Augmentative and Alternative Communication

The History and Definition of Augmentative and Alternative Communication

What is Augmentative and Alternative Communication?

Augmentative and alternative communication is an umbrella term for a mode of communication for people who have impairment or restriction on their communication, whether it be speech, writing or comprehension. If a person is unable to adequately communicate without help, augmentative and alternative communication does exactly as the name suggests; it augments a person's innate communication abilities or offers an alternative method of communication. Augmentative and alternative communication is simply an aid to help people who have difficulty communicating on their own to function as normally as possible.

What types of Augmentative and Alternative Communication are there?

Augmentative and alternative communication can be divided into aided and unaided methods.
Unaided augmentative and alternative communication is, for example, body language, facial expressions and sign language.

Aided augmentative and alternative communication is when a device is used to aid in communication. This can be technological, but does not have to be. For the purposes of this paper we will be focusing specifically on high tech aided augmentative and alternative communication.

An Overview of the People That This Method of Assistance Helps

Anyone who finds it very difficult to communicate by just speech may be helped by using AAC. Lots of different AAC methods are used by people of all ages, with physical or learning difficulties. Some people use AAC just to communicate. Other people use AAC to help them understand what is being said to them.

Some people need to use AAC because of something that happened when they were born – people with cerebral palsy or learning disabilities. Other people start to use AAC when they are older. This can be because they have had a stoke or a brain injury or a disease.
Any disability that makes it difficult for the person to communicate may find AAC methods helpful. For some people, AAC is just used for a short time such as after an operation. Other people use AAC all their lives. (Communication, 2004)

The International Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication promote the use of alternative and augmentative communication for a wide variety of people, whether it is temporary or long term use. As is mentioned above, people with physical or learning difficulties are the ones who make use of augmentative and alternative communication. Some illnesses that cause these difficulties are cerebral palsy, autism, aphasia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to name a few.

“Cerebral palsy is a disorder that affects muscle tone, movement, and motor skills (the ability to move in a coordinated and purposeful way). Cerebral palsy can also lead to other health issues, including vision, hearing, and speech problems, and learning disabilities.” (Steven J. Bachrach, 2009)

Autism is a neural development disorder causing impairment in social interaction and communication. (American Psychiatric Association, 2000)
Aphasia is a language disorder that is aquired when the brain is damaged. It can result in difficulty utilizing or comprehending language, be it spoken or written. (Howard S Kirchner MD, 2009)

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a disease that makes the newve cells in muscles stop working and die. The nerves lose the ability to trigger specific muscles, causing weakining and eventual paralysis in the body, and eventually leading to death. (American Psychiatric Association, 2000)

These and other diseases all have the commonality of causing a difficulty in speech. Different methods of augmentative and alternative communication can be used depending on the level of complications with speech the individual has.

The Technologies Currently Available

Keyboard and Symbol Based Text to Speech Devices

LightWRITERs, by ZYGO Industries, are a text-to-speech device with a dual screen, one on either side to display the text being spoken. This allows for a more natural conversation, with both individuals facing one another and being able to see what is typed. The keys are large enough for those with limitations requiring this and arranged alphabetically so they can be used more easily by children who are just beginning to learn their alphabet and those who find the standard QWERTY arrangement difficult. LightWRITERs, though, are an older technology. ZYGO Industries is constantly creating new products.

Optimist-MMX-2 is ZYGO Industries newest product. The product is a specialized computer system that can come with a selection of augmentative and alternative communication software of blank so that the users choice of software may be loaded onto the unit. Software is specialized based on the needs of the user. Non-communication software is locked out of the dedicated speech generation device versions. The device can function in three modes. The laptop mode is the same as a regular laptop, with a keyboard and the screen facing the user. The second mode is as a swivel screen, allowing the user to turn the monitor to the person or people they are communicating with. The third and final available mode is the tablet mode. This allows the device to be used as a touch screen. The keyboard folds away and the user has the ability to tap the screen to select the symbols necessary to communicate their meaning to others. The product has a 10.1” touch screen, runs Microsoft Windows 7 Home Edition, has 1GB of memory, and Intel Atom processor and an 160GB hard drive. It is simply a specialized laptop, and this seems to be the way that this technology is heading.

