Chips1

A Florida Company is poisd to become the first to sell microchips designed to be implanted into human beings, an achievment that opens to new systems of medical monitoring and ID screening.
Implantable chips have long been discussed by technologists and denounced by those who object on religious grounds or fear their use by a totalitarian state. But the company that did the test, Applied Digital Solutions of Palm Beach, said the specter of terrorism is shifting attitudes. The direct union of man and computer is no longer dismissed out of hand.

"The bottem line is when people are trying to regain their peace of mind, they're more open to new approaches"said Keith Bolton Applieds Digital's chief technology officer.

Applied Digital, which had revenue of $165 million last year, has made it's mark by selling electronic chips that helps farmers keep tabs on the health and safety of their cows and livestock. The company also makes a monitoring bracelet for Alzheimer patients,so that families can use global postioning satellite systems to help find loved ones who might have wandered off.
Now the company sees a market among those who have artificial organs and limbs. These folks will have up to 60 words of relevant medical information implanted on the chips. If the patients are brought unconscious into the emergency room, technicians equipped with special scanners will easily decipher the body's internal topography.
The chips would need approval from the Food and Drug Admimistration, which Applied Digital said it expects to receive by midyear. The company said it already has secured permission from Federal Communications Commision-- necessary because the chips use radio frequencies.
Regulatory approval is not necessary overseas, however Applied Digital expects selling chips in South America in about 90 days. One potential market is kidnap targets who could use these chips in combination with global positioning devices.
Other potential applications would put the chips in the role of an ultimate ID, capable of performing many roles that are performed by keys and ATM cards.
"I'd be shocked if within the next 10 years you couldn't get a chip implanted that would unlock your house ,start your car and give you money," said Chris Hables Gray an associate professor of computer science at the University of Great Falls in Montana and the author of " The Cyborg Citizen.
Enlish cybernecticist Kevin Warwick won considerable notoriety three years ago implanting an electronic transmitter above his left elbow. The implant opened doors and switched on lights at his British University of Reading offices. He now is working on experiments in which his nervous system is linked with a computer.
If Warwick is the equivalent of a mad genius who injects himself with a new vaccine to see whether it works, the Applied Digital volunteers, 55- year old New Jersey surgeon Richard Seelig sees himself simply a consultant thrust by events into an unexpected role. ( CLICK ON BUTTON FOR NEXT PAGE)