Pay with a wave of your hand?
An implantable chip could allow you to charge purchases or even start your car. It’d be convenient, to be sure. But would it be too creepy?
It’s a simple concept, really: You inject a miniature radio frequency identifier the size of a grain of rice between your thumb and forefinger and, with a wave of your hand, unlock doors, turn on lights, start your car or pay for your drinks at an ultrachic nightspot.
The problem is, the whole concept is a little geeky for most of us, nauseating for some, Orwellian for a few and even apocalyptic for a smattering of religious fundamentalists.
Forget the science of it — and yes, it does work remarkably well. Forget the convenience of it. Forget that similar identifying technologies, from bar codes to mag stripes, overcame similar obstacles and are now ubiquitous.
Radio frequency ID implants face a hurdle the others did not: ickiness.
“There is sort of an icky quality to implanting something,” says Rome Jette, the vice president for smart cards at Versatile Card Technology, a Downers Grove, Ill., card manufacturer that ships 1.5 billion cards worldwide a year.
How RFID devices work
The RFID technology is un-yucky, however. The implanted tag — a passive RFID device consisting of a miniature antenna and chip containing a 16-digit identification number — is scanned by an RFID reader. Once verified, the number is used to unlock a database file, be it a medical record or payment information
. Depending upon the application, a reader may verify tags at a distance of 4 inches up to about 30 feet.
The RFID implant has been around for more than 20 years. In its earliest iteration, it provided a convenient way to keep track of dogs, cats and prized racehorses. Few took note or voiced much concern.
Then, in 2002, Applied Digital Solutions (now Digital Angel) of Delray Beach, Fla., deployed to its foreign distributors a beta version of its patented VeriChip technology for human use. Two years later, the VeriChip became the first subcutaneous RFID chip to receive FDA approval as a Class 2 medical device.
One VeriChip distributor in Spain sold the concept to the ultratrendy Baja Beach Club, which offered its patrons in Barcelona and Amsterdam the option of having an implant inserted in their upper arms to pay for their drinks without having to carry wallets in their swimsuits.
Judging by the ensuing outrage, you would think VeriChip had given the pope a wedgie.
‘Mark of the beast’?
Web sites sprouted like mushrooms, accusing VeriChip of being the biblical “mark of the beast” predicted in the Book of Revelations as a foreshadowing of the end of the world.
Video: Protect yourself against credit, debit card hackers
CEO Scott Silverman was equally vilified as being tied to Satan or, worse, Wall Street. Big Brother was surely coming, though he’d have to get pretty close to read your implant. Claims that the tags cause cancer based on lab rat tests upped the amps of outrage.
Were people suddenly curious about RFID implants?
Continued: Reaction to the product mixed
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