Final Week 4: RFID Surveillance

In the not so distant future we will be living in a world where everything that we see, everything we hear, and everything we experience can and will be recorded for our posterity. Our daily lives will be archived and saved, available on the internet for download, analysis, and sharing. What's more, we will be doing it to ourselves. This will not be a world of a single “Big Brother” watching over you (although that still may very well exist), rather it will be a world overwhelmed by millions of cameras and recording devices in the hands of millions of Little Brothers and Sisters. We will willingly and happily carry around tools of our own transparency. In this world constant surveillance is done by the citizens. It is the emergent result of millions of independent rational decisions--a bottom up version of the constantly watched society.

The art of surveillance emerged from the realm of military practice as part of a larger discipline system based on observation. Architectural constructs were established in order to study and control human beings in closed environments during peacetime. Michel Foucault stated that, "the camp was to the rather shameful art of surveillance what the dark room was to the great science of optics." Unlike photography, which developed through theory and experimentation of the physical behavior of light, surveillance implemented a precise use of light in controlled environments to observe and analyze individuals. These "behavioral microscopes" began with the military camp and later calcified into more permanent structures such as schools and prisons. Foucault invoked one prison in particular, called the Panopticon, to describe these behavioral microscopes that he argued represented modern "disciplinary" societies at large. The theory was based on the assumption that regardless of whether individuals were being watched, instillating in them the fear that at any time they could potentially be monitored, would cause them to behave at all times.

Not only was there a need to control soldiers during peacetime, but soon military forces began to apply surveillance techniques to studying the behavior of enemies during wartime. Beginning in the eighteen century with the use of balloons to provide sketch artists with aerial views of the battlefield, through World War I with the proliferation of airplanes, photographic cameras, and techniques for comparative analysis, and intensifying even further in World War II when satellite and imaging devices began to break away from the traditional confinement to the optical spectrum. Realizing that visible light only constituted a small portion of the spectrum, X-Ray machines were now able to image objects and spaces based on their internal structure and at the opposite end of the spectrum, radio waves were capable of reaching wavelengths up to one kilometer making it possible to image distant objects.

Devices and tactics developed during wartime have once again begun to influence the art of surveillance as applied in peacetime. Manuel DeLanda has called this, the shift from the old Panopticon model to a wider "Panspectron." The camera phones in our pockets represent the beginning of a massive social transformation that could be at least as big as the ones triggered by television and computers. Another recent neologism used to describe this notion of individual citizens keeping a technological eye on the world has been referred to as "sousveillance," meaning "watching from below"--in comparison to "surveillance" meaning "watching from above." Proponents of the movement see it as an equalizer, making it possible for individual citizens to keep tabs on those in charge. Recent events such as Abu Ghraib have demonstrated the enormous power of anyone, anywhere with a digital camera and an internet connection. Perhaps enough power to alter the course of a war or shake the policies of the most powerful nation on earth. Since governments cannot control information as easily as products or property, digital devices and network connections allow individuals to bypass chains of command and control. In a sense it is a profound democratization of the media. Videophones coupled with higher bandwidth networks will radically transform activism. Today we are familiar with the visual manipulation techniques of Photoshop and often question the veracity of digital photos. Though it may be easy to alter images from a single camera, when you have images from dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of digital cameras in the hands of citizen witnesses it become much more challenging to try and hide the truth by reshaping our visual records.

As the technology progresses, not only will politics and activism be transformed, but so will our social discourse and personal relationships. As we become more accustomed to these tools that make it possible to retain and share fleeting or unexpected moments with perfect clarity, the more they will become integrated in our everyday lives and interactions. As soon as we accept these tools as extensions of ourselves the less we will want to have them restricted. It's a world where everything can be witnessed with perfect recall. It is a world where telling the truth is easy because lying is nearly impossible. We cannot decide to take this technological path nor can we simply decide to reject it. It will likely emerge as more and more of the pieces fall into place and a multitude of tools converge with compelling utilities.

