RFID Jewellery Coming To A Smart Grid Near You!
Designed with input from Cambridge-based 'boutique' jeweller Cellini, CSR's techno-pendants are prototypes intended to demonstrate how the company's CSR1012 Bluetooth Smart platform can be used. The CSR1012 is a tiny PCB-based platform that uses an on-chip switched mode power supply operating between 1.8V and 4.3V, which allows it to be powered by compact lithium-polymer batteries.
We have been covering the progression of the smart grid since the smart meters where first rolled out in Ontario. In that time I have watched the system go from smart phones, to smart meters, then to smart appliances. Without missing a beat smart glasses and contact lenses followed, and then to smart watches.
Now, in an even bolder step. Smart jewellery is being released to the market.
Bluetooth Smart jewellery
Designed with input from Cambridge-based ’boutique’ jeweller Cellini, CSR’s techno-pendants are prototypes intended to demonstrate how the company’s CSR1012 Bluetooth Smart platform can be used. The CSR1012 is a tiny PCB-based platform that uses an on-chip switched mode power supply operating between 1.8V and 4.3V, which allows it to be powered by compact lithium-polymer batteries.
Source: zdnet.com
Cuff’s smart jewellery aims for fashion first
Wearable technology that goes beyond watches and glasses, CuffLinc is a module that can be swapped between bracelets and necklaces.
Wearable technology is still very much in its infancy, and one of the main criticisms against it is that, well, it looks more technological than wearable. A San Francisco-based jewellery company called Cuff aims to change that.
Cuff will make pendants, bracelets and keychains that are designed just as much with form in mind as function. These are items, the company says, that you’ll want to wear not just because they are technologically smart, but because they make you look great.
Source: pcauthority.com
Al of these smart gadgets have appeal. The ability to record video/audio without having to pull out a phone or camera, check emails or text messages without having to pull out a phone or tablet. They also have great appeal for emergency situations.
But like all technologies, these gadgets are a double edged sword. They all possess the ability to be used for good or bad, so what is some of the negative aspects in this smart technology?
The smart grid itself can be used for surveillance, this has been highlighted in recent years with several stories in the news.
CIA Chief: We’ll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher
Petraeus mused about the emergence of an “Internet of Things” — that is, wired devices — at a summit for In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm. “‘Transformational’ is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies,” Petraeus enthused, “particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft.”
All those new online devices are a treasure trove of data if you’re a “person of interest” to the spy community. Once upon a time, spies had to place a bug in your chandelier to hear your conversation. With the rise of the “smart home,”
wired.com
Is your TV spying on YOU? It sounds like science fiction but many new TVs can watch you - telling advertisers your favourite shows or even filming you on the sofa. And there’s no off switch!
You are sitting in bed in your pyjamas, drinking a cup of cocoa. A loved one lies next to you, watching late-night television. Pillow talk is exchanged. An alarm clock is set. Eventually the lights are turned out.
Earlier, you sat on the living-room sofa eating supper, before loading the dishwasher and heading upstairs.
You have, in other words, just enjoyed a perfectly normal night, in a perfectly normal home. The curtains are drawn, the central heating turned up. It’s cosy, relaxing and, above all, completely private. Or so you thought.
The truth turns out to be quite the opposite. For on the other side of the world, people you didn’t know existed are keeping a beady eye on your every move.
These characters can see what clothes you have been wearing and what food you’ve eaten. They heard every word you said, and logged every TV show you watched. Some are criminals, others work for major corporations. And now they know your most intimate secrets.
It may sound like a plot summary for a futuristic science-fiction movie. But real-life versions of this Orwellian scenario are being played out every day in towns and cities across the globe — and in most cases the victims have no idea.
At fault is a common electronic device invented nearly a century ago and found in almost every modern household: the domestic television set.
Put simply, our TVs have started spying on us.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
Governments and Corporations are already exploiting the smart grid, and have shown that it truly is an Orwellian nightmare come true! Not only is information being sent in real time, here in Ontario. All data collected in the smart grid is stored in a central database.
People are buying these products and accepting the fact that they could or will be spied on through them!
I have to ask, is the inconvenience of taking a phone out of your pocket so large, that you will accept wearing a device that has the ability to spy on everything that you do?
