2008 Woodie Awards
Actions being taken to prevent security breach of information
By Brandon Fox
Rocket Sports Editor
Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: News
Out with the old and in with the new. That seems to be the growing trend these days-get rid of old technology for newer and "better" technology.
Slippery Rock University announced Tuesday that it is doing away with the current out-of-date ID cards that all students, faculty and staff carry, and replacing them with state-of-the-art RFID cards.
The concept of RFID technology is not new, but many people, especially in the United States, have never heard of it. Radio frequency identification, or RFID, is a generic term for technologies-in SRU's case an ID card-that use radio waves to automatically identify people or objects.
This does not mean that the university will be able to track your every move. It means it will be able to keep track of your information. These new RFID cards are going to store information about you just like the current ID cards do.
The RFID cards, according to university President Robert Smith, are going to be small enough to fit under the battery cover of your cell phone. The cell phone cards, which are basically small microchips, do not need to be swiped.
An actual ID card can also be used by students if the idea of using it with a cell phone does not appeal to them. The main reason for having an RFID card that can be placed on the back of a person's cell phone is security.
"When you lose your regular ID card, you may not notice that it is gone for a few days," Smith said. "However, everyone, including myself, knows within minutes if they have misplaced their cell phone.
"This reduces the chance that a person will lose their ID card, which will save them money and provide them with a sense of more security, knowing that their card is always with them."
One of the benefits of these new IDs is that it will do away with the scanning of bar codes, or in the case of the IDs, the black stripe on the back.
This may not seem like a benefit, but according to the RFID Journal at RFIDJournal.com, the world's RFID authority, "The big difference between the two is bar codes are line-of-sight technology. That is, a scanner has to 'see' the bar code to read it. Radio frequency identification, by contrast, doesn't require line of sight. RFID tags can be read as long as they are within range of a reader."
Slippery Rock University announced Tuesday that it is doing away with the current out-of-date ID cards that all students, faculty and staff carry, and replacing them with state-of-the-art RFID cards.
The concept of RFID technology is not new, but many people, especially in the United States, have never heard of it. Radio frequency identification, or RFID, is a generic term for technologies-in SRU's case an ID card-that use radio waves to automatically identify people or objects.
This does not mean that the university will be able to track your every move. It means it will be able to keep track of your information. These new RFID cards are going to store information about you just like the current ID cards do.
The RFID cards, according to university President Robert Smith, are going to be small enough to fit under the battery cover of your cell phone. The cell phone cards, which are basically small microchips, do not need to be swiped.
An actual ID card can also be used by students if the idea of using it with a cell phone does not appeal to them. The main reason for having an RFID card that can be placed on the back of a person's cell phone is security.
"When you lose your regular ID card, you may not notice that it is gone for a few days," Smith said. "However, everyone, including myself, knows within minutes if they have misplaced their cell phone.
"This reduces the chance that a person will lose their ID card, which will save them money and provide them with a sense of more security, knowing that their card is always with them."
One of the benefits of these new IDs is that it will do away with the scanning of bar codes, or in the case of the IDs, the black stripe on the back.
This may not seem like a benefit, but according to the RFID Journal at RFIDJournal.com, the world's RFID authority, "The big difference between the two is bar codes are line-of-sight technology. That is, a scanner has to 'see' the bar code to read it. Radio frequency identification, by contrast, doesn't require line of sight. RFID tags can be read as long as they are within range of a reader."
Be the first to comment on this story