RFiD is coming!

So you want to carry around a card with you in your house? I'm sincerely asking, not arguing. I have not read all the lit yet but do you have any idea how involved it can be to set up RF ID zones that really work? Because you not only need to make sure your card is received from one zone but is NOT received from another one.

Let's say you want the lights in the bedroom to turn on when you walk into it. That means you don't want them to turn on when you are in the next room. Have fun and report back ...and buy LOTS of lead to line the walls in each room to separate your RF zones from one another.

Think about the amount of units what would be required using triangulation to accurately follow the floorplan of a house and that's ASSUMING the triangulation works perfectly (it doesn't). Don't get me wrong, it has its applications I'll be playing with it.

This is good news. I have been playing with a RFID dev kit and it shows some nice potential. For example it would be nice to carry around a webpad that knew what room it was in and would switch the menus to the appropriate controls for that room. Definately a boost in WAF.

[quote=QQQ]So you want to carry around a card with you in your house? I'm sincerely asking, not arguing. QUOTE]

He could always get one of these implanted under his skin. http://www.pet-id.net/

I'm kidding of course but it would work. I could just see me asking my wife to have that implanted for the sake of our lights. LOL

Supposedly it is working, at least in Peter's home...In that each reader is able to report level of intensity and thresholds can be set to determine proximity to the reader, triangulation shouldn't be difficult. The question of course is how accurate and consistent is the intensity reading. Garbage in = Garbage Out and we all know the inherent noise/traffic problems with RF based systems. An interesting prospect, though.

Hmmm... Maybe an RFID penile implant? Are we missing an obvious way to create economies of scale here by combining these two technologies?

[quote=NJ BILL T]

Ah heck, just a little prick when she is sleeping.....

isnt that what bill gates has in his house. the media you select follows you around.

Hey Gang,

The little RFID chips (like shown in the x-ray) are a different RFID technology than what iAutomate has. These are passive RFID transmitters similar to what you might use for access control in many comercial buildings which are usually in the shape of a credit card or keyfob. These only have a range of several inches unless you use a very large reader which can increase the range to several feet.

The iAutomate system uses an active RFID tag which has an internal battery and transmits a signal every .7 seconds and has a range up to 300ft from the reader. I've been using the system for almost 2yrs (worked with iAutomate on the original development of the products with HomeSeer).

Triangulation using this system isn't a reality although you can use individual readers and directional antennas in each room to track your location. These antennas can be embedded in walls or ceiling, but the cost of a reader & directional antenna for each room of the house will get expensive quickly!

We use RFID to basically tell the automation systems who's home, who's away and who just arrived or left. We don't carry tags on us while home, but I keep one in my wallet and Diane keeps one in her purse so they're always with us when we leave. We also have tags in all the vehicles and stuck on some other things too.

The beauty of the system is how "smart" it can make the automation systems and it really cuts down on having to interact with buttons, touchscreens, using VR, etc. When no ones home, the system automatically locks the doors, arms the security, adjusts the lights & HVAC, shuts off the TV, music, etc. All of this is done by simply walking out of the house.

When someone returns, the appropriate garage door will open depending on which car is arriving. It's open by the time we pull in the drive and the lights are on if it's dark so you never return to a dark home. A simple push opens the door and the alarm has already been disabled. Depending on who just walked in, we receive personal greetings and reminders over the whole-house audio and the house knows who's home so if I just arrived and Diane is gone, I walk in to my preferences for lighting, climate & music. If Diane is already home, her preferences remain and the greeting is much simpler only speaking reminders for me such as "make sure the trash is out". If Diane should happen to leave while I'm home, my preferences will take over automatically and then revert when she arrives again.

If someone returns after the house has been vacant, the greeting contains more information such as how many visitors (door bell rings) and phone calls were received while away and then prompts with any voice messages that were left which can be played back over the whole-house audio.

Back to the trash. You can detect if items are "here" or "there" quite reliably by checking signal strength. With tags on the trash and recycling containers, RFID knows if they are at the curb or beside the house on trash day. With this in place, I'll only receive my reminder to put it out if the system detects they're still by the house. I've also got a tag in the mailbox which tells us when the mail's delivered and tags on the bikes and kayaks provide theft alerts if they dissapear while we're not at home, and will open the garage door automatically when we ride up on the bikes.

Things like this also give the automation system more personality as the house will ask how your bike ride was, or if you saw any dolphins while kayaking, or if you enjoyed driving the sports car instead of the SUV that day. We've got a couple keyfob tags for guest which allow them easy access in/out of the house while visiting. This still ensuring that the alarm is active when no one is home and allows them access back in without knowing alarm codes, etc. This works well for house/pet sitters too, and alters some parameters while it knows we have guests present.

So anyway... iAutomate RFID can't easily tell you that you're in the Living Room instead of the Kitchen, but look at all the things it can do! It's easily my favorite part of the HA system and has really cut down on my reliance of the VR system and keypads, touchscreens, light switches, keys, garage door openers... you get the idea. So many things "just happen" now which to me is what the true meaning of "automation" really should be.

Whoa, this turned into a much longer post than I intended! I'm doing much more than mentioned here with RFID, but this will give you some ideas. There's a little bit of info on the Hardware page of my personal website if you want to take a look. It's linked below in the signature.

Cheers,
Paul

Paul,
Maybe I'm just paranoid but it seems like all that's required for full access is 'borrowing' your wallet or keytags. Or is there an unmentioned cross check upon arrival?

Hi Les,

No cross check, but it would be simple enough to enable the need for a button press or voice command within a certain amount of time after arrival.

