High-Tech Company Goes Back to the Future with Decoder Rings The Stuff of Cereal Box-Tops Becomes Real Repository of Data and Computer ID By Carlos Tejeda Staff Reporter of the Wall Street Journal Once, the only way to get a decoder ring was to carve up cereal box-tops or comic-book covers. Now Dallas Semiconductor Corp. is creating its own high-tech version of the "decoder" ring. Although this one doesn't break any codes, it can unlock some doors of information. It consists of a 64000-bit microchip, embedded in a silver ring made by class-rings titan Jostens Inc., of Minneapolis. The rings can be implanted with a replica of a driver's license, credit-card numbers and even a digitized photograph. Company officials say they hope the ring's data-carrying capability will help bring personal information literally to one's fingertips. "My wallet's stuffed with a dozen different plastic cards," said Hal Kurkowski, Dallas Semiconductor's group manager for auto-identification products. "It's an awful mess. You could put all that and more into the ring and not have a four-inch-thick wallet." The ring is triggered when the metal piece at the head of the ring comes in contact with a data reader. To prevent theft, the ring can be formated so that it only can be used in conjunc tion with a password, Mr. Kurkowski said. The technology already is being used at Dallas Semiconductor's headquarters, as something of a company ID card, said Syd Coppersmith, director of public relations. "I use it to get into my office, and it records who I am and when I went in," she said. "There's a reader on my PC, and I use it to get into my files." The rings cost about $60 each, while readers that can be plugged into a computer can be purchased for about $80. Ms. Coppersmith said several security companies already have the technology to install such readers for their clients. She said the system also has been tested commercially at a warehoiuse, where employees used the ring to record inventory changes. -- Dave Mandl dmandl@panix.com http://wfmu.org/~davem