subcutaneous ID chips ready for prime time

NEXT: AN ID CHIP PLANTED IN YOUR BODY?
By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post
Wednesday, December 19, 2001

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62663-2001Dec
18?language=printer

A New Jersey surgeon has embedded under his skin tiny
computer chips that can automatically transmit personal
information to a scanner, a technology that his
employer hopes will someday be widely used as a way to
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identify people.

One bioethicist called the procedure the stuff of
science fiction. The chip, developed by Applied Digital
Solutions of Palm Beach, Fla., is similar to that
implanted in more than a million dogs, cats and other
pets in recent years to track and identify them.
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The new chip measures slightly smaller than a Tic Tac
mint and has a miniature antenna that emits signals
containing about two paragraphs worth of data when
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scanned by a handheld reader.

The device must undergo clinical trials and be approved
by the Food and Drug Administration before it can be
marketed, first to patients with other implanted
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medical devices, such as pacemakers.
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[Will non-ID'd pacemakers be available to those who do
not wish them? Or will the ID element be required by
law?]

The surgeon, who said he implanted the device in his
hip and one arm in September, asked not to be named
because he worries about the attention his initiative
will draw. He said he decided to test the chip himself
after seeing rescuers at the World Trade Center
disaster site write their names and Social Security
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numbers on their arms so they could be identified in
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case they were injured or killed at the site.

Applied Digital has high hopes for the technology, in
part because it is struggling financially and recently
fell behind on loans from one of its major creditors.
Its stock, which trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market, was
as high as $3 in the past year. It closed at 38 cents
yesterday.

Company officials said they hope to sell the device to
patients with pacemakers, artificial hips and other
implanted devices. The idea is that the chip will
provide prompt and accurate medical information in the
event of an emergency, they said.

The signal can contain a name, telephone number and
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other information. Or it can send out a code that, when
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linked to a database, can call up records. The scanner
can read it through clothes from up to four feet away,
company officials said.

Applied Digital executives said its new product also
could serve as a tamper-proof form of identification.
Corrections authorities have expressed interest in
using the chips to better identify prisoners and
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parolees, officials said.
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Airlines, nuclear power plants and other sensitive
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facilities may want to use the chips for employees,
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they said. Some parents may consider embedding chips in
young children or elderly relatives who may not be able
to say their names, addresses or telephone numbers.

[Clearly any company making or distibuting any products
offered for sale to the public, any company under
government contract, or any company manufacturing
products or providing services involving public health
and safety (restaurants, hospitals, public waterworks,
park rangers, sanitation engineers) have a compelling
interest in requiring this of all employees,
contractors and associates.]

"It depends on the spirit of the marketplace and the
-------------------------------------------
demand," said Keith Bolton, the company's vice
president and chief technology officer, adding that use
of the chip should be voluntary unless the law allows
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otherwise. "We're ready to begin."
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Some medical and technology specialists said the device
raises new questions about the nexus of humans and
computer technology. And it could pose ethical or
privacy dilemmas if implanted against someone's wishes,
or if it exposes personal information to prying eyes.

Thomas Murray, president of the Hastings Center, a
bioethics research institute in New York, said the chip
"evokes images of science fiction."

"We need to consider carefully the broader
implications," Murray said. "Alongside the possible
benefits, it has the potential to be misused by forces
who do not have your interests at heart."

Although the system has been in development for a
couple of years, company officials said they were
uneasy about implanting the chips in people until
recently, fearing there might be a backlash from civil
libertarians and others.

On Sept. 16, the doctor, using a local anesthetic, used
a syringe-like device to insert the chips under the
skin of his forearm. He followed the same procedure to
implant the chip on his hip.

The chip is coated with a substance that encourages the
body to hold it in place, he said. After just over two
weeks, all signs of the procedure were gone. "After
that, it was like nothing had happened," the physician
said. "I felt it was important enough to do, that I
took responsibility myself."

Airports are beginning to use similar micro-devices to
improve security by tagging bags with more detailed
instructions about how they're to be handled and
screened. Automakers are installing the chips in keys
to deter auto theft. Libraries are beginning to use the
technology to track books.

Three years ago, a British cybernetics researcher had a
chip temporarily implanted to allow a computer to track
his movements in a university building.

"The computer has jumped off our desktops and it is
insinuating itself into every corner of our lives. Now
it's finding its way into our bodies," said Paul Saffo,
director of the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park,
Calif. "This stuff is going to happen. These guys are
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the start."