Relatively Obscure: Phil Herup: I have been implanting microchips under fillings for years.

They will be activated when the time is right.



WIN!

A poison tooth. The Baron will want to gloat over you.

Wow

I've yet to see an implantable RFID capable of receiving a GPS signal, and then transmitting the location information back to the satellite. Or 100 yards, for that matter.

Folks, the fact is, a large majority of you already have a "beacon" on you already. Some credit cards, all cellphones, bluetooth headsets, many car keys, all of these carry identifiable broadcast signatures that a pretty (or in some cases, completely) unique.

Are there privacy concerns with this technology? Hell yeah, maybe as much as the privacy concerns regarding personal computers. That industry has done extremely well addressing the privacy concerns there /sarcasm

People need to do what they can to maintain their privacy, and quit reacting in a knee-jerk fashion. Someone wants to track you now through a radio beacon, chances are you've already given them the opportunity to do so. They're not going to have to insidiously implant a chip into you to do so.

These implants have a pretty limited range, even with really nice (large) antennas.

Have fun with your paranoia...

A co-worker regaled me with a (possibly apocryphal) story yesterday of a friend who was eating at an Asian restaurant in the Pittsburgh area, only to find something sharp and hard in his food - a microchip.


/call it an unofficial start to caturday

If it could be tracked by satellite, it would be good for people who fear being kidnapped. Or those doing risky activities possibly requiring a rescue, solo sailors, for example.

If this was the case, then don't you think people would implant the $60 chip instead of spending $400 on an EPIRB (A locator beacon) when they're sailing? Hell, don't you think people would just carry the $60 microchip in their pocket?

What if we implant a microchip into a fetus?

GAME OVER!

"Injected into the triceps, the chips have unique 16-digit codes and GPS capabilities that allow nursing homes to find wandering patients."

Sigh. No,no they don't.

This particular piece of tripe was accidentally promulgated by some marketing wonk at Verichip 5 years ago, when a very poorly worded press release was issued that could, with a bit of effort, be read that way.

What the system actually is, is a jelly-bean Verichip serial number implant, with an armband interrogator that goes to a belt-mounted GSM/GPS unit. The entire "tracking" thing is in the belt unit, which reads GPS coordinates and phones them in, along with the serial number of the implant. You could actually do without the implant but then it wouldn't be "chippy". I guess it also lets you know if Gramps pulls the thing off. But the implant in no way has GPS capabilities, nor can it be "tracked".

"Trackable GPS implants" are a technical insanity for several reasons.

pvd021: Their choice would be, serve 10 years in jail, or have this microchip embedded in you and be tracked for 10 years. This way if a crime were ever to occur, a gps system would either prove or disprove that they were even present at future crime scenes.

Well, no. You can't track "microchips". And I'm sort of puzzled as to how a GPS system would prove they were present or absent anywhere, unless they were packing it around. GPS just provides timing information that allows a receiver to determine its location. It doesn't "track" receivers.

Nor do implants have GPS capability.

Clawed Le Mew: I shiat you not, an ex-boss of mine had his kids implanted with chips so he could keep track of what they were up to.

You shiat me yes.

The Whore Of Mensa: As the grandchild of an Alzheimer's sufferer, I do kind of like the idea of chipping them... sure, seems like a terrible invasion of privacy, until Grandpa wanders off in the fields in the dead of winter. Maybe that makes me a fascist. Maybe it makes me honest. Eh.

Don't worry, it doesn't work that way. You could, however, buy them a GPS/GSM collar, or shoes.

opiumpoopy: The Man would like you to believe it's not necessary.

It isn't. At least not from a tracking sort of point of view.

8string: There was a company a few years back that had developed a subcutaneous transponder / RFID supposedly for purposes much like what pvd021 was discussing. On it's surface it's appears to be a good thing. But the idea of a human being having what amounts to a location beacon embedded in their body is well, pretty frightening.

I'd bet not. There are a LOT of reasons why this doesn't work well - we worked through a lot of them on different contracts.

It would be interesting if you could find the article.

The biggest issues are two - most RFID is not self-powered, so it's pretty damned close to impossible for it to be running any high powered logic and a receiver for GPS. The RFID that is self-powered requires a battery. A big honking battery. Other issues are - you're a conductive sack of electrolytes. You are a very big absorber of RF for a very wide range of frequencies. Especially the frequencies that are short enough to implant a transponder for - the antenna size is very relevant to transmit efficiency. You have some "windows" in that absorption curve but they're all in the 400MHz range, which still has a relatively big antenna. Large medical implants (insulin pumps, etc) can use this because they have enough size to tote the antenna. Nevertheless, the path loss is still egregious and the range is quite short.

Small implants do NOT have the size for the battery or antenna they'd need. The way a Verichip works is by magnetic flux, it's an h-field device. This gets you around the antenna size issue, which is why they're small, but it has a dramatic impact on both the practical and physically possible range. Generally, about 10cm. Not the sort of thing you can "track" and it's definitely not a "beacon".

xuanzhiyouxuan: First, I would try powerful magnets and localized electric shocks.

Not that you have anything to worry about, but that wouldn't work. A static magnetic field does bupkis. Nearly all implants are h-field devices, and have no external antenna or connections, and are in glass casings, thus you could electrocute yourself without affecting them.

phyrkrakr: Read about Britain's RFID-enabled cards for foreigners and the massive security problems they're having with those. Now, imagine having one of those, but under your skin, 24/7.

Then imagine having it under your skin, and not doing anything. Ow.

E-field devices don't work as implants.