Darby
Timekeeper
Re: o
TTX,
Indeed. The original technology was developed by Amtech in the early 1980's. Not "American Technologies" but Animal Management Technologies, which was a Ross Perot holding. The original USDA research grant was to develop an ear chip for dairy cattle that ID'ed the animal and took their temperature while they were walking to the milking pens. If the temp was within normal values the gate opened toward the milking pens; if not the gate opened the other way toward the medical isolation pens.
The USDA abandoned the technology and Amtech bought it up. Instead of using it for animals they developed it for real-time shipping container tracking for railroads. A much larger tag was placed on shipping containers. As the train rolled past the detectors the container flashed it's ID, the dectctor flashed its ID and the railway, shipper and receiver could track the cargo IRT.
The other product that Amtech developed use was automated toll collection on busy tollways. Instead of stopping and tossing change at the basket you prepay for a card (about the size of a credit card but 1/4" thich), place the card on your dashboard or in the glove box and drive through the toll plazas' special lanes. A magnetic ground loop detects the vehicle and turns on a transmitter. The RF power of the beam is sufficient to power up the chip. The chip transmitts the ID and the user's account is debited forthe toll charge. A second mag detector opens the out-bound toll gate. I worked a 1 year contract in Mexico as an EE for Amtech-CAPUFE (the Mexican federal toll highway and toll bridge authority) installing the systems in CAPUFE's toll plazas in every state except Quintana Roo and Baja (30 states plus the capitol Cd. Mexico, DF). Lot's of really cheap motels...but I had a great apartment on Calle Londres, Mexico City in La Zona Rosa district...when I could actually get back to Mexico City). I had to have constant security with me on that job. The Mexican toll system collects billions of dollars annually - but $2 billion was being stolen annually because it was the change toss game...all cash. It wasn't a secret about what the system I was putting ws designed to do: cut the low end criminal out, reduce theft by $1 billion and leave the high end organized criminals to their $1 billion. Personally taking a billion dollars of income out of locals pockets was a bit "dicey"...but the job did pay well.
The only thing that has really changed is the size. The ear tag for cattle was about 1/2" x 1/2". Now it's a grain of rice size. But the principle is the same. There's a proximity detector at the access point that trips the transmitter. The transmitter powers the chip and the ID code is transmitted, loged and the door opens.
TTX,
Indeed. The original technology was developed by Amtech in the early 1980's. Not "American Technologies" but Animal Management Technologies, which was a Ross Perot holding. The original USDA research grant was to develop an ear chip for dairy cattle that ID'ed the animal and took their temperature while they were walking to the milking pens. If the temp was within normal values the gate opened toward the milking pens; if not the gate opened the other way toward the medical isolation pens.
The USDA abandoned the technology and Amtech bought it up. Instead of using it for animals they developed it for real-time shipping container tracking for railroads. A much larger tag was placed on shipping containers. As the train rolled past the detectors the container flashed it's ID, the dectctor flashed its ID and the railway, shipper and receiver could track the cargo IRT.
The other product that Amtech developed use was automated toll collection on busy tollways. Instead of stopping and tossing change at the basket you prepay for a card (about the size of a credit card but 1/4" thich), place the card on your dashboard or in the glove box and drive through the toll plazas' special lanes. A magnetic ground loop detects the vehicle and turns on a transmitter. The RF power of the beam is sufficient to power up the chip. The chip transmitts the ID and the user's account is debited forthe toll charge. A second mag detector opens the out-bound toll gate. I worked a 1 year contract in Mexico as an EE for Amtech-CAPUFE (the Mexican federal toll highway and toll bridge authority) installing the systems in CAPUFE's toll plazas in every state except Quintana Roo and Baja (30 states plus the capitol Cd. Mexico, DF). Lot's of really cheap motels...but I had a great apartment on Calle Londres, Mexico City in La Zona Rosa district...when I could actually get back to Mexico City). I had to have constant security with me on that job. The Mexican toll system collects billions of dollars annually - but $2 billion was being stolen annually because it was the change toss game...all cash. It wasn't a secret about what the system I was putting ws designed to do: cut the low end criminal out, reduce theft by $1 billion and leave the high end organized criminals to their $1 billion. Personally taking a billion dollars of income out of locals pockets was a bit "dicey"...but the job did pay well.
The only thing that has really changed is the size. The ear tag for cattle was about 1/2" x 1/2". Now it's a grain of rice size. But the principle is the same. There's a proximity detector at the access point that trips the transmitter. The transmitter powers the chip and the ID code is transmitted, loged and the door opens.
