Re: FAA to require transponders on all aircraft passengers

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 3:21 PM 8/3/96, David Lesher wrote:

>They are going to hang one of these on EVERY bag?
>
>At what per-unit cost?
>
>It's all the airlines can do to get barcode labels on each piece
>that geos by, much less even a credit-card-sized gadget. And how
>many will they lose???
>
>THEN think of the RFI problems.....

It turns out that I'm one of the early investors in a start-up company
developing a very similar product, albeit (we hope) with some technological
advantages. Lucky Green, for one, has met the principals in this company
and can confirm what I'm saying.

(I began working with them, and investing, several years ago. It was partly
the long-term implications of their ideas which triggered my proposal a few
years back: the "position escrow system." Under position escrow,
citizen-units would voluntarily escrow their positions for access by
authorized law enforcement officers, dietary compliance agents, social
workers, and other interested officials. The system is voluntary, as key
escrow is voluntary, in that it only applies when people leave their houses
and use the public streets; they are of course free not to leave their
houses, and hence not to voluntarily escrow their movements.)

I heard about the Micron-FAA deal on CNN, and went to the Micron Web site
for details. It's a spread-spectrum system, so it may well work in a
luggage environment (though perhaps not as well as the units planned by the
company I'm an investor in).

The "every bag" point is feasible, though I would assume conventional
luggage tags would work adequately. "Per-unit" costs could be low
enough....these units will be reused many times, after all.

The RFI problems are actually the least of the concerns, given the "code
space" technology which is possible. (That is, tens of thousands of
transponders can share the same RF spectrum in a local environment by
allocation of frequencies or, even better, by using code space
allocation...there are some close parallels with cryptography, of course,
as there are in communications technology and spread-spectrum technology in
general.)

Personally, I'm not convinced that the Micron-FAA deal with accomplish
much, but the authorities are rushing to "do something," so struggling
Micron may get some of the largesse.

(Besides, "bag escrow" will allow other agencies--such as DEA--to sniff
bags for traces of cocaine residue and then automatically issue arrest
orders for the citizen-unit associated with the bag. The surveillance state
needs technology like this.)

--Tim May

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