| Personal Identity Under The Skin Reuters News Service 12/22/01 |
| LOS ANGELES: Picture a chip the size of a grain of rice that can be injected into your body and give detailed information about you to anyone with the right scanning equipment. The announcement of a commercial-ready product by Applied Digital Solutions this week will focus real-world attention on the potential and risks of such technology, experts said. Applied Digital said Wednesday it would begin marketing its implantable VeriChip in South America and Europe, initially as a means to convey information about medical devices to doctors who need a quick way to find out how and where patients with pacemakers, artificial joints and other surgically implanted devices have been treated. But the company already has its sights on more ambitious applications for the chips, which are currently capable of carrying the equivalent of about 6 lines of text. Future versions could emit a tracking beacon or serve as a form of personal identification, an executive said. Such implants are certain to become more widespread, said technology forecaster Paul Saffo. "Of course, we will do this," said Saffo of the Silicon Valley-based Institute for the Future "And it won't be just for the functionality. It will also be for fashion. You've got a generation that's already piercing themselves. Of course, they're going to put electronics under their skin." Applied Digital, which has a $95-million market value and has been scarcely followed on Wall Street, plans to file an application with the Food and Drug Administration in January to market the chip in the United States, a process that could take another year to 18 months, Sullivan said. The Federal Communications Commission has already licensed the chip's use of radio frequencies because of an existing version used to track runaway pets. "People are becoming less concerned about what information is out there," said. Erwin Chemerinsky, a civil rights expert and law professor at the University of Southern California. He conceded that the public mood has shifted, but said: "It all depends on how this is used ... when the government is invading the body there are always special privacy concerns." "This is rightly going to prompt debate, as you can imagine, but the good news is that we'll have years to figure it out," said futurist Saffo. ( REUTERS ) |
 |
 |
Syringe Injects Chip in Hand home |