Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Smart Dog Tags
Smart dog tags are coming into greater use in the U.S. Army, according to StrategyPage. Smart dog tags are basically read/write RFID tags that you can wear around your neck.
(Smart dog tags w/RFID reader)
Some sort of "dog tag" or wearable information for soldiers has existed in one form or another for thousands of years; soldiers in ancient Sparta used them. During the Civil War, soldiers pinned paper notes inside their jackets. Manufacturers recognized a market, and started making pins and machine-stamped tags made of brass or lead.
Official U.S. Army dog tags were first authorized in 1906; the information recorded included name, rank, company, regiment or corps. By 1916, two tags were included; one to stay with the body and the other for morgue record-keeping. By WWII, more information, like blood type and medical conditions were added.
Smart dog tags can change all that; tags capable of holding megabytes of data are inexpensive. On such a tag, the entire medical and service history of the soldier could be recorded and worn around the neck.
In 1995, an inventor named Hal Woodward impressed Department of Defense officials with his "digital dog tag"; he called it a Medi-Tag.
The biggest issues with these smart dog tags are 1) toughness and 2) security. The tiny chip in the tag would need to be in a hardened case to survive an explosion that would kill the wearer; metal dog tags can survive explosions, fires because they are simple plates of metal.
The problem of security is greater. The most obvious problem is having the enemy use readers to download information. Another problem is the fact that, if these devices are regular passive RFID tags, any RFID reader could activate them, even if encrypted data could not be read or accessed. I assume that the tags are designed to retransmit energy back to the reader only when an appropriate code has been received. Otherwise, an enemy could position readers in different areas, detecting "smart" tags that were passing through.
This story keeps coming up; see my earlier story Pentagon Asks For Digital Dog Tags. Learn more about smart dog tags here and here.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/7/2006)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Warfare ")
'Warrior Suit' Combat Exoskeleton Project Still Alive
'Suited up, you look like a big steel gorilla.'
Sea Drones Attack Russian Fleet
'...autofreighters, and other self-piloting craft.' - Ray Naylor, 2022.
Slaughterbot AI KIller Quadcopter Drones
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.
Russia Working On Military Exoskeletons
'...you look like a big steel gorilla...' - Robert Heinlein, 1959.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Chaffeur Robot Musashi Will Drive Your Regular Car
'What would you do,' Eric asked the robot cabdriver, 'if your wife had turned to stone, your best friend were a toad, and you had lost your job?'
Space Exporers! Now, You Can Drink Your Own Urine
'those suits they wear -- call them 'stillsuits' -- that reclaim the body's own water...'
SpaceX EVA Spacesuit Tested By Polaris Dawn Crew
'Now, except for weight and heat, the same conditions prevail in this chamber as in space.'
Automatic Bot Traffic Is 38 Percent Of HTTP Requests
'there were so many worms and counterworms loose in the data-net...'
Shanghai Guidelines For Humanoid Robots
'Now, look, let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics...'
Desktop TARS Robot From Interstellar
What's YOUR sarcasm setting?
Robots Can Now Have Smiling Faces With Human Skin
'I am a cybernetic organism...'
Virtual Rat Predicts Actual Rat Neural Activity
'..the synthetic intellects at the Place of Knowledge had far outstripped the minds of men.'
GoSun EV Solar Charger Drapes Onto Your Car
'...six square yards of sunpower screens.'
Rizon 4 Ironing Robot
'But after washing and drying clothes had to be smooth - free from fine lines and wrinkles ...'
Cognify - A Prison Of The Mind We've Seen Before In SF
'So I serve a hundred years in one day...'
Robot With Human Brain Organoid - 'A Thrilling Story Of Mechanistic Progress'
'A human brain snugly encased in a transparent skull-shaped receptacle.'
Goodness Gracious Me! Google Tries Face Recognition Security
'The actuating mechanism that should have operated by the imprint of her image on the telephoto cell...'
With Mycotecture, We'll Just Grow The Space Habitats We Need
'The only real cost was in the plastic balloon that guided the growth of the coral and enclosed the coral's special air-borne food.'
Can A Swarm Of Deadly Drones Take Out An Aircraft Carrier?
'The border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
WiFi and AI Team Up To See Through Walls
'The pitiless M rays pierced Earth and steel and densest concrete as if they were so much transparent glass...'
