Digital Angel

The Digital Angel™ technology incorporates a microchip that can be worn close to the body and includes biosensors that can measure the biological parameters of the body and send the information with RFID (radio frequency identification) technology to a ground station or computer. It will also have an antenna that can receive signals from GPS satellites, thus pinpointing the location of the wearer.

According the Digital Angel™ web site, while a number of other tracking and monitoring technologies have been patented and marketed in the past, they are all unsuitable for the widespread tracking, recovery and identification of people due to a variety of limitations, including unwieldy size, maintenance requirements, insufficient or inconvenient power-supply and activation difficulties. For the first time in the history of location and monitoring technology, Digital Angel™ overcomes these limitations.

Some of it’s potential uses, according the their web site includes: monitor patients by doctors, commodities supply chain management, locating people such as small children and the elderly, tracking parolees, people under house arrest, and individuals in witness protection programmes, trace valuable items such as art pieces or computer equipment. Of particular interest is its application as an important security measure. It can carry personal identification information and transmit this information via wireless communication with personal computers.

The Digital Angel human implant, called VeriChips, was recently approved by the FDA* for storing medical information and the company is going forward to market their implantable chips that would provide easy access to individual medical records. (WorldNetDaily, October 21, 2004). Applied Digital Solutions, based in Delray Beach, Fla., expressed hope that such medical uses would accelerate the acceptance of under-the-skin ID chips as security and access-control devices (The New York Times, October 14, 2004).

All it takes is a syringe-injected microchip implant for patrons of the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, Spain to breeze past a «reader» that recognizes their identity, credit balance and even automatically opens doors to exclusive areas of the club for them. «By simply passing by our reader, the Baja Beach Club will know who you are and what your credit balance is», Conrad K. Chase explains.

*FDA - Food and Drug Administration - Управление по санитарному надзору за качеством пищевых продуктов и медикаментов (США)