Mobile phones and digital cameras are highly intelligent machines, however. They are often expensive and attached to a specific moment in time—new models constantly replacing older ones. But the same kind of upgrade is also happening to ordinary “dumb” objects. Radio frequency identification (RDID) tags are making this transformation possible. The new technology, which is rapidly gaining popularity in many fields (from medical practice to product manufacturing), is capable of transforming all products, animals, and even humans into objects, allowing them to be catalogued, searchable and locatable in space and time. Author Bruce Sterling defines this new breed of networked objects as a “spime” (“because it is tracked precisely in space and time”). A book will always remain a book, but when it is attached to a database the information associated with these items becomes ever richer and more up-to-date. “In this way, information technology is laying bare the reality that underlies all manufactured objects. In a world of spimes, even the simplest objects - furniture, cutlery, power tools - will be little more than material billboards for a vast, interactive, postindustrial support system.” Today the average mobile phone is exponentially more powerful and less expensive than computers a decade ago that took up the space of entire buildings. As computers continue to decrease in size as they increase in strength, we will watch the digital world migrate into the physical landscape. What fits in our pocket today, will likely fit in a blood cell within the next few years.

As most new technology that stands poised to redefine our reality, RFID tags imply series problems as well as major benefits. Not the least of which is its potential as a tool for surveillance. This project seeks to explore the uses and applications of RFID technology and its implications as such a tool. It will hypothesize as to how RFID technology could be applied for better or worse to everyday environments and situations and how that application may affect personal privacy. The project consists of several objects each with an embedded RFID tag. These objects will represent certain identity traits that may be conveyed about the individual in possession of them. Participants will be asked to select any or all of the objects that they feel represent them. They will walk past a scanner (doorways are obvious places where individuals may be tracked). Based on the objects the person is carrying or wearing the information will be interpreted to make assumptions about the individual’s identity. Since the infrastructure is not in place, this project will act as a social experiment to simulate how RFID technology could be used to identify individuals, their preferences, and even constructing associations over time.

Initially, surveillance inferred suspicion, but in a society where everything and everyone is constantly being tracked, surveillance takes on a different meaning. It is a world where telling the truth is easy because lying is hard. RFID technology will make products more efficient, desirable, and user –and- environment friendly while raising serious cultural and ethical questions in the process. In an advanced capitalist society in which the relationships between people become relationships between objects, perhaps enriching the nature of commodities will in turn enhance our own relationships. We are willing to adopt technologies that threaten our personal privacy when they are also convenient. These new sousveillance tools simultaneously offer exhilarations possibilities for how we see ourselves in relationship to one another and to the world. We are not being deceived; on the contrary we are making conscious decisions and are perfectly aware of what is at stake. As the biological imperative of living things becomes increasingly entwined with the digital revolution, society finds itself on the verge of one of the most transforming periods in history. Fundamental idea of what it means to be human will be both challenged and improved. The social and philosophical ramifications will be profound and the threats they pose will be considerable. It is impossible to predict the future while negating the present. Answers are always provisional but still must be attempted. Understanding and experimenting with RFID technology is the one way to allay fears and educate oneself about what lies ahead.

Michel Foucault. Discipline and Punish. (New York: Vintage Books, 1979). Page 172.
DeLanda, Manuel. War In The Age of Intelligent Machines. (New York: Zone Books, 1991). Page 205.
Sterling, Bruce. “Dumbing Down Smart Objects.” WIRED. October 2004

THE RFID READER


THE TAGGED OBJECTS

TAG 1. CD
TAG 2. Watch
TAG 3. Woman's shirt
TAG 4. Make up
TAG 5. New York Magazine

IF...
1 and 2 = you are probably an affluent male, age 18-27
1 and 3 = you are probably a petite female, age 18-27
1 and 4 = you are probably a female with dark complexion, age 18-27
1 and 5 = you are probably a male, age 18-27, living in New York City
2 and 3 = you are probably an affluent, petite female
2 and 4 = you are probably an affluent female with dark complexion
2 and 5 = you are probably an affluent male living in New York City
3 and 4 = you are probably a petit female with dark complexion
3 and 5 = you are probably a petit female living in New York City
4 and 5 = you are probably a female with dark complexion, living in New York City

Final Week 3: RFID Surveillance

I ordered a Parallax RFID scanner and several tags. I hooked up the scanner to the Arduino and everything seems to be running correctly.


Processing is also reading the RFID tag information and writing it. I am getting five different messages from scanning the same tag five times.


The next step is to assign different tags to produce different action. To do this tags have to be saved to the EEPROM library...

