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KrissaTMC2
Joined: 05 Feb 2002
Posts: 472
Location: Greenwich, CT, USA |
 Thu May 09, 2002 12:38 am
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quote:
First, this is a completely voluntary decision, like installing a home-security system. Nobody's forcing us to use the chip.
The database will only contain information that we want to be made available, and we will control who has access to that information and under what circumstances. In fact, we think that when the VeriChip speaks for us, we are exercising our right to free speech.
Yeah Right! 
BTW Dan, congratulations on your promotion.
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FLKook
Joined: 28 Apr 2001
Posts: 710
Location: East Central Florida |
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Thu May 09, 2002 1:03 am
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quote:
USA Today, the intellectual's newspaper of choice.
You got anything to back that up Duncan or was this more undergirding of sarcasm... sorry, but sometimes my thermostat on your posts is off.
I think that the chip technology probably has a million worthy applications. It's the unworthy evil ones we need to look out for. |
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Thu May 09, 2002 4:38 am
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I think your theromostat's just a little bit off FLKook.
I think that the military has already looked into this technology and we are either seeing technology that they rejected or technology that they already have. Or perhaps they might even have something better. - I did read somewhere about the military wanting to create cyborg-type soldiers. - I'll have to see if I can find that article.
BTW, Thanks Krissa.
[Edited 4 times, lastly by Dan Rockwell on 05-08-2002] |
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Fri May 10, 2002 12:53 am
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First Humans to Receive ID Chips
Technology: Device implanted under skin will provide identification and medical information.
By DAVID STREITFELD
Times Staff Writer
May 9 2002
Eight people will be injected with silicon chips Friday, making them scannable just like a jar of peanut butter in the supermarket checkout line.
The miniature devices, about the size of a grain of rice, were developed by a Florida company. They will be targeted to families of Alzheimer's patients--one of the fastest growing groups in American society--as well as others who have complicated medical histories.
"It's safety precaution," explained Nate Isaacson. The retired building contractor will enter his Fort Lauderdale doctor's office Friday as an 83-year-old with Alzheimer's.
He'll leave it a cyborg, a man who is also a little bit of a computer.
The chip will be put in Isaacson's upper back, effectively invisible unless a hand-held scanner is waved over it. The scanner uses a radio frequency to energize the dormant chip, which then transmits a signal containing an identification number. Information about Isaacson is cross-referenced under that number in a central computer registry.
Emergency room personnel, for instance, could find out who Isaacson is and where he lives. They'd know that he is prone to forgetfulness, that has a pacemaker and is allergic to penicillin.
"You never know what's going to happen when you go out the door," said Isaacson's wife, Micki. "Should something happen, he's never going to remember those things."
Applied Digital Solutions Inc., the maker of what it calls the VeriChip, says that it will soon have a prototype of a much more complex device, one that is able to receive GPS satellite signals and transmit a person's location.
It's a prospect deeply unsettling to privacy advocates, no matter how voluntary the process may initially appear.
"Who gets to decide who gets chipped?" asked Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "Parents will decide that their kids should be implanted, or maybe their own aging parents. It's an easier way to manage someone, like putting a leash on a pet."
Applied Digital, which says it has a waiting list of 4,000 to 5,000 people who want a VeriChip, plans to operate a "chipmobile" that visits Florida senior citizen's centers. An estimated 4 million people nationally have Alzheimer's, with more than 10% of them in Florida.
Not Just for Those With Alzheimer's
Jeffrey and Leslie Jacobs and their teenage son Derek, whose "chipping" will be a national media event, don't have problems with dementia. The Boca Raton, Fla., family has a mixture of ailments and interests: Jeffrey has been treated for Hodgkin's disease and suffers from other conditions for which he takes 16 medications, while Derek is allergic to certain antibiotics. Mostly, though, he's a computer buff who considers the procedure nifty. As for Leslie, she's merely hoping to feel more secure in an insecure world.
A third group readying themselves for the simple outpatient procedure Friday are executives of Applied Digital, a publicly traded company based in Palm Beach. Even their publicist is doing it.
Getting chipped is easy. Making it more useful than a piece of body art will be harder.
"There are a lot of practical issues here, as well as ethical and privacy issues," said Mark Pafford, associate executive director of the Alzheimer's Assn.'s Southeast Florida chapter. "If it were me, I would use something tried and proven, like a ID bracelet or a necklace that has an 800 number. This VeriChip seems like it would inhibit someone being returned home in a timely fashion. Who knows how to look under someone's skin?"
Applied Digital says nearly all the major hospitals in the West Palm Beach area will be equipped with the scanners. Yet St. Mary's Medical Center, a major trauma center approached at random by a reporter, said no one had contacted that hospital.
Isaacson's family says he has a bracelet. He also has a wallet with an ID.
"The VeriChip is more of a 'God forbid,'" said Sherry Gottlieb, Isaacson's daughter. "You feel you have to have it, but hope you never need it."
Applied Digital is charging $200 for a chip, plus a $10 monthly fee to store the information. As the first patients, Isaacson and the Jacobses are getting their VeriChips for free, but that's the only financial consideration they are receiving.
Isaacson's doctor, while agreeing to perform the insertion, has some qualms about it. He consented to be interviewed but asked that his name not be revealed until Friday. While protests against the VeriChip have been minimal, neither the doctor nor Applied Digital are eager to see demonstrations. A few religious groups say the chips are "the mark of the Beast" referred to in the Bible.
"I think this is going to be the cutting edge of the future, because quick information saves lives," Isaacson's doctor said. "I get calls 24 hours a day informing me that a patient has had a stroke or a heart attack and is in the hospital. I have to go to my office, get the chart, and then go to the hospital. All that takes time, while the patient is being treated with limited information."
And yet this family practitioner doesn't see himself chipping any youthful patients. While he believes the procedure is safe and the chip can always be removed, he's worried about long-term liability. "You do something to a young person, you may be responsible for years afterwards. He may be carrying this chip for 70 or 80 years."
Long before then--by the end of the year, in fact--the next generation of devices will be tested.
An embedded chip with GPS capabilities would be slightly larger than a quarter and require actual surgery to implant. Unlike the VeriChip, it also would require Food and Drug Administration approval. That will slow down its U.S. introduction.