Switch Based or Eye Gaze Based Text to Speech Devices

The DynaVox EyeMax system combines the DynaVox Vmax with the EyeMax accessory, which allows the user to navigate by looking at a specific spot on the screen or by blinking.

Homegrown Solutions

Proloquo2Go is an AssistiveWare product providing an augmentative and alternative communication for anyone who cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars on an augmentative and alternative communication device. It is software that runs on the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as the iPad. The cost of the software is $189.00, and provides a solution that can allow their users to use a device that everyone else has. All the user needs is an iPod touch, iPhone or iPad and speakers.

A Comparison of the Pros and Cons of the two Options

The Dialect-MMX-2, which is the locked down version of the Optimist-MMX-2, costs $1,000.00. The Optimist-MMX-2 ranges from a basic package containing only the device without any software at $2,700.00 and going all the way to $5,300.00 for the widest range of software included along with the device.

In comparison, the most expensive Macbook Pro has a 17” screen, has 4GB of memory, an Intel Core i5 processor and a 500GB hard drive. It is better in every comparable way to the Optimist-MMX-2 and costs $2,299.00. The 13” screen Macbook Pro, which is still better but closer in size to the Optimist-MMX-2 costs $1,199.00. The Optimist-MMX-2 costs approximately $1,500 more than the 13” Macbook Pro, and the Pro line of Mac products is the most expensive, not to mention the fact that Apple products as a whole tend to be some of the most expensive on the market.

The one advantage that the ZYGO Industries Optimist-MMX-2 has over the Macbook Pro is that it is a touch screen computer. But the cost of an Apple iPad is at most $829.00, and this includes 3G support.

This is an absolutely huge price difference, and has the potential to completely change the landscape of augmentative and alternative communication devices.

The overwhelming cost difference is due to the fact that technology specially designed for a small percentage of the population cannot be mass produced like the Macbook Pro or the iPad can. In order to make a profit the company that produces a product like the Dialect-MMX-2 must charge much more. Not only this, but ZYGO must have to hire a large selection of specialists along with purchase the separate technologies and pay for the production of their product and the design of their software.

“The price of the devices covers the materials required to make them durable; extensive service that is often needed for disabled patients; as well as complicated software, said Ed Donnelly, the chief executive of DynaVox.” (Valentino-DeVries, 2010)

The article that is cited and has addressed the idea of software for non specialized hardware, unfortunately reveals a bias and inaccuracies when implies that devices of similar technological value cost as much as $15,000, but they are actually speaking of eye gaze technology, which is drastically more complex and subsequently more expensive than a symbol based text to speech software program. You can see this bias here:

“Specialized speech devices from companies like DynaVox Inc. and Prentke Romich Co. range from about $2,500 on the low end to $15,000 for a device that uses the eye movements of people who are paralyzed to allow them to select words on a screen. Most are about $7,000, near the amount that Medicare covers for such hardware.” (Valentino-DeVries, 2010)
Nevertheless, there is still a significant price difference between the specialized hardware and software and the Apple product method.

In the United States of America, Medicare covers approximately $7,000 for augmentative and alternative communication hardware, which is enough to purchase a specialized device. But a mainstream tablet would not be covered by Medicare, since it could be used for nonmedical purposes. (Valentino-DeVries, 2010)



Works Cited

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

Communication, I. S. (2004). International Society for Augmentative & Althernative Communication. Retrieved Novemeber 6, 2010, from http://www.isaac-online.org/en/aac/

Howard S Kirchner MD, D. H. (2009, July 17). emedicine. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1135944-overview

Steven J. Bachrach, M. (2009, April). Retrieved November 7, 2010, from KidsHealth: http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/brain/cerebral_palsy.html

Valentino-DeVries, J. (2010, October 13). Using the iPad to Connect. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575547971877769154.html

Blue Screen of Death, an Overview

*Shudder*

What is the blue screen of death?

