Thread: RFID gotcha down? Never fear!

I read last year that some guys at MIT decided to test the foil hat idea (gotta spend that grant money somehow). They discovered that while the hats will block or attenuate most EMR, they have no effect on the frequencies that actually affect the human nervous system. Be very afraid.

RFID got you down? Tazer that card! High power Cattle prods will work in a pinch .

disclaimer:
I know nothing about RFID rules, regulations and laws. This "suggestion" is intended for humor purposes only. The fact that errant electricity will kill any small voltage electronic transmission device is purely coincidental to my joking

Originally Posted by catbone

I read last year that some guys at MIT decided to test the foil hat idea (gotta spend that grant money somehow). They discovered that while the hats will block or attenuate most EMR, they have no effect on the frequencies that actually affect the human nervous system. Be very afraid.

In the interest of full disclosure of information, here's the link:
http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/

And, here's their results & conclusion:
Results

For all helmets, we noticed a 30 db amplification at 2.6 Ghz and a 20 db amplification at 1.2 Ghz, regardless of the position of the antenna on the cranium. In addition, all helmets exhibited a marked 20 db attenuation at around 1.5 Ghz, with no significant attenuation beyond 10 db anywhere else.

Conclusion

The helmets amplify frequency bands that coincide with those allocated to the US government between 1.2 Ghz and 1.4 Ghz. According to the FCC, These bands are supposedly reserved for ''radio location'' (ie, GPS), and other communications with satellites (see, for example, [3]). The 2.6 Ghz band coincides with mobile phone technology. Though not affiliated by government, these bands are at the hands of multinational corporations.

It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the Government, possibly with the involvement of the FCC. We hope this report will encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these shortcomings.

End of report

That's all I know.

Dale