"We believe we have solved the battery issue, which leaves the question of an antenna that can transmit through skin tissue," said Keith Bolton, Applied Digital's chief scientist. The devices will be powered by lithium ion batteries, which can be charged remotely from outside the body.
Interest in Device in Brazil and Mexico
Applied Digital says it has already received considerable interest in the VeriChip from both commercial and government sources in Brazil and Mexico, and expects the embedded system to be big wherever there is a big threat of kidnapping.
The prospect of such sales is no doubt one reason Applied Digital stock, which traded as low as 11 cents in the last year, recently quadrupled to about $2.
Corporate insiders were sellers of the stock before the recent run-up, which might indicate a lack of faith in the company's viability.
The stock fell 6 cents to $2.01 on Wednesday on Nasdaq.
Applied Digital is heavily indebted but says it will have actual earnings this quarter before interest, taxes and depreciation are accounted for.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-050902chipped.story |
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Duncan Kunz
Joined: 19 Oct 2000
Posts: 582
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Fri May 10, 2002 1:15 am
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"You got anything to back that up Duncan or was this more undergirding of sarcasm...."
Sarcasm, absolutely. Have you noticed that USA Today's news-stands all look like TV's? That isn't a coincidence, in my opinion.
I would put USA Today way above the supermarket-checkout tabloids, but it ain't exactly the New York Times. |
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Fri May 10, 2002 2:47 am
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You've got a point there Duncan. Even the Tabloids look alike these days.
Now you two be nice on my thread.
   
[Edited 1 times, lastly by Dan Rockwell on 05-09-2002] |
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KrissaTMC2
Joined: 05 Feb 2002
Posts: 472
Location: Greenwich, CT, USA |
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Sat May 11, 2002 2:11 am
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 I was wondering how long it would take you to put together an army of smilies Dan. - Oh well - Here's the latest story about them implanting chips in people.
Friday, May 10, 2002
Family Gets Computer Chips Implant
BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) - A Florida family on Friday became the first to be implanted with computer chips that researchers hope will someday become an easy way to provide emergency room staffers with patients' medical information.
Jeff and Leslie Jacobs, along with their 14-year-old son, Derek, had the tiny chips implanted in their arms. Each chip is about the size of a grain of rice, and insertion takes about a minute under local anesthesia.
The chips, called the VeriChip, were designed by Palm Beach-based Applied Digital Solutions Inc. They are similar to chips implanted in pets to identify them if they are lost.
The family wanted the implants in case of future medical emergencies.
``We're doing this as a security for us, because we've worked so hard to save my husband's life,'' said Leslie Jacobs, 46.
Her 48-year-old husband has suffered through cancer, a car crash, a degenerative spinal condition, chronic eye disease and abdominal operations. His injuries have forced him to quit his dental practice.
``It's been really easy and I feel a lot better that I have it,'' he said after the implant.
The chips used by the Jacobs family contain only telephone numbers and information about previous medications. The data can be read by a hand-held computer and printed out.
The Food and Drug Administration said in April that it would not regulate the implant as long as it contains no medical data. Company officials said they were free to proceed because the implant contains identification numbers that correspond to personal medical information in a separate database.
The FDA did not consider the implant to be a medical device, company officials said. An FDA spokeswoman in Miami did not immediately return a phone call. The FDA had said regulation would be needed if medical records were stored to guard against storage of outdated records.
Company officials hope to eventually include more extensive information. The company says it would be particularly valuable for those who suffer from Alzheimer's disease or others with difficulty providing medical information on their own.
VeriChip is expected to sell for about $200. A scanner used to read information contained in the chip would cost between $1,000 and $3,000.
The chip, which could also be used as a security tool, has stirred debate over its potential use as a ``Big Brother'' device to track people or invade the privacy of their homes or workplaces.
Jacobs and his family brush aside those arguments. Anyone can be tracked through the Internet and e-mail, credit cards and cellular phones, they say.
http://webcenter.newssearch.netscape.com/aolns_display.adp?key=200205101030000192614_aolns.src |
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FLKook
Joined: 28 Apr 2001
Posts: 710
Location: East Central Florida |
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Sat May 11, 2002 3:27 am
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News on this subject comes almost by the hour. Glad we have this thread and more than just my eyes and ears keeping watch.
This from WND http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27584 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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YOUR PAPERS, PLEASE ...
Press coverage of implanted chips distorted?
Tech experts warn real threats go unreported by 'mainstream' media
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Posted: May 10, 2002
12:43 p.m. Eastern
By Sherrie Gossett
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
As "Good Morning America," "Inside Edition," and "The CBS Evening News" televise the much-hyped "chipping" of eight individuals starting today, Lee Tien, the senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is speaking out passionately about what many experts believe are serious threats posed by implanting chips in humans – threats he says are not being adequately portrayed by the major media.
Tien has been in high demand as a commentator on the issue. And the New York City press office of the American Civil Liberties Union, which once called the chip "an outrage" and "unconstitutional," is currently refusing to comment on the chips, referring all inquiries to Tien or David Sobel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Despite the numerous requests for comments, Tien told WND that the media have not effectively communicated his stance on the matter: "I've been used as part of their press campaign – as a token privacy person. It's really insulting."
When the 'chips were down' ...
As WorldNetDaily reported previously, "Digital Angel," has been described by company communications as an implantable microchip that, once inserted into a human, can be tracked by GPS and the information then relayed wirelessly to the Internet, where an individual's location, movements and vital signs can be stored in a database for future reference. The chip, along with another non-trackable version (the VeriChip) was developed by the NASDAQ-traded, Palm Beach, Fla., company, Applied Digital Solutions.
ADS tried unsuccessfully to market the implantable tracking chip in 1999 and 2000. The company hit bumpy ground though, with protests coming from civil liberties advocates, libertarians, electronic freedom activists, radical protest organizations, anarchists and religious groups.
Complicating matters was a failed foray into presidential-year politics. WND has reported on an unconsummated partnership between ADS and the Clinton-Gore administration, pushed by then-Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta just days before the presidential election. The company soon entered a dramatic financial freefall, according to the South Florida Business Journal. Whereas in 2000 shares were $18, by November of the following year they traded at 53 cents. In August of 2001, shares hit an all-time low of 16 cents. The company lost millions and was threatened with delisting by NASDAQ.
