Getting chipped at work

What if you didn’t have to worry about forgetting your keys at home or leaving your office card on your desk? In a Swedish high-tech office complex called Epicenter workers get around using tiny chips embedded within their hands. By one quick fix of the wrist, the chip allows to open doors and use office printers. So, never mind your keys, never mind your card!

Open sesame!

The revolutionary chips, which are the size of a grain of rice, communicate through radio-frequency identification (RFID technology). Imagine no more fumbling around with clumsy cards, a simple press against the chip reader is enough to open doors and operate photocopiers. In the future, payments by hand will be possible as well. Briefly put, the chips have the power to replace all troublesome office security passes or chip-and-pin credit cards.  

The Swedish company Epicenter implants RFID microchips in employees

Moreover, the use of microchips can be related to the upcoming tendency of big data. Nowadays, people are no longer afraid of adding tracking devices to their lives and bodies - all the time... It goes from fitness trackers to the recently proposed Apple Watch. Microchips are able to recognize their users, creating a digital log of behaviors. It’s the ease of use at the expense of personal information.

Life-logging

According to Hannes Sjoblad, Epicenter’s chief disruption officer and member of the Swedish biohacking group BioNyfiken, microchipping at work is the near future. “We already interact with technology all the time”, says Sjoblad, “I believe we have just started discovering the things we can do with this. There is huge potential for life-logging”, he continues.

The biohacking group hopes to make more and more people conscious about the far-reaching possibilities and advantages of chips implanted into the human body. According to the Swedish entrepreneur, it’s just a matter of time before we start using microchips for public transport, shopping or updating our sports performances. 

Of course, not all feel equally comfortable with the new RFID technology. For the moment, microchipping at Epicenter stays optional. A professional tattooist inserts the device by using a needle. For your interest, the degree of pain of the implantation is compared to an injection. Despite all this, user comfort seems not borne out in practice. The chipped workers often need to hold their hands in unusual ways to sweep the chip.

For more information on the microchipping at Epicenter, I recommend you the short demonstration video below. 

Link:

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31042477

 

 

So, what do you think about chipped people? Is microchipping the near future? Sjoblad talks about the advantages, but do you see disadvantages as well? What about office security? Comments below!

Wolf

 

Sources:

http://www.demorgen.be/technologie/zweeds-bedrijf-plant-microchip-in-bij-personeel-a2238145/

http://www.popsci.com/swedish-company-puts-rfid-chips-employees