Joseph Krull doesn't have a chip on his shoulder. But he has one in it. The San Antonio security consultant is one of a small but growing number of people who essentially
turn them selves into wireless network nodes for the sake of
making personal information available to authorized parties with the wave of a radio frequency identification (RFID) scanner.
In Krull's case, the chip was implanted so hospital staff could access his medical information quickly in emergency situations .Others are "getting chipped," as those in the know call it , forevery thing from entertainment to personal safety .Krulls chip is basically the same kind of RFID-based technology that 's been used for year stotag dogs so they can be identified if lost ,except the human chip work son a different radio frequency.
Since Applied Digital, on behalf of its subsidiary Veri - Chip ,got authorization from the .S .Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last October to sell the chips for human implantation , about 1,000 chips have gone live." I have a blown pupil and a detached retina in my left eye from a skiing accident ," says Krull , explaining his decision to have a physician with a syringe stick a chip in him under local anesthetic in what he described a safairly simple procedure."I'm supposed to wear a MedAlert bracelet because one of the indicators of a head injury i s a blown pupil.One thing they might do in that kind of emergency is drill holes in your skull."The thought of having holes unnecessarily drilled into his head,because of a misdiagnosis during a medical emergency, got Krull thinking about having a chip