The blue screen of death is one of many error messages displayed by an operating system when it has experienced a fatal error, or a kernel panic, which is a low level and unrecoverable error. The actual name for this is a fatal system error, otherwise known as a system crash, stop error, kernel error, or bug check. Users are the ones who created the name blue screen of death, and they have done this because when a blue screen appears it means that the problem is big enough that you will not be able to recover anything you were working on unless it saved itself recently. The colloquial "of death" part of the name developed because of the loss of all data (occurring in accordance with Murphy's Law) when you have a deadline. They are also a strong sign that there could be something seriously wrong with your computer, and are extremely cryptic.

A blue screen is Windows specific, but all operating systems can have kernel panics, and their own way of representing them. For example, Mac used to use their sad mac screen to signify a kernel panic. They also carried this touch of humour into their iPods, and although it is cute, I hope to never see it.





What are a few reasons I would get it?

I am most certainly not an expert in dealing with a blue screen. I always just google it, but in order to make this easier for you, dear reader, I've hunted down a very nice and fairly short list of the most common error codes. If you ever get a blue screen make sure to copy that bugger down onto some scrap paper and take a look in the following list or google the stop code to find a solution. Thank you to Gateway's support page for having such a wonderful guide.
Here is a list of common blue screen errors and STOP codes:

• PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (STOP 0x00000050)
• INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE (STOP 0x0000007B)
• UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME (STOP 0x000000ED)
• MEMORY_MANAGEMENT or IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (STOP 0x0000001A)
• IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (STOP 0x0000000A)
• DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (STOP 0x000000D1)
• KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (STOP 0x0000008E)
• KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR (STOP 0x0000007A)
• SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (STOP 0x0000007E)
• KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR (STOP 0x00000077)

Why haven't I seen it recently?

When I started this blog I realized that I hadn't gotten a blue screen in a long, long time. This seemed unreasonable to me, since kernel panicking isn't gone. I looked into it and talked to some friends and learned that yes, blue screens are still around in new versions of Windows. Probably because of how negative and popular a complaint blue screening became in regards to Windows, it has been turned off in the default settings of newer Windows operating systems.

What do I mean by that? I mean that the operating system has a setting, turned on by default, telling it to automatically reboot in the case of a blue screen. This is pretty understandable, since most of the time I'm already reaching for a hard reboot before I even remember to write that code down. It also means that if a reboot isn't the solution and a google of the code is necessary in order to know what is wrong, you are going to have one hell of a time catching that code before you get stuck rebooting again. Just imagine that, or search for it happening to someone, being unable to find out what is wrong with your computer because instead of a blue screen, which is at least vaguely useful, you get this flash of blue followed by a looping reboot. Gah!

Gosh, that's awful! How can I fix that?

Don't worry, it's very easy to change your default settings.
You just need to follow these steps:

1. Go to your control panel.
2. Open System. (In classic view)
   
3. Go to the Advanced tab in the System Properties.
4. Click on Settings in the Advanced System Recovery section.
5. In the Startup and Recovery window uncheck the check bow labeled Automatically Restart, and say OK.
   

You can also hammer F8 while rebooting and get into the following menu if you didn't get around to changing your default settings before you got a blue screen error and got stuck in a loop rebooting.


















May your computer never blue screen,
1712

Wikipedia as a Valid Resource

Wikipedia is an absolutely brilliant resource. Every time I need to learn about a topic I wiki it. If I'm unsure of a fact I wiki it. If I need to write an essay I wiki it. We all do it, the first stop on the research train is Wikipedia, and there isn't anything wrong with that. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and an encyclopedia is the right place to go when you want to learn about something. The problem is that an encyclopedia is not the be all and end all of research. If anyone tried to write a University level essay with the only source being the Encyclopedia Britannica they would certainly fail or be told to rewrite it. The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, has said himself that he has no sympathy for students who get into trouble for citing Wikipedia. He gets about 10 emails a week from students who ask him for help when they get a failing grade due to citing Wikipedia and he just thinks to himself: “For God sake, you’re in college; don’t cite the encyclopedia.” But I disagree with Mr. Wales, I feel that if your only source is Wikipedia you are indeed an idiot, but I know how I research, and Wikipedia has been a part of my research habits for years. I go to Wikipedia and read up on my topic of choice, I follow related articles around Wikipedia and get vaguely distracted before pulling myself back on track, and I follow Wikipedia's citations to find good starting sources, and browse out from there along the network of papers about my topic. I also search through academic resources for potential papers but I end up on Wikipedia before this simply to familiarize myself with the language needed to actually find a good paper, especially if I need to write on a topic that I am not familiar with.