Following Sept. 11, however, the company found its golden opportunity to reintroduce the chip, first in its non-tracking form (the VeriChip). An announcement of "phase two" of the company’s strategy is likely to ride on the heels of today's much-publicized implantation event.
WND reported that ADS stated in its promotional materials and website that the sophisticated Digital Angel tracking chip was intended to be implanted in human beings, tapping into an estimated $100 billion worldwide market.
ADS chairman and CEO Richard J. Sullivan answered privacy-advocate critics at a private unveiling of the Digital Angel prototype in October 2000,
"And let me be very clear on one important point," he said. "The potential marketplace I'm talking about is for an attachable device … something worn on the outside … close to the skin. ... We're not planning on or even considering any other application at this time. Only external uses! All of our energy … all of our focus … all of our effort is in this direction. Period. Any other approach or suggestion is purely hypothetical speculation at this time."
Sullivan delivered this statement a week after his website had displayed extensive information about development of the chip for human implantation, and after McKinsey & Co. consultants had prepared a marketing projection for a whopping $70 billion market in the U.S.
Major media 'ignorant' and 'remiss'
Tien is speaking out because he believes the media are doing a poor job of reporting the threats that the chip can propose to individual rights, as well as the technical security weaknesses inherent in the Digital Angel technology delivery system.
"The impression I'm getting is that the implantation thing has a 'gee-whiz' factor that the media seems to like," Tien told WND. "But ever since Sept. 11, reporters have been less aggressive about challenging the privacy implications of the technologies or the practices."
"The media give an obligatory nod to civil liberties and privacy issues," Tien explains, "but the reports lack objective, educated analysis, resulting in them being 'one-sided.' There are few reporters interested in drilling into the real problems."
'Frog in the pot' marketing
Tien is especially concerned over involuntary uses of the chip and the company's intentional strategy to "handle" the public and media, so they are gradually accepting of a more dangerous form of the chip – the GPS-tracked "Digital Angel" chip.
CEO Sullivan has suggested that all foreigners entering the U.S. should be injected with the company’s chips, which he said should replace green cards. While ADS has repeatedly stated that they are only pursuing voluntary applications of the chips, their proposed uses clearly indicate otherwise. The stunning array of potential uses ADS is pushing aggressively include the implantation of prisoners, parolees, people under house arrest, children, the elderly, airport workers, nuclear power plant workers, gun owners and computer users (as a form of logon ID).
The company also envisions the implanted chips creating a "cashless society," being used instead of ATM and credit cards. ADS also wants to control all of the databases for all uses of the chips.
"My take on it," Tien explains, "has always been that the whole idea of forcing people to be tracked against their will is absolutely repugnant."
"They're doing the frog in the water trick – getting the memo out that this is voluntary, making it hard for civil liberty advocates to counter it," Tien explains. "But no matter what great uses are promised by the company, it is just part of an overall, larger trend – a movement toward the much bigger location tracking development of the chip."
Tien also stresses that once the chip is "colonized" into the prison system, it will be even harder to prevent involuntary uses from spreading to other areas of society.
"We're very concerned about this habituating of the public. The idea is, 'Oh well, it's here, so get over it. It must not be so bad.' But once they get it in limited form, the jump to tracking form is easier for the company.”
Security or hype?
Regarding the development of the chips, especially the Digital Angel tracking chip, Tien remarks: "These people [Applied Digital Solutions] have no idea whatsoever about what real security means. I spoke to their CTO, Dr. Keith Bolton. His response was 'We have this proprietary technology' – a meaningless comment."
Applied Digital Solutions contends it spent $40 million dollars on proprietary mixed-media encryption technology, and that the system security, which relies on Secure Socket Layers (SSL), won't be "spoofed." Digital Angel location information is accessed by "authorized individuals" by entering a password into an Internet site. But, according to Tien, the chip delivery system is vulnerable to "spoofing" and fraught with security risks.
"The low-end VeriChip is probably quite significantly insecure, but because of its limited capacity, the actual risk is not great."
However, Tien warns, it would be very different with Digital Angel: "People have the impression that only 'authorized' people will see their personal information. But all sorts of people will eventually see it."
Compounding the problem, Tien says, are existing vulnerabilities in Microsoft software. In March of this year, Digital Angel Corporation signed an agreement with Microsoft MapPoint in order to strengthen its worldwide GPS mapping capabilities.
"The threat is not just to the people implanted with it, but also for those people who hang out with them. They will all be part of a large surveillance system," Tien maintained.
Chilling misuses outlined
Raising further technical concerns, Tien asked, "How do you know what information they've put on the chip? They don't suggest that it's externally programmable, but what if it is now or in the future?"
Tien illustrated his point: "Here I am with this chip. I've got a connection. Is it read-only or writable? And if something is wirelessly written to it, what are they saying?" Referring to the fact that wireless networks and radio frequency data transmission packets are notoriously easy to "hijack," Tien asks,"Who are they saying I am? How hard is it for someone to send a transmission with information identical to my chip?"
Tien argues that such hacking and "spoofing" of the system could be used, for example, to frame someone by falsely placing their identification chip information into a computer and linking the ID number with a crime scene location. "It's equivalent to saying, 'Here's your DNA at this crime scene. Now prove you weren't there,'" said Tien.
Nabbing cyberpunks?
Nathan Cochrane of The Age newspaper in Australia has also researched and explored various potential misuses of the chip. In an e-mail sent to Declan McCullagh, Washington bureau chief for Wired magazine, Cochrane summed up a potential result of using the implanted tracking chip as a logon identification system, as advocated by ADS: "Can you imagine a tracking system that could tell when you had swapped songs over Napster, then dobbing you in to the local police, complete with your location accurate to within a few meters?"
The observation parallels similar developments of other electronic identification systems, like electronic toll booth passes, first marketed as a "convenience" item, but later used to issue speeding tickets to drivers who used the technology.
Cyberspace vulnerabilities critical
During congressional testimony earlier in the year, United States cybersecurity czar Richard Clarke pointed out that when corporate computer systems are hacked into, it is seldom reported to the government. This is because after such information is reported, it could then be retrieved by researchers and reporters by using the Freedom of Information Act. So corporations typically avoid reporting serious security breaches for fear of the financial consequences that diminished consumer trust could bring.
