Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Ed Yeates Reporting Imagine opening a security gate by simply raising an arm -- no ID card, no credentials, just a small electronic chip implanted under the skin.
Dr. Karl Warnick, Electrical & Computer Engineering, BYU: "Well, the most obvious advantage with an RFID tag that is implanted, of course is that it can't be as easily transferred."
That's why the government in Mexico City is getting the implants. The Attorney General there plus 160 of his employees have them. And soon, key members of the Mexican military, police, and the staff of President Vicente Fox.
Two years ago, a 14-year old Florida boy who suffers from various ailments was this country's first to get an implanted chip encoded with his whole medical history.
Dr. Karl Warnick: "An EMT who was mobile maybe wouldn't have a data link that was capable of transmitting a complicated batch of medical information very quickly - so if you were able to read that information right off an embedded tag, you could access that more quickly."
Implants might replace ATM cards. They could serve as locators for lost or stolen items - perhaps even missing people. At BYU, where researchers know a lot about the new technology, Karl Warnick says not all applications necessarily involve human implants.
Inside a clean room, Brigham Young University is currently working on a new system where chips could be implanted in containers containing chemicals or hazardous materials. Those chips could literally track the inventory or the movement of those chemicals no matter where they go.
As security implants, the chips remain dormant under the skin, in clothes or in containers until activated by an electronic reader.