Final Week 2: RFID Surveillance

Radio frequency identification "tags" are objects capable of being embedded in products, animals, and humans for purposes of identification and tracking. Most RFID tags contain at least two parts. One is an integrated circuit for storing and processing information. The second is an antenna for receiving and transmitting the signal. There are generally two types of RFID tags: active RFID tags, which contain a battery and thus can transmit its signal autonomously, and passive RFID tags, which have no battery and require an external source to initiate signal transmission.



RFID technology is a potential tool for surveillance for several reasons, the least of which are its ability to be read at further distance than bar codes. Nor do they require a direct line of sight. RFID tags are also essentially invisible to people.

This project seeks to explore the uses and applications of RFID technology and its implications as a tool for surveillance. It will explore how RFID technology could be applied for better or worse to everyday environments and situations and how that application may affect personal privacy.

The project will consist of several objects each with an embedded RFID tag. These objects will represent certain identity traits that may be conveyed about the individual in possession of them. Participants will be asked to select any or all of the object that they feel represent them. They will then walk through a door (doorways are obvious places where individuals may be tracked) and past an RFID scanner. Based on the objects the person is carrying or wearing the information will be interpreted to make assumptions about the individuals identity.

Surveillance has typically inferred suspicion, but in a society where everything and everyone is constantly being tracked surveillance takes on a different meaning.

A similar attempt at RFID surveillance experimentation:
The Sorting Door
A related article

Final Week 1: Observation

In the not so distant future we will be living in a world where everything that we see, everything we hear, and everything we experience can and will be recorded. Our daily lives will be archived and saved, available on the internet for recollection, analysis, and sharing. What's more, we will be doing it to ourselves. This will not be a world of a single governmental Big Brother watching over you (although that still may very well exist), rather it will be a world overwhelmed by millions of cameras and recording devices in the hands of millions of Little Brothers and Sisters. We will willingly and happily carry around tools of our own transparency. In this world constant surveillance is done by the citizens. It is the emergent result of millions of independent rational decisions--a bottom up version of the constantly watched society.

The camera phones in our pockets represent the beginning of a massive social transformation that could be at least as big as the ones triggered by television and computers. This notion of individual citizens keeping a technological eye on the world has been referred to as "sousveillance," a neologism meaning "watching from below"--in comparison to "surveillance" meaning "watching from above." Proponents of the movement see it as an equalizer, making it possible for individual citizens to keep tabs on those in charge.Recent events such as Abu Ghraib have demonstrated the enormous power of anyone, anywhere with a digital camera and a network. Perhaps enough power to alter the course of a war or shake the policies of the most powerful nation on earth. Since governments cannot control information as easily as products or property, digital devices and network connections allow individuals to bypass chains of command and control. It is a profound democratization of the media.

As the technology progresses, not only will politics and activism be transformed, but so will our social discourse and personal relationships. As we become more accustomed to these tools that make it possible to retain and share fleeting or unexpected moments with perfect clarity, the more they will become integrated in our everyday lives and interactions. As soon as we except these tools as extensions of ourselves the less we will want to have them restricted. It's a world where everything can be witnessed with perfect recall. Ironically, it is a world where telling the truth is easy because lying is hard. We cannot decide to take this technological path nor can we simply decide to reject it. It will likely emerge as more more of the pieces fall into place and a multitude of tools converge with compelling utilities.

I would like to design my final project around this concept. In light of the classes objective-physical computing, this project will take the form of a built installation rather than a wireless application... probably. I am considering using: camera phones (the first camera phone on the market was a Sharp J-SH04), CMU cams, RFID tags, etc.

Here are some related links:
Art of Surveillance course taught by Tiffany Holmes
Sousveillance Culture course at ITP
The Rise of the Participatory Panopticon by Jamais Cascio
Wired Magazine article on location awareness
Rhizome search results for "Surveillance"

Lab 7: H-bridge

Pretty straight forward.

Midterm

This project explores the increasing creative uses of (not so) low cost sensing and computation technologies. It is inspired by living organisms and their ability to express territoriality.

The project takes the form of a geodesic dome. There are 52 LEDs dispersed across the shell that flicker randomly until the nearby area surrounding the shell is encroached on. Within a proximity of roughly 8 inches, the LEDs switch to a stable state and begin to grow brighter as the surrounding area continues to be breached. Also within this close proximity, a second shield shell made of plexiglass panels begin to contract.


