A data architecture for consumer RFID applications

We are developing a large-scale experimental testbed for consumer applications of long-range passive RFID tags. Unlike supply-chain applications, in the consumer space we must pay much more attention to issues of privacy. Our data architecture emphasizes these concerns and implements two basic models: one based on local broadcast of tag reads and another based on archival of transformed tag reads on a centralized server. Our data architecture allows tags to be limited to particular applications and can be used to develop higher level events for use by application logic. We report on our experience in developing our system and highlight several lessons we have learned in the process as well as describing a few applications we are developing that demonstrate the need for the various features.(Joint work with Waylon Brunette, Justin Cutter, Jonathan Scoles, and Robert Spies.)