Clarke testified before Congress that there never has been a "secure" Internet product, and that terrorists could have hacked into government systems leaving "back doors" through which they could enter later. Prior embarrassing security breaches of prominent government websites such as NASA, the Pentagon and the CIA seem to say to privacy advocates, "If the government is struggling to secure its IT systems, just how secure are commercial networks?"
Tien believes that the cyber czar's comments serve to highlight potential areas of concern for those considering allowing companies like ADS to collect and control extremely sensitive information.
Location, location, location
Legal questions arise concerning the vacuum of legal protection of location-based electronic information. As politicians, corporate interests and privacy advocates are still wrestling over issues of who gets to see cell phone location information, the same issues apply to tracking chips. The question is, who will win access to your movement and location information? Your wife's divorce attorney? Your political rival? News reporters? Corporate lawyers? Advertising firms? Government? And who would desire to steal your location information records?
Would the monetary and power value of such personal information give rise to a "digital mafia," buying and selling your location and movement information for profit? In a world where there is mass implantation of tracking chips as a form of ID, one can only imagine the value of obtaining where a political rival was on a given night, with whom, at what hotel, and for how long? And in the cashless society advocated by ADS, what did they buy? The bio-sensor information transmitted and stored by the chips would even tell you how hard their hearts were beating and to what degree their skin temperature rose.
Alternatives to implantation
For medical monitoring, implanting devices in the body is just not necessary, Tien contends. Other companies like "Lifeshirt" of Miami have developed products that monitor vital signs just like ADS chips do, but non-invasively. And as far as tamper-proof identification goes, Tien argues that the body by itself contains unique identifying characteristics that can be effectively confirmed by biometric technologies. These characteristics include fingerprints, irises, DNA and facial angles. As for tracking, Tien points out that using a bracelet in situations where such tracking is unavoidable, is sufficient, and that implantation just isn’t a logical necessity in most civilian situations.
"We don’t like it. We're very concerned. And we hope this thing falls apart," Tien concluded.
Earlier stories:
Implantable-chip company attacks WND
'Digital Angel' lands in China
'Digital Angel' not pursuing implants
Digital Angel unveiled
Human ID implant to be unveiled soon
Big Brother gets under your skin
Concern over microchip implants
Related columns:
Meet the 'Digital Angel' – from Hell
Revelation about 'Digital Angels'
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Tue May 14, 2002 6:29 am
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Meet The Chipsons
BY LEV GROSSMAN
Sunday, Mar. 03, 2002
With his school uniform and his plump, pinchable cheeks, Derek Jacobs of Boca Raton, Fla., looks like an ordinary youngster. But looks can deceive.
When he was 12, Microsoft certified Derek as a qualified systems engineer, one of the youngest ever. At 13 he was running his own computer-consulting company. Now he's 14, and what's Derek doing for an encore? He's becoming a cyborg--part man-child, part machine.
Derek, his mom Leslie and his dad Jeffrey are the first volunteer test subjects for a new, implantable computer device called VeriChip. Later this spring, pending Food and Drug Administration approval, doctors will load a wide-bore needle with a microchip containing a few kilobytes of silicon memory and a tiny radio transmitter and inject it under the skin of their left arms, where it will serve as a medical identification device.
It sounds like science fiction. (Remember the Borg on Star Trek? Resistance is futile!) But VeriChip is quite real. The Jacobs family could be the first in a new generation of computer-enhanced human beings.
In some respects Derek is a regular eighth-grader. He's quiet and polite. He plays the drums. He used to be on the swim team before he quit to make time for his computer business. He remembers vividly when he first saw VeriChip on the Today show. "I thought it was great technology," he says. "I wanted to be a part of it." And when Derek sets his mind to a problem, he generally solves it.
"Derek stood up and said to me, 'Mom, I want to be the first kid implanted with the chip,'" remembers Leslie Jacobs, an advertising executive at Florida Design magazine. "He kept bugging me to call the company until I finally broke down."
Leslie set up a lunch with Keith Bolton, vice president of Applied Digital Solutions, the company behind VeriChip. At first Bolton (who jokingly refers to the Jacobses as "the Chipsons") was skeptical. Since the first wave of VeriChip publicity, he has heard from roughly 2,500 would-be cyborgs. But the Jacobs family is particularly well suited to test VeriChip for use in medicine. If a patient with VeriChip were injured, the theory goes, a harried ER doc could quickly access the victim's medical background by scanning the chip with a device that looks like a Palm handheld computer.
In the case of the Jacobses, that could be a lifesaver. Derek has allergies to common antibiotics, and Jeffrey is weakened from years of treatment for Hodgkin's disease. A few years ago, he was in a serious car accident; and when he got to the hospital, he was in no shape to explain his condition to the staff. "The advantage of the chip is that the information is available at the time of need," Jeffrey explains. "It would speak for me, give me a voice when I don't have one."
The operation to insert the chip is simple. "It takes about seven seconds," says Dr. Richard Seelig, the company's medical-applications director, exaggerating only slightly. An antiseptic swab, a local anesthetic, an injection and a Band-Aid--that's all it takes. Once the skin heals, Seelig says, the chip is completely invisible, and the Jacobses will hardly know it's there. "The chip is fully biocompatible," Bolton says. "No body fluids can get in, and nothing can be loosened or come out."
Applied Digital Solutions--which is trademarking the phrase "Get Chipped!"--has big plans for its little device. In the next few years, it wants to add sensors that will read your vital signs--pulse, temperature, blood sugar and so on--and a satellite receiver that can track where you are. The company makes a pager-like gadget called Digital Angel that does both those things, and its engineers are doing their darnedest to cram Digital Angel's functions into a package small enough to implant. Once they do, VeriChip will be very powerful indeed.
That's one of the reasons the Jacobses want to get involved. "There are endless possibilities," says Derek. "For me it's marvelous," says Leslie. "Every day I worry about my husband. We definitely feel it will make us all feel more secure."Security is part of the VeriChip business plan.
The company has already signed a deal with the California department of corrections to track the movements of parolees using Digital Angel.
Seelig believes VeriChip could function as a theftproof, counterfeit-proof ID, like having a driver's license embedded under your skin.
He suggests that airline crews could wear one to ensure that terrorists don't infiltrate the cockpit in disguise. "I travel quite a bit," he says, "and I want to make sure the pilots in that plane belong there."
