Jun 21, 2006A startup in Emeryville, Calif., has developed an RFID-based technology designed to prevent the theft of DVDs and other types of optical media by using an RFID tag to disable the media until the point of sale, where the media can then be enabled for use. "The system is based on the idea that thieves don't want things that don't work," explains Frank LoVerme, senior vice president of Kestrel Wireless. Kestrel developed the technology and will be working with a DVD manufacturer and a retailer to conduct a pilot test of the system early next year. The company has dubbed the technology radio frequency activation, or RFA.
The UHF tag is attached to the media and linked to an optical shutter made of electrochromic film, a material that changes color when electrical voltage is applied to it. The film, one-fiftieth the thickness of a human hair, can be set to a darkened state by conveying a charge through the tag. Once the film has been darkened, a DVD player's laser is unable to access the disc's startup files, making it unplayable.
Kestrel describes the passive UHF RFID tag attached to the media as "an EPC Class 1 Gen 2 tag with extensions," meaning it meets all Gen 2 air interface specifications, but also has extra memory and output ports to support the optical switch activation/deactivation protocol, as well as the charge needed to toggle the optical film between its darkened and clear states. This protocol supports data encryption, protecting the disc from being activated by an interrogator without access to the encryption keys, stored on a secure Kestrel database.
Using the System in the Retail Supply Chain
According to Kestrel, before leaving the manufacturing facility, the film and tag are attached to each disc—the tag's antenna encircles the plastic ring at the center of the disc—and the film is darkened. An EPC and encrypted keys are encoded to the chip's memory, and a warning sticker is applied to each packaged disc, alerting would-be thieves that it will not function until it is activated at the point of sale. At the retail site, a clerk uses an RFID interrogator to read the tag embedded in the disc. The interrogator sends EPC data from the tag to the POS system, which adds the product to the list of items being purchased. Once the purchase is completed, the POS system sends the encrypted activation key stored on the tag to the Kestrel database, which forwards it on to the interrogator. The clerk can then interrogate the disc a second time to activate it.
LoVerme won't divulge what manufacturers and retailers will have to pay to install the infrastructure needed to use and maintain the Kestrel technology, but says it would be offset by expenditures they will no longer need to make. Manufacturers, for instance, would no longer need to apply the electronic article surveillance (EAS) tags (which cost 2 to 3 cents per disc ) currently used to trigger alarms whenever thieves remove unsold products from retail stores. If the technology proves more effective than the EAS tags in deterring theft, he adds, the savings in product shrinkage could also be significant.
Additionally, the Kestrel protocol can be used as a "kill switch" to permanently disable a disc. Retailers could use this feature to "kill" discs not sold by a predetermined date, rather than returning them to the studios. The logistics needed to return unsold discs can cost movie studios up to $1.50 per disc, LoVerme explains, so using the kill option on unsold discs and then recycling them could be another incentive to implement Kestrel's technology.
Kestrel claims its RFA technology can be used on any optical media, including music compact discs, or with any consumer electronics, such as televisions, computers, music players and so forth. In consumer electronics, the tag would be embedded in the product's circuitry, linked to a switch that could be set to block a power source, or to make a vital logic file inaccessible. Exactly how this would be deployed would be up to the manufacturer, but with theft of newly released movies and video games sold in DVD format as high as 18 percent, the system is initially being marketed to movie studios and the DVD replicators they use, as well as to retailers.
Kestrel is also in discussions with Philips to design the RFA technology into high-frequency (13.56 MHz) near-field communication (NFC) tags that could be read and activated by NFC-enabled devices. Such devices would be able to function as both an RFID payment device and an interrogator. LoVerme says Kestrel foresees that movie and music discs with NFC-compliant RFA tags would be sold through alternative entertainment media retailers, such as Starbucks, or through mail-order vendors. Consumers would then use their NFC-enabled cell phones or PDAs, which are now starting to come to market, to download the corresponding keys and activate the discs.
