'
yes indeed we are 100% in the 21st century where science fiction/truth is right on track with nanotechnology!
Can I offer a website where the science research on 'smart dust' and all nano materials being released into our envirnment is being reported?
http://www.hildegarde-staninger.com
She is an industrial toxicologist that has been specifically researching health issues associated with chemtrails and aerial spraying for about 4-5 years now.
And yes ever since my personal exposure to some advanced nano nasties, I am a clean freak!