Could the airlines or government really require pilots to get chipped? "I think we have a right to demand that," says Seelig. "Our lives are in their hands." It sounds extreme, but there are precedents. In the early '90s several states considered laws that would have required female child abusers and women on welfare to wear birth-control implants. The proposals were not very popular.
"There's a feeling that technology has outpaced the policy process," says Steven Aftergood, a senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists. "We aren't in a position to apply these new devices with the wisdom and prudence that is needed."
Prudent or not, implant technology is racing ahead with bionic speed.
Kevin Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading in England, is working on the next step. In a few weeks, he will receive an implant that will wirelessly connect the nerves in his arm to a PC. The computer will record the activity of his nervous system and stimulate the nerves to produce small movements and sensations; such an implant could eventually help a person suffering from paralysis to move parts of the body the brain can't reach. If all goes well, Warwick will put a companion chip in his wife Irena and let the two implants communicate with each other. "If I move my finger, she'll feel something," he explains. "We'll be closer than anybody's been before--nervous system to nervous system."There are plenty of skeptics, but Jeffrey Jacobs is not one of them. "People have been worried about Big Brother for years," he says. "The three of us want to be part of not just this new technology but an evolution of humanity."
The FDA is expected to approve the Jacobses' implants within two months, and there are other ways to speed up the evolution. Two weeks ago, Applied Digital Solutions signed a deal to distribute VeriChips in Brazil, where kidnapping has become epidemic, especially among the rich and powerful. Government officials hope that VeriChips implanted in people considered at high risk could be used to track victims via satellite.
"Here [in the U.S.] we're still dealing with FDA and privacy and civil-liberties issues," says Bolton. "But we're not stopping. We're going into South America right now!" Technology has a way of moving faster than legislation, and if it comes down to a race between cyborgs and Senators, guess who will win? Resistance is futile.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,214099,00.html |
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FLKook
Joined: 28 Apr 2001
Posts: 710
Location: East Central Florida |
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Wed Jun 12, 2002 5:53 pm
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Here's an update on Applied Digital Solutions.
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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27917
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Lawsuits plague chip-implant company
Digital Angel, VeriChip manufacturer mired in controversy
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Posted: June 11, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Sherrie Gossett
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
Since its nationally televised media blitz in which seven Americans were implanted with high-tech identification biochips – a promotion meant to jump-start the manufacturer's ambitious, multi-billion-dollar business plans – Applied Digital Solutions has instead become increasingly mired in controversy and lawsuits.
Despite all the hoopla and hype, the financially troubled company's star product, VeriChip, got stuck in the starting gate as the Food and Drug Administration launched an investigation into whether the product had been misrepresented.
The company has, to date, become the object of at least four class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of stockholders.
Two consecutive internal auditors have quit, and Nasdaq has threatened to de-list the Palm Beach, Fla., company.
And now, the company's much-touted deal with the California Department of Corrections to track Los Angeles County parolees, announced to the public and investors back on Nov. 7, is log-jammed. Despite the Miami Herald's report in March that "Los Angeles County parolees are being monitored by Digital Angel through a three-year pilot program" – intended to monitor paroled sex offenders in the Los Angeles Country area – ADS has yet to produce a single working unit that can do what was promised, according to the California Department of Corrections.
"It's not happening," Russ Heimerich, California Department of Corrections spokesman for the Los Angeles County prison system, told WorldNetDaily. "We're not prepared to use it without making sure it works and fits in with established protocols. It's probably not going to be happening until the beginning of next year."
ADS's Nov. 7 press release had stated: "Using Digital Angel's advanced location and monitoring technologies, State authorities will be able to monitor the location of parolees on a real-time basis." It added that the agreement would facilitate Digital Angel working closely with "the Governor's Office of Criminal Justice and Planning, the California Department of Corrections, and local authorities in demonstrating the effectiveness of its advanced GPS Security and Location systems."
"This monitoring system is a cost-effective community-service program," said Amro Albanna, an officer of Digital Angel Corporation and president of the operation center based in Riverside, Calif., in the press release. "The system is designed not only to monitor the location of parolees, but also to provide the appropriate authorities with an advanced warning when violations occur. We hope this program will serve as a model for other counties in the state."
The problem, said Heimerich, is that "the company has a lot of experience with the software used in GPS tracking, but not a lot with the hardware. They're still developing hardware with the capability of that type of tracking system. They're working to develop an anklet/bracelet, but so far it has not happened."
Heimerich also emphasized that ADS created much confusion by issuing a press release, which "caused a lot of people to think the project was a lot further along than it is."
A professional stock analyst/trader and former adviser to CEO Sullivan and Applied Digital, who asked to go unnamed for this report, agreed: "When you view the timing and substance of the press releases of both ADSXE [ADS's Nasdaq symbol] and DOC [Digital Angel Corporation's Amex tag], it becomes evident that the focus is stock promotion and not the release of relevant news. My experiences with Dick Sullivan always saw promotional value placed considerably ahead of newsworthiness. When your objective is immediate stock activity, it really doesn't matter at all if anything substantive results, since the stock activity is the true objective. This kind of behavior is more indicative of a bulletin board stock than a Nasdaq stock."
In a new development, Digital Angel Corp. today announced a partnership with BI Incorporated, which gives the latter the rights to incorporate Digital Angel's GPS technology and wireless platforms into products "that will allow continuous 24/7 monitoring of offenders who are under community supervision."
However, BI Inc. spokeswoman Monica Hook told WND that currently neither Digital Angel nor BI Inc. has the hardware to create a finished product, and that the new partners have "no timeline put together" as yet, although one may be developed in "a couple of months."
When pressed about BI products such as SkyGuard, as well as previous press releases and newspaper stories about GPS tracking systems developed by BI, Hook said that none of them "worked" or ever went beyond testing to market.
She added that her firm hopes to compete with industry leader Pro Tech, currently the only company having units actively tracking convicted offenders. Their products are used in 120 jurisdictions in 27 states, and their second-generation products are currently being beta-tested.
Pro Tech President and CEO Steve Chapin told WND, "the press release sounds like a lot of hype," adding: "We see a lot of that, not only with Digital Angel and BI Inc., but with other companies as well -- people saying that they are going to get something out there, but it's a very hard thing to do successfully. It requires the right infrastructure and the right logic built into the system."
