There's a lot of talk about RFID chips - Radio Frequency ID - chips that can be read from a distance (without contact). Such chips are found in ePassports, products, smartcards & ID cards... but the ultimate goal, even "common sence" wants these chips implanted in human bodies.
In this post we will discuss how, where & since when RFID chips are being implanted in human bodies today.
An american company called Verichip Corp. produces the most popular humanRFID , the only one that has been approved from the FDA. Here the initial approval is being discussed in 2002: http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2002/10/55952 & here you can see the approval document of the second version of the chip: http://www.scribd.com/doc/22533693/FDA-Approval-VeriChip-RFID-Implant-Class-2-Device-12Oct04. The company merged on the 10/11/2009 with Steel Vault Corporation creating the company called " Positive ID " (http://www.positiveidcorp.com/).
The size of the chip is very small - smaller than a grain of tice, and its impant procedure is very easy a fast, carried out with a hypodermic needle.
Last trend in technology? No. The Verichip is available for purchase for years (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/verichip-goes-consumer-with-its-implantable-rfid-chips-would-you-buy/8567)...
As mentioned in this article, the initial marketing strategy for the Verichip involved health applications -e.g. the chip is conected with a database with all the bearer's health records, illnesses, tests etc, so that in case of emergency the first responders can just scan the patient & have all his medical history available.
Here is an advert of that company:
So, it is implanted fast with ease. Here are two videos of the whole implant procedure:
It is true, someone can volluntarily go to the doctor and get such an implant. In the Nederlands they already have a commercial use for this. In a 2004 (!) article Andrew Losowsky reports to the Guardian a place called Baja Beach Club in Rotterdam, which offers the RFID services. A customer can link his RFID implant with a bank account, and then he becomes part of the elit clientel which can enjoy the services of the club without carrying money or ID, just by being scanned (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2004/jun/10/onlinesupplement1). That's back in 2004...
Apart from entertainment though, and the ease of bank transactions, as already mentioned the verichip has a health application angle as well. And if you choose not to follow that route then maybe a pandemic crisis will convince you!
In 2009 Verichip won the patent for the creation of an implantable chip that will trace H1N1 and other viruses! (Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/09/21/us-verichip-shares-idUSTRE58K4BZ20090921). For the record, as soon as Verichip anounced this its stock went up 186%!
Here is the 2009 announcement: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090921005478&newsLang=en
So there are two ways that will lead us to the implant: 1. Identification (& bank transactions) and 2. Health issues (either our own or of those around us)...
It hasn't been long since the mandatory vaccination of health personel (and not only) against H1N1 was discussed, to keep them from infecting others ( http://lawandbiosciences.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/mandatory-h1n1-vaccinations/ .http://www.naturalnews.com/026723_health_vaccines_immune_system.html ).
How easy it is to blackmail us "for the good of our society"? Or rather, are they going to force us?
But the Verichip is not the state-of-the-art chip implant after all. There is another implantable chip - the "powder" type one - that has ALREADY been developed and used by Hitachi.
One can read in detail in an article by Tim Hornyak on the February 2008 issue of Scientific American (http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/RFID_Powder.pdf) the procedure and manifacture of the μ-chip & the powder chip...
The powder chip has miniscule dimensions 0.05mm x 0.05mm x 0.005mm. In other words it is invisible to the naked eye. No wonder several scientists refer to it as a "marking".
By the way, the above picture from the Scientific Amrican article, represents the chips' dimensions magnifyed by a power of x10.
So what is the conclusion?
The technology of RFID microchips implantable to human beings is here today, it is already being used and it is not a Sci-Fi scenario of the future.