Chiappa to offer RFID tracking chips

[sigmtnman]

That is response to a post, nothing more. Sounds like an attempt at a sales contact if nothing else.

If there ever was a RFID chip that could be tracked from space it would be in all kinds of products, not just guns. People would have them installed in their pets much like they do now with microchips that contain the owner's information. The military would have them installed in individual equipment like helmets to track troop movements. Most troop movements are tracked using a relefctive display on the helmet. There are other methods using GPS but none are even close to a RFID transmitter.

It would be an amazing thing to have a radio transmitter that is capable of transmitting to space without a power source. As it stands right now the RFID chips need to be in close proximity to an extrernal power source. I would think there would be no way to "beam" a power source strong enough across the world without causing all kinds of other issues.

Dolomite

Not if the cost was not driven down enough yet, or if the tech was classified/restricted use. Don't think beaming so much as remote sensing.

[mikegideon]

Not if the cost was not driven down enough yet, or if the tech was classified/restricted use. Don't think beaming so much as remote sensing.

Requires a power source. I ain't talkin' watch battery either.

[TMF]

Yes it is possible to make an RF beacon small enough to put in a weapon. The reason it hasn't been developed commercially for the purpose of tracking weapons is for two reasons:

1. Power: you can supply a 1/4 watt transmitter with 3v and enough mAh to last for a couple of days with some 3032 batteries, but it's transmit range would be VERY limited, not to mention, how would you initiate the beacon going off to indicate that it's stolen?

2. Cost: To make something like this it would cost much, much more than any rifle/pistol I have and I got some pretty nice stuff.

There is no secret/classified technology on this. This is stuff that private companies develop for sale to LE Agencies and "Do it Yourself" spies. If the technology existed at a reasonable cost it would be commercially available because someone would make it.

[mikegideon]

You could actually wake it up with a search signal. I spent a little time on this. The other end would be expensive. In order to get location data, you would need GPS. All the chips to do it are pretty small, but you would need an antenna too. Just ain't practical

[TMF]

You could actually wake it up with a search signal. I spent a little time on this. The other end would be expensive. In order to get location data, you would need GPS. All the chips to do it are pretty small, but you would need an antenna too. Just ain't practical

Yeah, I figured the OP was suggesting this was a beacon to be DF'd so you locate the device base off direction and signal strength. If a GPS receiver/engine was to be incorporated in it in order to send lat/long positions via RF signal it would have to be significantly larger. Iridium makes a pretty small engine capable of transmitting to a satellite... small enough to fit in buttstocks of rilfes. However, the power source remains the issue.

[mikegideon]

GPS receiver chips are tiny these days. The antenna, not so much

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Perhaps the larger privacy risk would be rfid scanners on the street or in stores/businesses, if the return data is identifiable by the scanners as a gun? A networked city full of scanners could track the gun rather fine-grained, every time the gun passes a scanner.

It was claimed that some rfid chips can be destroyed by cooking them in a microwave but dunno if that would do the gun any good.

1. Mike, if nobody has already done this, you could make a lot of moolah by designing a generic rfid hand-held sniffer which paranoid people could use to locate rfid chips on their personal property and clothes.

2. Also, an ancillary hand-held "mini-EMP" gadget capable of frying an rfid chip without damaging the shoes or corn flake box containing the rfid chip. Locate the rfid chip with the scanner then put the probe of the "mini-EMP" close to the chip, and push a button to eliminate the chip.

3. And a third device-- A small low-power GPS jammer. It would generate radio noise at the proper frequencies, strong enough to swamp the RF front-end of any GPS devices within about 10 feet. So you could disable any GPS trackers very close by without messing up anybody else.

4. An even-more-gooder variant would contain a GPS receiver and GPS "mimic" capabilities. If you wish to take an anonymous drive in your GPS tracked vehicle or you want to temporarily disable your GPS-tracked phone-- Pull out the GPS-mimic box and push a button to capture the current location. Then when the "locating" light turns from red to green, the device has captured the current location and begins to send fake GPS signals over about a 10 foot range. The fake GPS signals would cause your phone or vehicle to believe it is sitting still rather than taking a trip.

Even paranoids have enemies. You could sell a ton of such gadgets.

Edited September 29, 2011 by Lester Weevils

[sigmtnman]

What about saw based tags?