Toppan printing company develops RFID-shielding paper
By Barb Dybwad 
posted May 30th 2005 11:27AM
posted May 30th 2005 11:27AM
As attractive as they are, we can now all cast aside our tinfoil hats and keep safe from skimming attacks by merely donning a bit of origami, thanks to Japanese printing company Toppan, who've developed paper that protects RFID data. The 0.2mm thick paper contains a thin layer of metal, and essentially functions as a Faraday Cage — wrapping an RFID-equipped train pass, corporate ID or RFID payment card is like wrapping it in a metal sheet that shuts out electromagnetic fields. They'll be rolling out the technology commercially this fall, presumably in Japan — as long as we can get our mitts on it in the States by 2008, please? Thanks.
I doubt it'll be as cool as this though: http://zapatopi.net/afdb.html
Just in time for stores to start equiping their merchandise with RFID security tags. Now all you'll need to do is slip items into a little bag mad of this stuff before you take four 'five finger discount'...
How about a wallet with the stuff lining some leather. Then we wouldn't have to fold it all the time.
Great idea. My work pass seems to consistently set off the theft alarms at the local department store and supermarket. But then again I like just swiping my wallet at the door when I walk into the office.
The addition of such shielding for RFID chips probably won't encourage manufacturers to use them on the level of a single item... maybe at the pallet level. Additional shielding is going to raise the cost of RFID, certainly not enticing to manufacturers. Not when the ever powerful (and really cheap) barcode can be used. New uses for RFID won't be used as ferquently while the chips cost around 10-20 cents per pop. Barcodes are still the major tracking media at less than 1 penny per barcode.
This really isn't a new product, just a new use for it. Toppan developed this RF-shielding paper a few years back for ultra high-end audio manufacturer Zanden which they use in their CD transports. They claim that it provides the equivalent level of shielding to three inches of soft iron.