As svip.se always is curios of innovations, we couldn’t stay away from something that just a few years ago sounded like science fiction, namely a chip implant. This will be offered to the visitors at the conference ”Øredev” in Malmö, Sweden. To find out more about this we contacted Mr. Pär Sikö, who is the Conference Manager.
From looking at the picture (the hand that’s illustrating this interview) this is the size of the chip?
It is about the size of a rice corn. So probably a little bit smaller than the illustration.
And the idea is to place the chip between the thumb and the index finger?
Yes, at this moment. In the future the chip implant will be inserted in several locations of your body, the hand is just the beginning, and it’s not far away. There are human beings with more advanced chip implants placed in their brains to control impulses.
And what positive things will it bring to the future?
As it is now, you have a small chip implant that you can open doors with, identify yourself, unlock your phone and your computer. But these things you can do with an ordinary key as well, so the benefits aren’t that great at the moment, but imagine the future in ten, twenty or thirty years, the generation growing up, imagine the possibilities to have a hundred or even a thousand chip implants, much smaller and a lot more clever. And not for identification or sending out data, but to use it medically. One could measure the body, measure dysphasia and changes of the body temperature. And how quickly one could do this, it’s just a matter of time until we’re there, with a so much better diagnostics.
We will be able to know when cancer tumours are growing, if the temperature in the body is increasing one will know that something is about to happen, like a heart attack or something similar. We will be able to put sensors around the heart, the lungs and pretty much everywhere that things might happen and all the information that is collected will automatically be sent on to a doctor or some tool that will analyze this. That’s where we see the great advantages with a chip implant and I would very much like to get there.
I thought this was a long way away…
We are always underestimating how quick we could get there. It will still be some time, but we are not looking at a hundred or two hundred years, but rather a decade or so.
Pär Sikö
Isn’t this a frightening scenario, that all of us are having chip implants?
Yes, it is. People are careful when it comes to all kinds of technology, and that is very healthy. One shouldn’t throw oneself into this without knowing about the consequences. At the workshop we will talk about the security aspects. One doesn’t want a huge company to earn money on this by sitting in a car somewhere and scan the chip implants for personal data. We don’t want this data to be available, so there are lots of aspects to be solved quickly. Several security aspects off course. There will be between 1,000 to 1,500 people at the conference, and not all of them will insert a chip, but the interest has been huge and I will be first in line when we open up!
How will the chip implant be inserted?
By an injection needle, no stitches needed. It will take one second.
And if you have a change of hearts, how do you get it out?
In the same way you get rid of a splinter, make a small cut with a scalpel and pick it out. But it is easier to visit a piercing studio than to do it yourself.
So the security aspect will be the major problem, as there’s always someone who wants to benefit financially?
Yes that’s true. So we need to be careful, but that’s how it is with everything. We were very careful and cautious when the Internet came and when the PC arrived. I believe it’s a good thing, and it is in our nature to be careful. We should be extra cautious now. We are crossing a line here when inserting items in our bodies, physical items. Although we have already done similar things, like medication we take can affect us.
Will there be any kind of radiation from these implants?
No nothing. The small chip implants that we will insert are passive. There are no batteries or anything. They can only reply if you feed them energy, so they are not active and they are without logic. They work just like the key ring tags. But it will happen, sooner or later there will be some logic, a processor and with that a type of battery. The question will be how to solve this and how one can make it small.
But a pacemaker also has some battery power…
Yes they have and we have had them for quite a while now, so it will come. I spoke to a few chip manufacturers who said that at the start of the next six months, there will be chip implants with the same information as a credit card. It means a larger possibility to identify yourself, and even scan your hand at a cash point. No cards needed and the security risk goes away.
When inserting the chip implant, is it programmed? It must know that I am me.
No. But you can reprogram it when it’s in place. You can change the information there; the chip implants that we offer at the workshop will not contain any information at all. During the day you will have the chance to learn how to program the implant and I think a lot of people will change the data of the chip implant.
So it will be competitive with me…
Yes.
Is it secure, so no one can change the information I put in it?
It’s not simple; it is like a key ring, if you are close enough, you could alter the information. Unless they are locked. If someone gets close enough to your mobile, without you noticing, they could read your information, and in the chase also alter it. This is an issue we need to work on, so the security isn’t very good at the moment. At the moment we are relying on that the service range of the chip is very small, it’s just around one centimetre.
So there’s no android thinking behind this?
No, not yet. But it’s there somewhere, although we’re not quite there yet. It’s a little further away, but I am sure it will happen.
Svip.se would like t thank Pär Sikö for sharing his information about the chip implant and his time.
