Chips2

Seelig had been working with Applied Digital since early this year. He expected to do a traditional scientific study, calling for volunteers who wanted to test out the role of chip implants. Then came the terrorist attacks Sept 11. Five days later Seelig injected himself with the chips.
"I was so compelled by what happened," he said in a phone interview.
"One of the potential applications suddenly jumped out-- the ability to have a secure form of identification-- and I felt I had to take the next step"
So he injected one chip into his left forearm , the other went into his right leg, next to his artificial hip. Each could hold several sentences of information, although at the moment they just contain serial numbers.

" There's no deformity of the skin," Seelig said. " I feel just the same as I did before"
The chips will be marketed next year are not true tracking devices. For one thing , they have no internal power source. Their data can't be read without a scanner.
The next generation of body chips which transmits signals from a distance, is still several years away. At the moment , this kind of tracking device would have to be about 1 inch by 1 inch, raising the likelihood of a rather unsightly bulge.
Applied Digital has a market value of 95 million. Its shares closed unchanged Tuesday at 38 cents on Nasdaq.
No one interviewed Tuesday questioned that Applied Digital had done what it said it did, but not everyone thought there would be a huge market.
" Its a glorified bar code, and there are not alot of people who are going to want it ," said Michael Nova, the founder of Graviton, a La Jolla company developing wireless machine to machine communication systems. Using such a chip as a built in credit card, Nova said,would require a great deal of work.
"Stores would have to get the right software, credit card companies would have to want to do it," Nova said. "At the moment this is an intriguing idea that dosen' t have a market."
Which isn't going to keep it from being popular, said futurist Paul Saffo.
As some people wring their hands about the invasion of privacy and civil liberty, a whole other generation is going to go, ' Cool! I've always wanted to embed technology in my body. It's going to be a fashion," Saffo said. "One sure sign that teenagers will love it is if it terrifies their parents."
Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times

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