At the newly opened Epicenter office complex in central Stockholm, office workers can now open doors and operate the photocopier with a chip implanted in their hands.
The so-called RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip is made from Pyrex glass and contains an antenna and microchip, with no need for batteries.
Now, instead of identification cards and pass codes, all a worker has to do is wave their hand in front of a sensor. It currently enables people to open doors, operate a photocopier and swap contact details via a smartphone.
“It felt pretty scary, but at the same time it felt very modern, very 2015,” said Lin Kowalska, who works for the charity GiveSome in the building, shortly after she was chipped.
The high-tech Epicenter office block was inaugurated last month and aims to bring innovative companies – large and small – together under one roof. Co-founder and CEO Patrick Mesterton said his office complex was the ideal location to test such a technology.
“The chip is the size of the larger rice grain; it’s about twelve millimeters in size that’s put in with a syringe and it sends and RFID code, so it’s an identification tool that can communicate with objects around you. So practical here, you can open doors using your chip, you can do secure printing from our printers with the chip but you can also communicate with your mobile phone, by sending your business card to individuals that you meet,” Mesterton said.
While the current range of benefits the chip offers is rather limited, Mesterton said the aim is to explore what possibilities the chip represents, and see how products and services can be developed around the technology.
In future, as the applications that can be used with the chip are developed, the hope is that workers in the building will be able to purchase food in the canteen and even check their health.
“Some of the future areas of use I think, like anything today where you would use a pin code or a key or a card, so payments I think is one area. I think also for health care reasons that you can sort of communicate with your doctor and you can data on what you eat and what your physical status is,” Mesterton said.
He said that unlike a mobile phone, the chip could not be tracked and he did not see any integrity issues.
“You have your own identification code and you’re sending that to something else which you have to grant access to, so there’s no one else that can sort of follow you on your ID so to say. It’s you who decides who gets access to that ID,” Mesterton said.
The chipping is entirely voluntary and, according to the manufactures, completely safe.
Since the amount of metal in the chip is so small, there is no risk of it setting off metal detectors and it is also safe during MRI scans and when using an induction oven. It is also very unlikely to break inside the body as it is buffered by the surrounding skin and tissue.
(Reuters)
