New wireless tags can penetrate tin foil hats

RuBee is being touted as an 'alternative technology' to RFID tags.

900MHz RFID is made up of a 99.99 per cent radio signal and 0.01 magnetic/inductive strip. RuBee does not use a radio signal and is all magnetic. Instead of having backscattered transponders, RuBee uses an active transceiver.

The IEEE says that RuBee is a "a bidirectional, on-demand, peer-to-peer, radiating, transceiver protocol operating at wavelengths below 450 Khz. This protocol works in harsh environments with networks of many thousands of tags and has an area range of 10 to 50 feet."

The upshot of all this is that it will continue to work even if you wrap it in several layers of tin foil.

The IEEE expects products based on the protocol to be available within 12 to 18 months. Already Tesco, HP, Chipzilla, Big Blue, Sony, Panasonic, Motorola and NCR have indicated that they will be involved.

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