A Billion Little Pieces: RFID and Infrastructures of Identification

Jordan Frith

  • 出版商: MIT
  • 出版日期: 2019-03-19
  • 售價: $1,260
  • 貴賓價: 9.8$1,235
  • 語言: 英文
  • 頁數: 336
  • 裝訂: Hardcover
  • ISBN: 0262039753
  • ISBN-13: 9780262039758
  • 相關分類: RFID
  • 立即出貨(限量) (庫存=2)

商品描述

How RFID, a ubiquitous but often invisible mobile technology, identifies tens of billions of objects as they move through the world.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is ubiquitous but often invisible, a mobile technology used by more people more often than any flashy smartphone app. RFID systems use radio waves to communicate identifying information, transmitting data from a tag that carries data to a reader that accesses the data. RFID tags can be found in credit cards, passports, key fobs, car windshields, subway passes, consumer electronics, tunnel walls, and even human and animal bodies―identifying tens of billions of objects as they move through the world. In this book, Jordan Frith looks at RFID technology and its social impact, bringing into focus a technology that was designed not to be noticed.

RFID, with its ability to collect unique information about almost any material object, has been hyped as the most important identification technology since the bar code, the linchpin of the Internet of Things―and also seen (by some evangelical Christians) as a harbinger of the end times. Frith views RFID as an infrastructure of identification that simultaneously functions as an infrastructure of communication. He uses RFID to examine such larger issues as big data, privacy, and surveillance, giving specificity to debates about societal trends.

Frith describes how RFID can monitor hand washing in hospitals, change supply chain logistics, communicate wine vintages, and identify rescued pets. He offers an accessible explanation of the technology, looks at privacy concerns, and pushes back against alarmist accounts that exaggerate RFID's capabilities. The increasingly granular practices of identification enabled by RFID and other identification technologies, Frith argues, have become essential to the working of contemporary networks, reshaping the ways we use information.

商品描述(中文翻譯)

RFID(無線射頻識別)是一種無所不在但常常看不見的移動技術,比任何華麗的智慧型手機應用程式更被更多人更頻繁地使用。RFID系統使用無線電波來傳遞識別資訊,從攜帶資料的標籤傳輸資料到讀取器以存取資料。RFID標籤可以在信用卡、護照、鑰匙扣、汽車擋風玻璃、地鐵通行證、消費電子產品、隧道牆壁,甚至人體和動物身上找到,當它們在世界中移動時識別數十億個物體。在這本書中,喬丹·弗里斯(Jordan Frith)探討了RFID技術及其社會影響,將一個旨在不被注意到的技術帶入焦點。

RFID能夠收集關於幾乎任何物質物體的獨特資訊,被吹捧為自條碼以來最重要的識別技術,是物聯網的關鍵,也被一些福音派基督徒視為世界末日的預兆。弗里斯將RFID視為一種同時兼具識別和通訊功能的基礎設施。他利用RFID來探討大數據、隱私和監控等更大的問題,具體闡述了有關社會趨勢的辯論。

弗里斯描述了RFID如何監測醫院的洗手情況、改變供應鏈物流、傳遞葡萄酒年份和識別獲救的寵物。他提供了對這項技術的易於理解的解釋,探討了隱私問題,並反駁了誇大RFID能力的警報性描述。弗里斯認為,RFID和其他識別技術所實現的越來越精細的識別實踐已經成為當代網絡運作的重要組成部分,重塑了我們使用資訊的方式。

作者簡介

Jordan Frith is Associate Professor in the Department of Technical Communication at the University of North Texas.

作者簡介(中文翻譯)

Jordan Frith 是北德克薩斯大學技術傳播系的副教授。