Citing Your Sources

Every time I write a paper I am lying. I leave Wikipedia out of my bibliography because no one seems to want to let me put it there, but isn't the purpose of a bibliography to provide a summary of the research you have done? Citations exist in order to allow for intellectual honesty, and I am giving the false impression that the structure of my search for information along with the general structure of most of my essays came completely from my own brilliance, and not the essential usefulness of Wikipedia. Telling students not to cite Wikipedia is telling them to lie about how they garnered the knowledge necessary to write their paper. In 2007 the History Department of Middlebury College notified it's students that Wikipedia could not be cited in papers or exams. The article about this goes on to mention the following:

"Although Middlebury’s history department has banned Wikipedia in citations, it has not banned its use. Don Wyatt, the chairman of the department, said a total ban on Wikipedia would have been impractical, not to mention close-minded, because Wikipedia is simply too handy to expect students never to consult it."

But if they know that the students will continue to use Wikipedia, and actually believe that it is simply too handy to expect students to never consult it, isn't a little hypocritical to disallow the proper citation of such a resource? Jimmy Wales commented on this issue as well, saying:

"Basically, they are recommending exactly what we suggested — students shouldn’t be citing encyclopedias. I would hope they wouldn’t be citing Encyclopedia Britannica, either."

But encyclopedias are in the same category as dictionaries in terms of citations. They are able to be cited and there are guidelines on practically every quality style guide on how to go about properly citing a reference book.This is confirmed by the following quote:

The Craft of Research, a classic guide to research, advises that researchers consult reference works such as encyclopedias to gain general knowledge about a topic and discover related works.

So, again, while I agree that citing only Wikipedia is a poor idea, I stand by the fact that as a supporting or background material it is worthwhile and even deserving of a place in your bibliography.

The Flexibility of Wikipedia as a Positive and a Negative

Wikipedia is, by nature, constantly changing. There are simple positives and negatives to this.

The positives are that the information you are receiving is as up to date as it can be, and is constantly being updated and improved, expanded on and reviewed, whereas published papers go through a few rounds of high quality review and inspection before being published, and from then on there are no changes without great difficulty.

Wikipedia is peer reviewed to the extreme, and although everyone who peer reviews a published paper is probably quite qualified to do so, there is an inherent negativity in having a small and static number of people reviewing a document. The more people who look over something and the more varied their backgrounds, the more likely you are to have a well rounded and accurate representation of that something.

The negatives are that with more people come more stupid people, and when just anyone can make changes to an article your likelihood of getting someone who doesn't know what they are doing or purposely wants to make incorrect statements increases. Wikipedia knows this though, and it is possible to watch in real time as stupidity is corrected in pages on Wikipedia, especially on high traffic articles.

Another negative is that it is inherently difficult to cite something that could be different when you actually visit the citation. Wikipedia has a solution to that as well though, with the implementation of the ability to link to a specific version of a page:

It is sometimes useful to link to a specific version of an article (a snapshot of it). For example, one might have done a review of a Wikipedia article and want to indicate which particular version was reviewed.

If the version is not the current version, one can use the page history to view the old version of the page. The URL of this old version is suitable for use to permanently reference this version, and can usually be obtained from the browser's location bar.