The project came together as we moved along. Materials were constantly being reconsidered and readjusted. The first step in realizing this piece was to determine the size and shape. We were then able to unfold the geodesic dome into individual faces so that they could be laser cut. Spaces were specified for the LEDs and sensors in the cut files


We then constructed the inner dome, which was made of MDF board, and would act as both a support system for the outer panels and a way to encase the electronics


We soldered the LEDs and begin inserting them into the alloted spaces on the dome. We made a LED schematic to keep track of all the lights and there corresponding hexagonal faces so that they could be isolated and controlled by individual sensors.


We attached the plexiglass pieces to the inner dome with strips of aluminum that were folded over to provide a spring quality when the faces contracted.


It was then time to do a mock up of the circuit with the TLC chips, IR sensors, and servo motors. The control was divided among 2 Arduinos.


A base was built to hold the 5 servo motors which were then attached to string that was tied to the individual plexiglass pieces. Each face (6 individual pieces / six pieces of string) was attached to one servo. All the wires were placed inside the dome and the servo base was attached to the bottom.

Lab 4: Servo Motor

Lab 3: Electronics

Lab 2: Analog In

The first setup consisted of a potentiometer being used to control the brightness of an LED



The potentiometer was then replaced with a photocell



Lastly, all the components were combined into a self contained unit which acts as an automatic candle. The LED grows brighter as the light in the room (amount of light received by the photocell) decreases.

Observation: My Technologic Life

In order to observe the multitude of electronic and technologic devices that have infiltrated my daily life (and the life of many others) I documented the first 60 minutes of my morning routine. Some of my interactions where more conscious than others, but the general conclusion is that new technologies continue to define and re define our relationship to the world and to each other. It is important to take an active interest in the implications of emerging technologies and how they affect us emotionally, physically, and culturally.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3 2009 | 9:30 - 10:30 AM

I was awakened by my alarm, which is a feature of my iPhone. I touched the screen to disable it. Although the iphone displays the time, I still proceeded to look at the digital clock sitting on the table beside my bed. I got out of bed and continued to my bathroom where I first turned on the overhead lighting switches (2) then brushed my teeth with my electric toothbrush and showered. My next task was turning on the coffee machine and opening the refrigerator to retrieve the milk. I walked back to my bedroom, switched on one more overhead light switch, turned on my computer to check email and read the news. I decided to play music from my living room speakers via my wireless network. All my music is stored on an external hardrive. I got dressed gathered my materials for the day, including headphones, a digital camera,my iPhone, and my computer. I switched off all the lights in my apartment and headed out the door toward the elevator at the end of the hall. Pressed the button on the outside of the elevator to signal it and pressed the button for street level to take me downstairs. I put on my headphones which connected to my iPhone (also my music player) and walked to the subway station. I swiped my metro card through the electric turnstile and boarded the subway car. I exited the subway, passing once again through the turnstile, on my way to the bank. To enter the the bank door I needed to swipe my bank card. I entered, approached the ATM inserted my bank card. The screen prompted me to use the keypad to enter my PIN number and desired withdraw amount. Once the machine had dispensed my money I used the key pad to end the transaction and return my card.

Lab 1: Setting Up A Breadboard / First Arduino Program

with Milena Selkirk

We set up our audrino and breadboard and LEDs and created a switch made of two exposed wires, but our yellow LED was not working.


After checking the placement of everything, we were pretty sure all the wires and resistors were inserted correctly so we took our voltage reader to test where the problem was. Why were we not getting electricity from the audrino? Was there a problem with the breadboard? Was the yellow LED just blown? The voltage meter told us that we were getting 5v of electricity on the beginning of the circuit.


Then we moved the power and the ground from the bottom rail of the breadboard to the top rail, inserted them in row 1 and row 2. The yellow LED was still not lighting up.


So we tested if there was voltage at the beginning of the yellow LED's resistor and there was. We pulled out the resistor and closed the switch for a short second (to test it) and the yellow LED worked. So we knew we had a resistor problem and inserted a different one (a 470 ohm) and it worked! We also moved the switch power end to rail 5 and the ground end was vertical in row 6.