Chapin added, "This seems in keeping with Digital Angel's strategy of doing a lot of their business in the press, but to date they have not been able to back it up. They've been unable to produce the hardware."
Following the announcement, shares of Digital Angel and Applied Digital rose 10 percent.
9-11 as marketing springboard
Applied Digital has always excelled at grandiose promotion, but especially since Sept. 11. One week after the multiple terror attacks, in a Sept. 19 press release, the company claimed it had offered its GPS-trackable Digital Angel wristwatches for free to both the U.S. Department of Transportation and the New York City Fire Department.
However, Transportation Security Administration spokesman Greg Warren told WND, "It's against federal practices to receive anything for free. We're not able to do it. As far as these GPS wristwatches go, I've not heard of them or of anyone using them. In fact, we're not using any GPS wristwatches at all." Department of Transportation spokesman Ben Langer echoed Warren's comments.
Asked about seeming discrepancies in ADS statements, company spokesman Matthew Cossolotto told WorldNetDaily, "Here's what I think happened. We offered to provide the devices, some discussions ensued but I do not believe any units were actually ever requested or delivered."
Cossolotto had previously told USA Today that several Digital Angel units were rushed to New York City in the 9-11 aftermath.
Deirdre O’Sullivan, another spokesperson for the TSA, added that the agency is looking at a variety of security technologies, but that she had not heard of ADS or its products, and that the Department of Transportation had not spent any money on the products.
Did U.S. government weigh chip implant?
ADS has understandably regarded the post-9/11 security-conscious world as a lucrative market for its products. In a Feb. 26 article, "U.S. government to weigh computer chip implant," the Associated Press reported that Applied Digital was "poised to ask the government to market a first-ever computer ID chip that could be embedded beneath a person's skin."
ADS recommended the implant "for airports, nuclear power plants and other high security facilities," and that "the immediate benefits would be a closer-to-foolproof security system," said the report.
But State Department spokesman Frederick Jones tells WND the idea of using implanted tracking chips on government personnel is "shocking."
"I have not heard anything of that nature coming from the State Department," he said. After conferring with superiors, Jones added: "We have no information about the experimentation of such technology in progress or the use of such chips by the State Department in any capacity."
WND asked ADS spokesman Cossolotto which specific government entities had actually expressed interest in the company's products, especially the human applications.
"It would be premature to provide any details about specific discussions or agencies that have expressed interest," responded Cossolotto. "So answering that one will have to wait until we have something specific to release."
ADS has frequently alluded in the press to interest by government entities for over two years.
Shareholder lawsuits claim fraud
Meanwhile, four shareholder class-action lawsuits have been filed by the law firms of Milberg Weiss; Glancy & Binkow; Schiffrin & Barroway; and Cauley Geller Bowman & Coates.
The suits allege defendant Applied Digital Solutions (and in some suits CEO Richard Sullivan) committed violations of federal securities law by the issuing of a series of "materially false and misleading statements to the market between February 11, 2000 and May 10, 2002."
Among the allegations, the suits claim one subsidiary lacked proper accounting controls and another didn't have proper revenue recognition practices in place. The company, according to the suits, failed to disclose the information to investors for more than two years.
In the Binkow case: "Plaintiff complains of a fraudulent scheme and deceptive course of business that injured purchasers of Applied Digital stock during the Class Period" and claims "Defendants' failure to correct the false statements and public filings artificially inflated stock prices and acted as a fraud on the market."
The lawsuits contend that purchasers of stock were injured by the disclosure that "no hospitals had accepted a scanner" for the VeriChip after ADS had claimed "nearly all the major hospitals in Palm Beach" would be equipped with the scanners. The suits refer to statements made in the Los Angeles Times and Miami Herald regarding the VeriChip.
One area hospital, Boca Raton Community Hospital, told WND hospital officials are waiting to see results of the FDA investigation into the company. "We're still looking at confidentiality issues, and the timeliness of medical record updates," said hospital spokesperson Betsy Whisman.
In a statement, ADS addressed the lawsuit issue: "Applied Digital expects that, as is common in these types of actions, other similar complaints will likely be filed and that all the complaints will eventually be consolidated into one action. Applied Digital believes the pending actions are without merit; it intends to vigorously defend against them; and it stands committed to remaining focused on its business plan."
FDA investigation continues
Applied Digital's problems don't end there. The company is waiting out an ongoing investigation by the FDA into its implantable ID chip, the VeriChip, as to whether or not it should be classified as a medical device, thereby requiring that it first pass muster with the FDA.
As one indication of the conflict, ADS has altered the wording of an archived press release concerning the VeriChip, editing out verbal representations not allowed by the FDA.
"The agency is in the process of investigating the firm and documenting exactly what is being said, what is being printed, and what is being promoted," Wally Pellerite, assistant to the director of the FDA Office of Compliance, told Tech TV. According to Pelletite, the FDA was "very clear" that ADS was free to go to market as long as no "medical information" of any kind was to be encoded on the chips, nor were the chips to link to any kind of medical database.
However, Pellerite said, Applied Digital Solutions issued statements saying that its chip had been given governmental approval and that the first implant would be scheduled for May 10.
When network television provided extensive coverage of the implantations, ADS executives publicly touted VeriChip's lifesaving capability of providing medical information in emergencies, as they had on the days immediately preceding the event.
For example, in a demonstration after Florida resident Leslie Jacobs was implanted with the VeriChip, Applied Digital Solutions CTO Keith Bolton ran a scanner over her arm, which displayed not just an identification number, but her name, telephone number and a condition known as "mitral valve prolapse," a heart murmur. This information could be helpful to medical professionals, said Bolton, "in the event that she can't speak, to save her life." And after Bolton scanned the newly "chipped' arm of Leslie Jacobs' 14-year-old son, Derek, the display revealed the boy's medicine allergies.
"It would strongly suggest that [Applied Digital] has something that needs to be required to be regulated as a medical device," Pellerite told TechTV. He added that Applied Digital may have violated the law when Bolton claimed, "There's more information that can be pulled out of the FDA-compliant database."
Pellerite explained: "The firm made reference to using an FDA-compliant [database]. It is a violation of the law to use the FDA in such a way that it would be used to endorse your particular product."
