Developed by Philips in 1994, the MIFARE NFC card remains widely used today for transport, tolls, loyalty programs, micropayments, etc. But how exactly does this card work, and can it be repurposed as a medium for a new genre of ephemeral micropoetry?
More about MIFAREMIFARE cards use a frequency of 13.56 MHz. The card circuitry is passive. The internal coil first receives power from the reader, allowing it to identify and communicate according to its authority and permissions.
MIFARE Classic cards have 1k of memory organized into sectors and blocks. Each sector has 4 blocks, 3 of which are designed to store data and the 4th is designed to store permissions and keys. The first sector only has 2 data blocks, because the first block is used for the card UID and the last block is used for the sector trailer. Each block can store 16 characters.
By default blank cards use a default key of FFFFFFFFFFFF, Proxmark devices can be used if all blocks are protected with a non-standard key. Auto Pan The command to crack the key.
MIFARE Poetry GuidelinesMIFARE poetry has three simple rules that are derived in some way from the supporting and main suggestions.
- Rule 1: Maximum 16 characters per line
- Rule 2 Every poem has three lines
- Rule 3: You can only read a poem three times
Neon dreams shine
The wires quietly ring
Code whispers life
The waves crash
Time bends
The echo disappears
Release the coil
A warlike group
Lake, Best
Blocks 4, 5 and 6 are used for poetry, block 8 is used for the reader counter, block 7 is not used as it is a sector trailer.
A web page for loading poems and switching modes
Because the cards are used as support for poetry, there needs to be a way to write and read them while applying the rules of poetry.
Required parts:
- Arduino UNO R4 WiFi
- MFRC522
- Adafruit Oled 128×32 Screen
- 3D printed parts
- Blank MIFARE cards or tags
The connections between the Ardiuno UNO R4 and the MFR522 are as follows:
SDA to 10, SCK to 13, MOSI to 11, MISO to 12, GND to GND, RST to 9, 3.3v 3.3v
The connections between the Oled screen and the Arduino are as follows:
VCC to VCC, GND to GND, SDA to SDA, SCL to SCL pins.
The MIFARE poetry device connects to WiFi and uses a page to switch between read/write mode and enter each line of poetry. The link between the web script and the Arduino UNO is a simple json file.
{“mode”:”r”,”line1":”Hi there”, “line2”:”how are you”, “line3”:”ok”}Write Mode: When you select Write Mode, the device will record your verse and reset the counter.
Read Mode: When you set the read mode, the device will read 3 lines, print the complete poem on the screen and decrement a counter. When the counter reaches 0, the poem will be removed from the card.
3D EnclosureThe enclosure was designed in two parts using Fusion 360 and printed in PLA.
Link to get the file
Automatic PoetryAutomatic generation of MIFARE poems
I also A simple Python script to automatically generate MIFARE poems It combines words from the dictionary of a given template without exceeding the length of the block. This script can be extended using llm.
To run it,
$ python mifarePoetry.pyThe absurdist device for unnecessary micropoems still has the potential to cause a little chaos, teach new tricks in a fun way, and even subvert standard uses of NFC technology.
demo
TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@ronibandini/video/7407427604963167494
