Monday, March 17, 2008

Identity Chip in Your Wrist?

Would you allow an identity chip to be surgically implanted in your hand? This could allow you to make banking, credit, library and other membership transactions with enhanced security. Furthermore, the hassle of carrying a wallet or a purse would no longer exist, as all your "cards" would be coded into a chip that you would never be able to lose. As for myself, I'd be a bit fearful of somebody ripping the implant out of my flesh...

None of the above is as far-fetched as it seems, as I read on Ray Poynter's blog tonight that "patrons of the Baja Club in Barcelona have the choice of easy entry and of paying by having an RFID chip embedded in their arm". According to Wikipedia, "radio-frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders".

Wikipedia also has a full section on human implants, where it is stated that: "An early experiment with RFID implants was conducted by British professor of cybernetics Kevin Warwick, who implanted a chip in his arm in 1998. Night clubs in Barcelona, Spain and in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, use an implantable chip to identify their VIP customers, who in turn use it to pay for drinks".

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