The way I look at it, if I loose my wallet... I'm going to be more concerned about notifying the credit card companies! It's a simple enough process to disable the RFID tag from anywhere with internet access (can be done with just a couple mouse clicks) and now that I think about it, I could also create an event that would let me disable the tag(s) by calling and issuing a voice command or DTMF code.

If someone looses a keyfob tag, it's not likely that whoever finds it will know which house it goes to (not any different than real keys) and again, once I know the tag is missing it's easy to disable it.

The way I look at it, many people that have alarms don't arm them at all because of inconvienence or they often forget to arm them. With RFID I can always be certain that the house is locked up and the alarm is set when no one is home.

Cheers,
Paul

Paul,
Yes, I seen that benefit. Just was curious about the downsides. I don't know if it's still happening around here but for a while people would steal garage door openers and find the address in the car but that didn't disarm the alarm for them at least. Maybe less of an issue with more openers built into the car. No free lunch I guess. Something for me to think about.
Thanks,

I have the same concerns. Disarming based on the presense of an RFID tag just doesn't seem safe. I like the idea of arming based on absence, but disarming on presence without some code confirmation seems asking for trouble.

Well we know who wears the pants in your house....

Paul, how reliable is the "arm on leaving" function? What is the range? Will your lights blink once you've left so you know that it worked?

Second question - how does the RFID in the mailbox tell you that you have mail? I would think a contact closure would work as well (count how many times it opened today).

Hmm, sensing when I bring the motorcycle home... Very cool - that's always been annoying to have to get off and enter the code, though I suppose I could rig up a garage door opener that I can reach with my hand, but that would be so last millenium.

You could always split the difference and do something like have it sense that you are present, and then have a 'logon' screen which just displays a set of small images of different things. Picking the right one for one of the people sensed now home will disarm. Picking any other will fail and set off the alarm.

So you could have a disarm screen still, but have it keyed to the people at home and have it be very quick and easy to do, and something that even someone who stole your RFID tag would never be able to guess (unless they'd been there before and say you make that selection.)

Robert & Les,

That's the beauty of it... use the technology as you see fit. In my case, I don't feel that it's an issue to have the system automatically disarm.

I haven't installed RFID yet for clients, but expect that I'll start this year. I'm sure that each installation will bring new concerns and challenges and will have to be configured appropriately.

Cheers,
Paul

Hi Tim,

It's bee so reliable that I haven't had any "checks" in place since the first few months of installation. Initially I had the system email my Blackberry whenever RFID armed/disarmed the system so I could keep an eye out for false events.

I'm completely confident allowing RFID to arm/disarm the security, lock/unlock the doors and even have control over opening & closing the garage door! Not a single false trigger after getting the initial kinks worked out and that been ~18 months or so.

Mailbox - We've got a metal mailbox so I mounted a tag on the inside of the door. When the mailbox is closed, the metal sheilds the signal so the tag is "absent" from the readers. When the mailman opens the mailbox, the tag swings out, gets picked up by a reader and trigers the "mail is here" actions. In out case, the mailbox is built into a courtyard wall and opens from both ends (double sided) so the act of checking the mail or putting main in doesn't trigger the event. Some of the tage models also have motion sensing, so this could be used as well (if you have a plasic mailbox for instance).

Cheers,
Paul

Tim,

Yes, having the garage door automatically open when you roll up on a motorcycle or bicycle is a really nice feature. Less stumbling around in cleats on tired legs when you ride up on the road bike and less fumbling around with gloves, jacket, helmet, kickstand, etc. when you ride up on the motorbike.

I'm pedal power only on 2-wheels now, but rode street bikes for a number of years. One consideration is that the ignition system on most motorcycles can put out a lot of electrical noise. I was successful getting one of the covert tags to work reliably on a Ducati but it took some trial and error to get good placement. The tag ended up being placed really far back under the seat cowl.

Cheers,
Paul

Dean,

Yes... lots of neat ways that you could work a fail-safe into the system. I've been giving it a little more thought because of this thread and chewing on some different ideas that we may be able to implement for customers.

Could be interaction with a touch screen as you mention, or something as simple as turning on a specific light switch. Diane & I almost always go to the master bedroom closet when we return and drop off keys, wallet, purse, etc. Many people are creatures of habit like this, so it's posible even the action of activating motion sensors in a specific order (Front Entry, Master Bedroom Hall, Master Closet) could trigger the disam. On the flip... taking an alternate path into the house (one you would normally never take) could automatically activate a panic alarm.

Lots to think about... just a matter of how intricate you want to get and how many different occupants there are in the house to consider.

Cheers,
Paul

I learned a security strategy which was mentioned in a computer context, but has stuck in my mind. I have found it universally applicable.

"Security should combine something you /have/ with something you /know/"

I don't take credit for the phrase, but it makes sense to me.

eg a key and an alarm code; an fob and an alarm code.

The only new twist on this is fingerprint recognition, which would seem to make the phrase moot, unless you are worried about somebody cutting your fingers off without you noticing.

Tim

Good point. I too would lean towards the disarm code regardless.

As you said, depends on your situation. If you end up not using your alarm at all because you get tired of disarming it, I suppose any solution is better than not arming the system-- in that case maybe even the rfid tag would be the best solution.

My personal solution would be fingerprint with disarm code.

Tim

Finger print readers have durress 'codes'. The 'code' is authenticating with a duress finger. Most finger print readers also know about temperature, so morbid idea's won't work easily. Not to say they don't have problems, but they are pretty good and unless you are a carpenter it's tough to forget your fingers somewhere.

Chuck