My Final Thoughts

While you may end up with false information on Wikipedia for whatever reason, if you spend enough time on your paper and learn about your topic then maybe the incorrect information should be noticeable to you. And if you find a mistake in Wikipedia maybe you should add to the community and correct the mistake instead of writing Wikipedia off as a valid resource. As more well-known scholars use and edit Wikipedia, it becomes a more valid resource. This has already started, and the more scholars support Wikipedia the better it will get. This is my final reason for being all for the use of Wikipedia as a supporting resource. If it becomes okay to use Wikipedia in academic papers, academics will be more active in the community of Wikipedia. These things will feed into each other, creating a better and more accurate online encyclopedia for all of us.

1712

Repetitive Strain Injury in Relation to Computers

What is Repetitive Strain Injury?

Repetitive strain injury can also be known as repetitive motion injury or occupational overuse syndrome. You can get repetitive stress injury from constant repetition of tasks, sustaining a singular position or holding yourself in an awkward position, to name a few methods. Most people have heard of repetitive strain injury, although it may go by the name of carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow or tendinitis. One last fact for you now; I have repetitive strain injury, and I got it from constantly being on the computer.

You have what?

I have tendinitis in my forearms, and hypermobility in the joints of my wrists, and it has grown steadily worse over the past few years. This results in pain through my wrist joints and up my forearms whenever I do anything even vaguely arduous with my hands, like opening a push door, typing for long periods, lifting something heavy improperly, practicing the violin and opening jars.

I'm a computer science student. That means I spend hours a day, pretty much every day, typing away on my computer. To do this I sustain a singular, often awkward, position for the entirety of the time that I'm on my computer. I don't have a particularily ergonomic desk, I spend a lot of time coding on my laptop, and I have a netbook, which my physiotherapist says is one of the worst things in the world for my wrists. And speaking of physiotherapists, I devote 100$ and 40 minutes of time attending two physiotherapy appointments a week.

Why are you going on about this?

This isn't a bitch fest. This is me trying to draw attention to the importance of ergonomics for anyone who spends a large portion of their life on the computer. I hope to do this by describing specifically what is wrong with my wrists and what to do to avoid the same thing happening to you.

So, what is hypermobility?

Hypermobility is when the joints, muscles, tendons or ligaments are more fragile and lax than the norm. This results in the ability to move the affected joint in more extreme ways, and can also result in a greater vulnerability to injury and and a proneness to muscle fatigue.
My physiotherapist diagnosed me with hypermobility because of the flexibility of my wrists as well as the clunky movements and clicking noises that my wrist joints can make. I'm sure there is more that helped her come to this conclusion, but I'm no physiotherapist and can only relay to you what I understand about this.

The treatment for this, care of my physiotherapist, is taping. As you can see, my physiotherapist tapes my wrists in order to limit the level of movement that I can make with my wrists. Forcing my movements to conform with a more normal range of movement allows my wrists to heal and promote a more normal range of movement, which will in turn lower the likelihood of continued strain.

Having hypermobile wrists is probably an excellent reason for me to have developed repetitive strain injury in my wrists at such an early age. Already weakened joints are going to fail earlier than normal healthy ones. But anyone who causes themselves repetitive strain can develop complications that make the lifestyle they have chosen a painful and difficult one.

What is tendinitis and what does it have to do with typing so much?

Tendinitis is an inflammation or irritation of any tendon in your body. It causes pain just outside of a joint, and most commonly occurs somewhere between your shoulders to your wrists. A dull aching pain and tenderness where the tendon in question connects to a bone as the symptoms of tendinitis. Tendinitis is most often caused by the repetition of a motion, probably related to a person's job or a hobby they have.

In my case, my habit of holding my netbook in my hands in front of me to read causes me to constantly strain my forearms and wrists. Combining this with tensing of my forearms as I type and use the computer in a rather un-ergonomic arrangement and you have a recipe for tense tendons.

What are you doing about it?

To counteract this I have low impact exercises to perform every day to gently stretch and strengthen the tendons in my arms. But most importantly I have needed to completely overhaul the way I use my netbook, laptop and computers. Since I wouldn't stop using my computer as often as I do I need to take frequent breaks whenever I feel strained and I have needed to develop an ergonomic workplace. I cannot carry my netbook around to read, and if I need to use it while walking I rest it on my forearms. I need to be constantly aware of the possibility of straining my wrists, whether it be through carrying a bag or texting at a weird angle.

