I was perusing the BBC news website recently and saw an interesting article about chip implants that let you pay with just a wave of your hand. This idea rather alarmed me ...
Firstly, what is a chip implant? It's exactly what it says it is. A small chip that is implanted in your hand (usually in the soft flesh between your thumb and your index finger) that is capable of using a low power signal to pay for things. Instead of getting out your phone or moving your wrist near a card reader (to pay with your smartwatch), you just wave your hand over it and hey presto ... payment made.
We've been doing it to pets for years. If a lost animal gets found, the vet will scan for a chip implant, it'll offer up its serial number, and the vet types that number into a central database to look up the owner's details. With human ones, it's credit or debit card details rather than a simple serial number, but the principle is exactly the same.
These chips have regulatory approval in many countries around the world and don't require recharging as they have no battery (neither does your credit or debit card and that works when you want it to). They are covered in non-toxic polymers and implantation feels like someone pinched you and that's it.
I was talking to technologist Steffi Lewis recently, and she mentioned that her niece in Australia recently had it done. "I wouldn't get one" she said, "but my niece Chloe is only 18 so it'll just be natural to someone of her generation".
Chip implants have also appeared in films, although their capabilities have been someone overexaggerated. In the TV series Salvation, the main protagonist sends a member of his team into a secure building. Just by casually leaning on the desk next to a computer terminal, they were able to remotely hack into the network using a chip implant as a gateway.
Chip implants are the size of a grain of rice and have no power source of their own and certainly have no communications ability other than giving up a credit or debit card number when scanned. Don't worry about hackers strolling into your premises and downloading your customer database simply by waving near a computer. Technology isn't that good yet.
A chip implant to replace my credit or debit card is not something I'd have done and neither would many other people I know, but for teenagers looking to embrace technology? I can see it'll become mainstream soon.
As Steffi's cousin Chloe posted on Facebook recently alongside a picture of her hand with the chip lit up, "behold your cyborg queen".
It's only a matter of time.
If you feel inspired to find out more about anything I've said here, do call me on 01908 774320 or leave a comment below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.