The penalties for those violations range from up to $15,000 for each violation up to $1 million for the company, as well as for each individual officer of the company.
Related stories:
Implanted chip firm seeks financial 'angel'
Press coverage of implanted chips distorted?
Implantable-chip company attacks WND
'Digital Angel' lands in China
Post-9-11 security fears usher in subdermal chips
'Digital Angel' not pursuing implants
Digital Angel unveiled
Human ID implant to be unveiled soon
Big Brother gets under your skin
Concern over microchip implants
Related columns:
Meet the 'Digital Angel' – from Hell
Revelation about 'Digital Angels'
Related special offer:
"BRAVE NEW WORLD: Whistleblower magazine examines the future era of implanted chips, universal surveillance
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Mon Jul 15, 2002 7:18 am
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Here's some information about a company called MicroCHIPS that I thought was kind of interesting and also a little disturbing if the technology gets into the wrong hands.
quote:
MicroCHIPS, Inc. is pioneering the next generation of chemical & drug delivery devices. Our patented technology uses silicon microchips to accurately dispense medicine to the body or to deliver chemicals for use in diagnostics and biosensor applications.
http://www.mchips.com/
quote:
MicroCHIPS' patented technology is based on tiny silicon or polymeric microchips containing up to hundreds or thousands of micro-reservoirs, each of which can be filled with any combination of drugs, reagents, or other chemicals.
Complex chemical release patterns can be achieved by opening the micro-reservoirs on demand using preprogrammed microprocessors, remote control, or biosensors.
Potential advantages of these microchips include small size, low power consumption, absence of moving parts, and the ability to store and release multiple drugs or chemicals from a single device.
Products currently in development include external and implantable microchips for the delivery of proteins, hormones, pain medications, and other pharmaceutical compounds.
http://www.mchips.com/tech.html
MicroCHIPS Press Releases http://www.mchips.com/press_rel_20020520b.html
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Thu Sep 05, 2002 3:57 pm
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Just substitute a few words here and there like Humans for Reptiles and Amphibians. 
Use of Implanted Transponders for Permanent Identification of Reptiles and Amphibians
by Alan W. Zulich:
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Draft of manuscript published in Reptile & Amphibian Magazine. Available online with permission of the Editor.
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Introduction
Ever since reptiles and amphibians have been observed and collected in the field, there has been a need for positive identification of individual specimens. This was originally done by crude methods such as clipping of toes or caudal scales or notching shells of turtles.
As reptiles and amphibians are now present in zoos and private collections in ever increasing numbers, a need has arisen for permanent, positive identification of individual specimens.
The following article will discuss the use of Trovan transponders, small identification chips that are injected into specimens for permanent identification. The chip is read by means of a scanning gun which provides a ten-character alpha-numeric readout of the chip implanted in the animal.
Specific use of this identification system in three large private collections and one zoo will be discussed.
Why Identify Animals
There are a number of reasons for positive identification of individual animals. The first most obvious reason is for theft deterrence.
Animals in both private collections and zoos have increased dramatically in value over the past few years, and thefts of valuable specimens have been seen in both places. Use of the Trovan transponders would not only decrease the likelihood of theft, but also increase the chances of recovery of the specimen. Positive identification of animals would also help resolve insurance claims and may decrease premium costs.
The second reason for use of the transponder is for inventory control. TheTrovan system has now been internationally recognized as the identification system of choice for animal collections.
Zoos throughout the world are incorporatingTrovan ID systems into their animal databases such as ISIS. At their recent meeting in Japan, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) named the Trovan system for use when specimens are shipped internationally.
Another reason is for positive identification within a collection. Animals are now being bred in captivity in record numbers. Some animals such as the brown water python (Liasis fuscus) are unicolored and patternless, making it very difficult to visually identify individual specimens when housed as a group.
The Trovan system will permit this identification without physically disturbing the animal. The same can be true for the field herpetologist, especially when a large number of animals must be individually identified.
The Trovan system would be particularly attractive to breeders working with legal, protected animals. As a particular example, the private reptile breeders in Florida are quite anxious to work with their native species, especially the eastern indigo snake, Drymarchon c. couperi.
To date there have been strong reservations by the state wildlife management people that, especially with the indigo, there is no way to distinguish a legal, captive-produced specimen from a wild-caught individual. This identification system may go a long way in resolving the issue.
Captive-bred specimens could be registered with the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, along with the implanted identification number. As the transponder is virtually impossible to falsify, it would be relatively easy to verify the origin of animals in collections.
The system also permits identification safely, with minimal stress to the animal. As the identification is passive, the implanted chips can be read from a distance of over a foot and in many cases, right through the cage glass. Thus, the animal identification can be verified without even opening a cage, a plus when working with dangerous species or nervous animals.
Finally, as the captive-breeding industry is rapidly expanding, it is advantageous from both the buyer and seller's points of view to have animals positively identified. This is especially true when a significant amount of money is paid for animals heterozygous for albinism. If the animals should prove to be normal rather than heterozygous, a positive identification system would be essential for the settlement of potential disputes.
The Trovan System
The transponder consists of a wire-wound glass-encapsulated chip, about the size of two grains of rice laid end-to-end. These chips come from the supplier pre-loaded into a 8-10 gauge hypodermic needle. Using an insertion tool very similar in appearance to a syringe, the chip is injected either subcutaneously or interperitoneally into the animal. Location of injection site varies with type of animal. Barker and Barker (pers comm., 1990) performed a comparative anatomy study of various species of pythons and concluded that the area approximately twenty ventral scales before the anal plate poses least risk of interference with vital organs.
For the study, we chose that site and injected the chip subcutaneously at the junction of the ventral and lateral scales. For their large snakes, the Columbus Zoo has chosen the dorsal muscle mass in the same location on the body. Turtles have also been injected intraperitoneally, with the injection site just anterior to a hindlimb.
To date, over 600 reptiles have been implanted at the three private collections and the Columbus Zoo, without a single injury noted.
The Trovan transponders themselves are quite inexpensive. The cost is approximately $10.00 per chip, pre-loaded in its needle in a sterile individual package. Thus, it would cost approximately $30.00 for a veterinarian to implant an individual animal. Implantation of a number of animals at a time should decrease this cost.
