Using IMac wireless to access RFID tags?

[coolio2654]

RFID tags are the kind of chips your pets can have in them, that libraries put in their books (you know that thick bar-code thing you find on a random page in a book you're reading?), that stores put in the cloths you sell, that the government puts in every passport it gives. These chips operate at frequencies ranging from 125Khz to 13Mhz (library book bar-codes) and it is perfectly legal to access them, giving you have the capability to do so. So, how do you access them? They use no encryption or security and carry very little data so I think my IMac (mid 2007 version) , which can read and send on the Ghz level daily for Airport Extreme, can do it? Is there some program for this? I'm really interested in accessing them to ascertain what kind of information they give off. Forwarding my thanks to all those who answer.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Your AirPort Extreme is restricted by the FCC to only be able to send and receive in and around certain wavelengths (2.4GHz and 5GHz, for b/g and n networking). That means that the FCC mandates that the AirPort 802.11 networking components do not stray from that range of frequencies -- in other words, just because AirPort can transmit on GHz frequencies does not mean it can transmit on KHz or MHz frequencies.

RFID uses frequencies that are outside of that GHz range (WAY outside of that range). I don't think you're going to get very far with RFID and 802.11 networking components.

Here is more information about RFID as a whole and integrating it with Mac OS X:

http://rfidiot.org/
http://www.nearfield.org/2008/09/rfid-peripherals
http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/showthread.php?t=1134
http://www.iautomate.com/rfid.html

Believe me, barking up this "use AirPort to read RFID" tree will get you nowhere. It's about as possible as getting Bluetooth to operate over your AirPort or vice-versa.