A Chip in the Old Block
Source: The Scotsman
October 4, 2000
Have you ever wondered if there is a guardian angel
watching over your shoulder? Speculate no more: later this month in
New York a digital version you can carry with you will be unveiled.
It is a tiny chip implanted under the skin which will
monitor your body's vital signs - heart beat, temperature, blood-sugar
levels and so on - send data to a hospital or doctor's computer and,
via satellite, will pinpoint your location if you need to be alerted
to a problem.
It's a simple enough operation and one that would
usually be performed under local anaesthetic. The makers, Applied
Digital Solutions, a Florida-based company, believe that their
so-called Digital Angel will also be able to locate adults or children
in the event of being kidnapped, pinpoint people
lost in avalanches, monitor soldiers in combat, check the whereabouts
of criminals on parole, track livestock and foodstuffs and trace
valuables. The company recently took over one of America's leading
providers of microchip identification for pets.
A significant market is also envisaged in e-commerce;
the chip could also store financial information and be used to confirm
the identity of consumers. Those who did not want to wear it, say ADS,
might keep it in their computer.
Many tracking and monitoring technologies have
previously been patented and marketed but, say ADS, "all are
unsuitable for widespread tracking, recovery and identification of
people due to a variety of limitations." These include
unwieldy size, maintenance requirements, insufficient or inconvenient
power supply and problems in activating the device. But ADS believes
it has overcome those difficulties.
When implanted under the skin, the device is powered
electromechanically through the movement of muscles, and it can be
activated either by the wearer or by a remote monitoring facility. One
feature even is expected to allow the wearer to control the device to
some degree.
"This technology relates directly to the exploding
wireless marketplace," says Richard Sullivan, chairman of ADS. "We'll
be demonstrating for the first time ever that wireless
telecommunications systems and bio-sensor devices, capable of
measuring and transmitting critical body function
data, can be successfully linked together with GPS [global positioning
satellite] technology and integrated with the internet."
Those attending the demonstration in New York City will
see a working, multimedia demonstration of the implant. The miniature
sensor equipped with a tiny antenna will capture and wirelessly
transmit a person's vital body-function data, such as body temperature
or pulse, to an internet-integrated ground station.
In addition, the antenna will receive information
regarding the location of the individual from the GPS satellite. Both
sets of data - medical information and location - will then be
wirelessly transmitted to the ground station and made available on
Web-enabled desktop, laptop or wireless devices.
ADS have secured patents for the chip, which will be
powered by the body's own energy, and expect to generate a worldwide
market worth £500 million.
"We believe its potential for improving individual and
e-business security and enhancing the quality of life for millions of
people is virtually limitless," says Sullivan.
Initially the chip will simply be worn close to the
body - the company is working with watch and mobile phone
manufacturers, for example - but approval for implants will be sought
from America's food and drug administration.
Even before its launch the Digital Angel has sparked
debate over its possible misuse, from civil rights campaigners who
regard it as Orwellian. "I think most people would be repulsed by the
idea. This is just a sort of modern version of tattooing people,
something that for obvious reasons - the Nazis tattooed numbers on
people - no-one proposes," said Bob Gellman, a Washington privacy
consultant. "I'm sure there's a strong argument that implanting a chip
in a person is unconstitutional. It would [in the case of criminals]
be cruel and unusual punishment."
According to Emily Whitfield, a spokeswoman for the
American Civil Liberties Union: "This is a situation that can go in
the blink of an eye from being voluntary to being mandatory." The idea
has already made a positive appearance in Hollywood, when Tom Cruise
implanted a tracking device in the
foot of a co-star in Mission Impossible II.
It probably won't be long before the darker side gets an
airing, perhaps starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, where the
jealous husband gives an opulent anniversary watch with the chip
inside it to his cheating wife, so he can obsessively monitor her
movements, her body temperature, the
very acceleration of the pounding of her heart rate ... until she
figures it out, and puts the chip to work against him.
Some Christian groups even liken the Digital Angel to
"the mark of the beast". But Dr Peter Zhou, president and chief
scientist at DigitalAngel.net, Inc, a subsidiary of ADS, counters: "I
am a Christian, but I don't think [that argument] makes sense. The
purpose of the device is to save your life and improve the quality of
life. There's no connection to the Bible."
Zhou adds: "I'm particularly excited about Digital
Angel's ability to save lives by remotely monitoring the medical
conditions of at-risk patients and providing emergency rescue units
with the person's exact location. This will be a connection from
yourself to the electronic world. It will be your
guardian, protector. It will bring good things to you. We will be a
hybrid of electronic intelligence and our own soul."
The New York Times recently asked experts to speculate
on what the future might hold using similar technology to the Digital
Angel. One engineer suggested a chip encoded with our unique genetic
sequence "for perfect identification in matters medical, official,
criminal or otherwise."
Some of the other possibilities: a "decoder" ring, an
implant in the human iris to be read with a retinal scanner, and even
an oval-shaped "genegg" for the belly button.
by William Peakin
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