The chips are then read with a device resembling a hand hair dryer. The "gun" is pointed at the individual specimen and, as the tag is read, a ten character alpha- numeric code is displayed on the gun. In this configuration, over a billion combinations are possible, virtually eliminating the possibility of duplication or falsification. This reading is done in a totally passive mode, providing no danger or discomfort to the animal.
The reader gun is relatively expensive, retailing at approximately $500, but purchase of the gun is not necessary to attain the benefits of this system, as many zoos and wildlife management organizations already have them. Since they would not be in constant use except in very large collections, it may be worthwhile for regional herpetological societies or groups of private collectors to pool resources to purchase one.
Summary
The Trovan transponders have been evaluated in both private and zoo reptile collections and found to be a safe and reliable means to permanently identify animals. Potential benefits of this system are theft deterrence, pedigree assessment and verification of legal protected animals. It is strongly recommended for zoo collections, and its low cost makes it within reach of the serious hobbyist.
http://www.pythons.com/trovan.html
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Sun Sep 08, 2002 5:21 am
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This article fits with some bits and pieces of information that were posted on page 1 of this thread.
Camera in the eye could help the blind to see again
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 07/09/2002)
Enabling the blind to see - a task once thought the province of miracles - is the goal of an ambitious £6 million programme launched by the United States government.
A team of scientists is working on a device, consisting of a tiny camera and radio transmitter lodged in the frame of a patient's spectacles to transmit information and power to modules placed within the eyeball.
The modules will be linked to retinal nerves that will send electrical impulses to the brain for processing.
Diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa damage the rods and cones in the eye that normally convert light to electrical impulses, but leave intact the nerve pathways to the brain.
Eventually the input from rods and cones ceases, but up to 90 per cent of nerve structures set up to receive their signals remain intact.The team aims to create 1,000 points of light through 1,000 minute electrodes positioned on the retinas of those blinded by diseases.
Counterintuitively, the rods and cones of the retina lie beneath nerves, not above them, which makes connecting the device easier.
The team, which includes Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico, four other national labs, a private company and two universities, has been funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research.
"The aim is to bring a blind person to the point where he or she can read, move around objects in the house, and do basic household chores," said Sandia project leader Kurt Wessendorf. "They won't be able to drive cars, at least in the near future, because instead of millions of pixels, they'll see approximately one thousand. The images will come a little slowly and appear yellow. But people who are blind will see."
The silicon chip should be able to stimulate directly some of the nerve endings within the retina to produce images good enough to read large print and to distinguish between objects in a room.
"Compared to the elegance of the original biological design, what we're doing is extremely crude," concedes Mr Wessendorf. "We are trying to build retinal implants in the form of electrode arrays that sit on the retina and stimulate the nerves that the eye's rods and cones formerly served."
The plan is to achieve a 10-by-10 electrode array this year and 33-by-33 arrays by 2004.
Mike Daily, manager of Sandia, said there were several hurdles to overcome. These include how to make devices that will work in a saline environment; cope with protein fouling that can upset delicate interfaces intended to transmit electrical impulses; how to cope with rejection; and long-term reliability.
Over a five-year period, the project will begin with goggles and move in the direction of corneal implants, aiming, if all goes well, to prepare five patients for implants.
The project began in February when Prof Mark Humayun, of the University of Southern California implanted a permanent retinal prosthesis known as the "eye chip" in a patient as part of a trial.
The 4mm by 5mm chip is studded with 16 electrodes in a 4-by-4 array. "Each electrode can excite a lot of nerve cells," said Prof Humayun.
Signals from a video camera are sent to the electrode array attached to the retina via the receiver implanted behind the patient's ear. The signal will then be recreated by stimulating the appropriate electrodes.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/09/07/wblind07.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/09/07/ixworld.html
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Tue Sep 24, 2002 4:16 pm
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September 23, 2002
Experts Try to Make Bionic Retinas
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON- Attempts to restore sight to people with damaged retinas are turning toward signaling the brain the way nature does it, using chemicals to deliver signals to nerve endings. Experiments already under way with retinal implants seek to use electrical signals to make the nerves send information to the brain. But doctors from Michigan and California described a different method Monday, using retinal implants that respond to images by releasing nerve-stimulating chemicals.
Dr. Raymond Iezzi of Wayne State University and Dr. Harvey A. Fishman of Stanford University discussed their separate research projects at a science writers seminar on ophthalmology.
Neither is close to testing the idea in people.
Both indicated animal experiments may be a year away.
Nerves carry messages to or from the brain by electrical impulses, but nerves are stimulated to send those signals by chemicals generated by organs or relayed from other nerve endings.
About half of all blindness is a result of damage to the retina, the inner part of the eye containing cells that react to light by releasing chemicals that cause the optic nerve to send signals to the brain.
Experiments using an electronic chip implanted in the retina, sending an electric current to stimulate the optic nerve, are in early stages. But, instead of direct electrical signals, Fishman and Iezzi turned their attention, in slightly different ways, to the chemicals that the body uses to get those nerves to send signals.
Iezzi's research is focusing on a retinal implant that can deliver what he calls an array of "chemical pixels" through tiny holes, somewhat like a very small, gentle, inkjet printer or shower head, stimulating nerves to relay an image to the brain.
There are several neurotransmitter chemicals and Iezzi is using glutamate in his tests. He said the final product may use a cocktail of these chemicals.
As he envisions it, the chip would receive a supply of neurotransmitters from a reservoir under the skin behind the ear. It would react to signals from a small digital camera, perhaps worn like an eyeglass.
"Once we prove the basic concept, we can go on and refine the design," he said.
Fishman is developing what he calls an artificial synapse chip, an implant that also would deliver minute amounts of chemical transmitters. But in his case, the chip is designed to direct the growth of nerve cells into tiny openings in the chip where they can be stimulated by the release of chemicals in response to light.
The chemicals are held within the chip.
Fishman said his team is working on ways to get the nerve cells to grow into the chip.
Experiments with a carpet of carbon tubes have been promising, he said: "This gives us a lot of hope that in animals we can direct the process."
The two spoke at a conference sponsored by the New York-based organization, Research to Prevent Blindness.
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On the Net: Research to Prevent Blindness: www.rpbusa.org
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/thrive/2002/sep/23/092307253.html
[Edited 1 times, lastly by Dan Rockwell on 09-24-2002] |
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