Small silicon electronic chips have recently been implanted into two volunteers participating in a trial of application technology for monitoring devices, according to a representative from CityWatcher.com (USA).
The size of these chips is comparable to a grain of rice, and doctors have implanted them into the forearms just beneath the skin. They function “like access cards. There are card readers outside the door; you can approach the reader. Place your hand underneath the reader, and the door will open,” said Darks, the CEO of CityWatcher.com.
CEO Darks emphasized that the purpose of implanting these electronic chips is not to monitor every movement of employees. “This is a passive chip device. It does not emit any signals. It serves a function similar to that of a keycard,” Darks explained.
The implantation of these electronic chips into the bodies of employees at CityWatcher.com is said to be the first trial of this technology applied to humans in the United States. Previously, the office of the Attorney General in Mexico allowed a trial program to implant devices known as RFIDs—radio frequency identification electronic chips—into the bodies of some of its employees back in 2004 to limit access in secured areas.
Currently, CityWatcher.com has contracts with six cities to provide cameras and Internet-connected monitoring equipment for high-crime areas. The company is also conducting research trials on employee identification chips as they pass through access control doors, with data and images subsequently stored at police departments.
This technology has been researched since World War II and has undergone numerous experimental implantations, such as trials for locating household pets, attaching to vehicles, and tagging inventory in warehouses.
Following Hurricane Katrina last year, due to the significant number of deceased and missing persons, some employees at morgues in Mississippi had to use small-sized computer chips to manage unidentified corpses.
