Biochip Implants
BIG BROTHER could soon be watching from the 'inside.'
Several international
companies are consulting scientists on ways of developing
microchip implants
for their workers to measure their timekeeping and whereabouts.
The technology, which has been proven on pets and human volunteers, would
enable firms to track staff all around a building or complex. The data could
enable them to draw up estimates of workers' efficiency and productivity.
Professor Kevin Warwick of Reading University, a leading cybernetics expert,
has been approached by several firms including a leading software company with
a British subsidiary and Blackbaud Inc, the American software giant.
Warwick
hit the headlines last summer when he had a silicon chip transponder
surgically
implanted in his forearm. He was subsequently able to show how a
computer could
monitor every move he made using detectors that were scattered
around the building
in which he worked.
In his experiment, Warwick showed how the system could
also benefit workers by
programming it to switch on lights, computers and heating
systems as he
entered a room - and turning them off when he left.
The technology is likely to have a strong appeal to companies with high labour
costs, for which small increases in staff productivity can have a big impact
on profits. It is also relatively cheap - just a few pounds for each person,
according to Warwick.
"For a business the potential is obvious,"
he said. "You can tell when people
clock into work and when they leave
the building. You would know at all times
exactly where they were and who they
were with."
Warwick admits that people will be "shocked"
by the idea of companies asking
their employees to have such implants. He said:
"It is pushing at the limits
of what society will accept but it is not
such a big deal. Many employees
already carry swipecards. I think this is just
a step on from that."
His research follows earlier experiments by
companies such as the
telecommunications firm AT&T that showed how smart
cards carried by staff
could be programmed to relay a worker's position back
to a central computer.
AT&T Laboratories in Cambridge has been working
on its "smart badges" for two
years. They use ultrasound to tell
the main computer exactly where the wearer
is, allowing their desktop computers
and phone calls to "follow" them around
the building.
The
company has, however, stopped short of suggesting staff should have
devices
inserted into their bodies.
The first practical application of such technology
is, however, not in humans
but in pets. Under the government's new "passports
for pets" scheme, which
replaces the quarantine system from 2001, dogs
will have a microchip implanted
beneath their skin to identify who they belong
to.
Representatives from police forces in Britain and the United States
have also
expressed interest in the implant technology, according to Warwick.
He believes that submitting to an implant could be made a condition, for
example, of being granted a gun licence.
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