If I get pain I need to stop whatever task I am doing and rest. Working through the pain isn't a viable option, since the tissues cannot heal without resting. Ice for a short period of time and compression (through the use of an elastic wrap) can help relieve the pain.

In general, through a regimen of low impact exercise and easing into a regular but optimized day to day activity schedule will eventually ease the pain I feel and allow me to function normally, but it will take quite a while to undo all of the damage I've done to myself so far.

How can I be more ergonomic?

First of all, forget about that perfect posture thing. Sit comfortably, use the back of your chair for support, and recline slightly if that is comfortable for you. Sitting ram-rod straight for hours on end won't do you any good.

Don't hold your arms in a position they don't normally rest in. Use an arm rest if you want, and keep your forearms, wrists and hands level with one another and the keyboard.

Take this workspace assessment quiz to evaluate your current workspace. The site is a little stilted but the information is sound.

Consider getting an ergonomic keyboard. I haven't forked over the cash for one yet, but I'm just a poor student saving up for one. You can find all sorts of websites that offer examples of ergonomic supplies.

Use common sense, you'll know what doesn't feel right if you just take the time to think about it.

Lastly, please remember that I'm no doctor, and no physiotherapist. If I misrepresented anything my physiotherapist told me (although I don't think I have), that is my fault; If you blindly follow anything I've said, well, that is your fault. I'm passing on my understanding of knowledge told to me, and compiling it with information on the internet. Use your own mind and do your own research if you feel that this is an issue that could impact you.

1712

Interesting Information About Spam

Spam is the colloquial term for junk or unsolicited email, and we all get way too much of it. It is also, arguably, the most prevalent form of Internet crime. I say arguably because the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 legitimatized many different forms of email spam, but in January 2004 less than 1% of email spam complied with the CAN-SPAM Act.

I currently have 208 messages in my spam folder, and spam more than 30 days old is deleted, which means that I'm getting an average of 7 spam messages a day this month. Knowing that there is just so much of it made me curious as to what type of spam there is, what methods spammers use to try and dodge email filters and what has changed in regards to spam over time, and if I'm interested in this I'll bet someone else is too. So sit back and read all about the email that everyone loves to hate, spam.

Interesting Spam Statistics

14.5 billion spam messages a day are sent, and 45% of those are considered spam. Some estimates even put that percentage as high as 73%.

The vast majority of that obscene number of spam emails can be classified as pharmaceuticals. These emails promise the recipient everything from better skin or effortless weight loss to improved sexual prowess. These, along with a slew of replica watches and online casino ad's, makes up almost the entirety of your spam content.




Spam by Category

Phishing and Scamming Spam
Only 0.67% of spam is a scam or a phishing attempt, but that portion is a dangerous one. Phishing works, that's why people create these scams. One of the more recent and effective phishing scams was the email from "E-Bay" telling you about the "charge to your account".

Clicking on anything in the email will immediately download a virus onto your computer, and quite a few people click without thinking when they feel like their money is on the line. Scammers know that, which means it is essential that you keep your guard up whenever you receive a suspicious email, because as internet filtration improves so do the scammers.

A Choice Spam Filtration Avoidance Technique

Image Spam Graph

Image spam, as you can see in the above graph which is current to the week of my blog post, is a highly active but thankfully still fairly small portion of overall spam. Image spam is a method wherein the spam content is displayed as an image file rather than text. This is to prevent the effectiveness of text based filtration. This is interesting because as filtration improves so do the advances in image spam. There are some ad's that contain an animated image with the starting frame containing no text so that even through image analysis the spam cannot be sorted.

Fun With Spam

So, spam is complex and ofttimes dangerous, but mostly just damn annoying. There isn't much we can do about it though, spam is here to stay, so we might as well just get all the enjoyment and spamusement we can out of it.

