Microchips

Under Your Skin

     Have your parents ever lost their keys to the car, or maybe your house? Have they ever forgotten their credit cards when in the checkout line for buying toys? Have you

Figure 1: Where did the RFID rumor come from? (2007).

 Retrieved from http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-microchip-implant/ 

ever forgotten your password to Club Penguin, or Webkinz? Nowadays, there's a new way to remember these things and so much more. It’s called MICROCHIPPING  and it’s about the size of a piece of rice! The best part is that it goes wherever you go. Can you guess how? Using a needle, the chip is injected into your hand! Microchips are actually more common than you think, and I’ll tell you all about it.

          A microchip is an RFID, which stands for radio frequency identification, and it saves information, kind of like a computer (1). The FIRST microchip was made all the way back in 1946 by a Russian scientist named Leon Theremin (1). You're probably wondering why would he make it? Have you ever LOST your cat or dog? The reason he made it was so lost puppies and kitties could be returned to their homes (1). These chips are in everything from credit cards to license plates, even in phones (2)! Pretty soon, these chips could be used in place of all those things I just mentioned.

          So how does the chip work? There are THREE parts to it including the tag, the reader, and a computer (2). You take a reader, about the size of a calculator, and hold it really close to a person’s hand, where the chip is (2). Then, a bunch of numbers pop up on the reader, sixteen to be exact (2). When the reader is hooked up to a computer, the computer uses the sixteen numbers to find the information stored on the chip (2). And it’s that easy!

Figure 2: Glasser et al., (2007). Retrieved from http://www.intechopen.com/books
/designing-and-deploying-rfid-applications/rfid-middleware-design-and-architecture

     You’re probably wondering who can do it, and the answer is EVERYONE! One of the first guys to ever be chipped was named Amal Graffstra (3). He is the founder of Dangerous Things, a company that focuses in RFID implantation's (3). Why are they so important? Because they have created a kit that has all the tools you need to implant someone, even yourself (3)!

References

(1) Walsom, C. (2014). Microchipping: a brief history. Companion Animal, 19(6), 288-290. doi:10.12968/coan.2014.19.6.288

(2) Human microchips. (2015). Retrieved November 18, 2015, from http://media.theage.com.au/ technology/tech-talk/human-microchips-5354618.html

(3) Mass, W. (2014, February 21). RFID Implants: The Benefits vs. the Dangers. Retrieved November 18, 2015, from http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/computers/item/17688-rfid-implants-the-benefits-vs-the-dangers