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Decoder ring

     High-Tech Company Goes Back to the Future with Decoder Rings
The Stuff of Cereal Box-Tops Becomes Real Repository of Data and Computer ID

			   By Carlos Tejeda
	      Staff Reporter of the Wall Street Journal

Once, the only way to get a decoder ring was to carve up cereal
box-tops or comic-book covers.

Now Dallas Semiconductor Corp. is creating its own high-tech version of 
the "decoder" ring.  Although this one doesn't break any codes, it can 
unlock some doors of information.  It consists of a 64000-bit microchip, 
embedded in a silver ring made by class-rings titan Jostens Inc., of 
Minneapolis.

The rings can be implanted with a replica of a driver's license, 
credit-card numbers and even a digitized photograph.  Company officials 
say they hope the ring's data-carrying capability will help bring 
personal information literally to one's fingertips.

"My wallet's stuffed with a dozen different plastic cards," said Hal 
Kurkowski, Dallas Semiconductor's group manager for auto-identification 
products.  "It's an awful mess.  You could put all that and more into the 
ring and not have a four-inch-thick wallet."

The ring is triggered when the metal piece at the head of the ring comes 
in contact with a data reader.  To prevent theft, the ring can be 
formated so that it only can be used in conjunc tion with a password, Mr. 
Kurkowski said.

The technology already is being used at Dallas Semiconductor's 
headquarters, as something of a company ID card, said Syd Coppersmith, 
director of public relations.

"I use it to get into my office, and it records who I am and when I went 
in," she said.  "There's a reader on my PC, and I use it to get into my 
files."

The rings cost about $60 each, while readers that can be plugged into a 
computer can be purchased for about $80.

Ms. Coppersmith said several security companies already have the 
technology to install such readers for their clients.  She said the 
system also has been tested commercially at a warehoiuse, where employees 
used the ring to record inventory changes.

--
Dave Mandl
[email protected]
http://wfmu.org/~davem