1712

RFID Tags

RFID Tags, A Crash Course
RFID tags are coming up more and more in conversation these days, but until now I could honestly say that I had only the vaguest idea of how they work and what the actual privacy risks of RFID technology were, which is surprising since I've been in a fair number of privacy debates about them. I hope to both solidify my knowledge and rectify this for anyone who has found themselves in the same situation I was with this blog post.

So, what the heck is RFID?
Lets start off this little crash course in RFID technology by attaching some words to that acronym. RFID stands for Radio-Frequency IDentification. This is a very useful thing to know, because it also introduces the main concept behind RFID tags as a whole: Radio Waves. In the simplest terms, and really that is the best way to describe anything, RFID is a method of transmitting data about an object (animate or inanimate) using a unique serial number over radio waves. This is arguably better than bar-code technology because there is no need to see or even be relatively close to the RFID tag in order to read it.

What are the components of an RFID system?
I'm glad you asked! Rather than give you a big old boring description, just take a look at this picture. I've linked to the article it is from, but the picture was the only thing I looked at until my second pass through my relevant information on RFID tags.









What are the different types of RFID tags?
There are both active and passive RFID Tags, as well as a hybrid of the two, just to make things complicated. Active RFID has an internal power source (most likely a battery) that allows the RFID tag to both receive and generate signals to and from the RFID reader. Passive RFID tags reflect energy from the RFID reader and use that to push out a low energy response. In my opinion just knowing that there is a hybrid RFID tag will most likely put you far ahead of anyone you are discussing this with, and you can probably extrapolate why it is different from the name, but you can read more here if you want.




















Where would I encounter RFID technology?
It is quite possible that the information I give you on this will be aged by the time you read it, so I'll be vague in my description of potential uses of RFID so as not to age my blog prematurely, but the main use of RFID tags is tracking either a product or a person. You will find that all my examples are just building off of this core use:

• Manufacturing (Tracking work in progress)
• Retailing (Tracking merchandise, both shipping and theft prevention)
• Toll roads (Tracking cars and payments incurred)
• Security and access control (Tracking where people can and should be)

Now imagine if RFID tags were used for products you can purchase at, say, Wal-Mart, as is referenced in the following article. You would simply pick out what you want and leave, and the items would be automatically recorded and charged to your RFID enabled credit card. This would mean the death of the line, the beginning of the end of standing around waiting for the store to get around to taking your money.

Last potential scenario: Imagine being able to automatically set your Tim Horton's order before you get to the drive-thru, maybe using your RFID enabled smart phone. You just drive up, no waiting, and grab your order. Once you have it in hand your credit card is automatically charged. No fumbling in your cup holder for that quarter you know you put there, no awkward shifting to reach your wallet in your pocket, no hassle at all.

What's all this about privacy concerns?
Since RFID is designed to be tracked, privacy automatically becomes a major concern, in many cases with good reason. I will propose to you some scenarios, but I leave it to you to make your own conclusions, since I'm not even sure how I feel about it all yet.

If everything you buy has an RFID tag in it, let's say to prevent theft, who is to say that they stop being used when you purchase the item? Anonymity can be easily lost if many of your belongings have an individual identification number. Would this information be accessible to the police? The government? Would it be possible to put in a court order for records of the location of your belongings at a specific time?

Also, who is to say that you know about having an RFID tag on you at all? The technology has advanced to the point that RFID tags are so small as to be practically invisible, as they are comparable to a grain of sand in some cases. This opens the flood gates to being tracked against your will or knowledge by pretty much anyone with access to an RFID reader and tag.

Finally, remember the potential scenario suggested above; if your credit card information is flying through the air on radio waves how long would it be before someone learns how to take advantage of that?

Where can I go to read more?
If you wish to check your facts, which I highly recommend in general, you can take a look at How Stuff Works, which has an excellent and detailed article on RFID tags.

Another excellent stop in your quest for knowledge would be the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility. They also have an almost too extensive glossary which you might enjoy.

To read more about privacy issues you can take a look at this article from CNet News.

Remember to keep sharp and don't forget that everyone has a bias. Find your facts through a variety of sources and develop your own opinions.

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