The whole microchip registry thing is a mess, though. There's no authoritative database and I'm certain that the database entry for my cat is at some shelter where he was briefly held. I have no way of updating this data without paying a subscription fee, so that's out of the question.

Outside of IR remotes and popping tesla ports, I have used it to emulate RFID tags. I don't have enough free time to really utilize it appropriately.

Cat tax: https://i.imgur.com/8vAabRM.jpeg -- He is sleeping where he really should not be sleeping.

https://old.reddit.com/r/orangecats/

Here's a ML problem for someone to consider tackling ... given a cat picture, identify all of the relevant cat subs that it might get posted in. This could be applied to dogs too... but cats rule the internet ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cats_and_the_Internet )

I'm fairly certain that there are an infinite number of cat subs, so this task is impossible!

Its one of the "this might be a fun thing to do if you're playing with a ML image classification problem."

I've got a Mac and so https://developer.apple.com/documentation/createml/creating-... has tempted me on occasion to see "how much can this thing do?"

https://everything2.com/title/halting+dog+problem

There's also the incomplete dog issue... https://everything2.com/title/Dog+incompleteness

That is, unfortunately, correct ^^^ I went through this with my dog. I was told to find out which services your local animal control and humane society use, and make sure your pet is added to those registries. Yes, some charge $$$, but the registries recommended to me were free.

If your pet ends up with animal control, and they can't find the chip registration, getting your pet back can be a nightmare.

It's a great idea, in theory, but it's opened up a world where the possibility of scam registries can exist.

I've considered the challenges of an open and public registry, but allowing the public to access it is problematic as there is no way to validate the entries and you would be handling people's contact information. It might be an actual use of a distributed blockchain / public ledger.

The simplest way to do this would be to use the random data for an EC25519 private key, which would be used to encrypt the data[1] and then sign the encrypted blob plus an unencrypted timestamp. The registry would be a mapping of public keys to encrypted records. Updates could be accomplished by sending a record with a greater timestamp, which would then be propagated to other nodes.

You could also put a DHT on top of that to minimize storage requirements, perhaps also a PoW scheme for sibil resistance.

[1] EC doesn't technically do encryption, but that can be worked around by attaching a public key for an ephemeral keypair for your message, doing a DH against the two keypairs, and using the resulting secret as a key for symmetric encryption.

Single resource. Any vet/shelter/guy with a RFID scanner can report found pet with this barcode at approximately this location. If you know this pet, contact us here. Presumably only vets and shelters would be adding to the database, so all of the contact information is already public. People who have lost their pets can then monitor this location/sign up for alerts after you lose Fluffy.

Not as great as being able to immediately lookup the owner, but eliminates some privacy concerns.

Yeah it is a mess, but my vet told me they use this to search across the dozens of registries in the United States: https://www.aaha.org/for-veterinary-professionals/microchip-...

That form is able to find my cat's microchip information in both the registries I have her on, for example. But yes, I was surprised the pet microchip scene isn't more consolidated. Like bicycle registrations are, where the two major U.S. players are https://bikeindex.org and https://project529.com

EDIT: But I was unable to read my cat's microchip with my Flipper Zero, even though my vet confirmed it's still readable using their more appropriate tool for the job.

I used to have an LG G4 android phone with a TV remote app built in- with just the TV manufacturer information, I could change the channel / volume in all sorts of useful places (the gym, etc.). I miss this feature often.

"Flipper Zero has a built-in library of signals for common TVs, ACs, projectors, and stereo systems brands. This library is regularly updated with new signals, thanks to the Flipper Zero community's active contributions to the IR Remote database."

(from the flipper zero homepage)

I've successfully used mine as a "TVbGone", switching off all the TVs in a bar...

(Not for nefarious purposes, but just in case I can’t find my keys.)

Also there are ways to desync/resync your key so you might be able to “add a key” with the flipper with certain firmwares.

Cloning the current key and using it can desync it from your car. Super annoying. Be careful

That phrase is doing a lot of heave lifting there...

(This is only what I've read, but as i understand it many rolling code keys can be broken by recording three button presses while the keyfob is out of range of the car, then brute forcing the seed.)

What ever device you’d want to use as a backup would need to capture information sent from the vehicle during the last unlock.