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
dmandl@panix.com
http://wfmu.org/~davem

dmandl@panix.com writes:
 >      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

There's a press release at the DalSemi site that describes the
technology in more detail. They embed Touch Memory chips in other
items too, as you'll see if you follow the links.

http://www.dalsemi.com/News_Center/Press_Releases/1995/ring.html

The various chips they supply are as interesting as the carriers:
simple serial numbers in ROM, or the 64k NVRAM mentioned in the
article, or write-once PROMs, or versions that require passwords
(using unspecified decryption), or versions that block access after a
certain date, time, or number of accesses have been achieved.

Fascinating bit of technology. It even has crypto relevance!

nathan