OpenTag : privacy control methods in RFID

Abstract

The work documented in this thesis is part of the OpenTag project, which has the goal of designing and developing a flexible and more powerful RFID system to meet the needs of the approaching ubiquitous tagging of everyday items. The focus of this thesis is on methods to improve privacy control in item level RFID tags. Several methods for the prevention of unwanted identification and tracking of tagged items are explored in the context of item level tags, which are greatly limited in size, cost, and computational power. A subset of the methods are implemented in RFID reader-side software and in an RFID Tag Emulator that mimics the behavior of an RFID tag while being suitable for time and cost efficient prototyping.