Bar Code Implants Instead of Social Security Numbers for Identification - Research Paper Example

VeriChip, a prototype of radio-frequency identification (RFID) nanochip, stores six lines of text and is slightly bigger in size compared to rice grain. This nanochip technology contains a few kilobytes of silicon memory and a tiny radio transmitter. Special scanners can easily pick up the device’s emission of approximately 125-kHz radio frequency signal (Scheeres). It is an implantable nanochip device (Grossman). Verichip is created and manufactured by Applied Digital Solutions. This company largely markets the nanochip in the United States.

As a medical device, Verichip implanted into the patient’s body allows hospital workers to simply scan the body in an emergency situation to access their medical history (Scheeres). Aside from the medical use of the VeriChip, security is also part of the business plan. The method of operation to implant the nanochip or microchip into the body is fast and simple. It takes about seven seconds to perform the operation. Three things are only needed: an antiseptic swab, an injection, and a Band Aid (Grossman).

Usually, doctors load a wide-bore needle with a microchip, and injected it under the left-arm skin. Using local anesthetic, the device is injected through a syringe. The microchip is immutable once injected (Scheeres). In fact, the chip is fully biocompatible. Medical Reason. If something unexpectedly happens to a cancer-survivor person, for instance, and nobody knows anything about his or her medical history, an ER doctor or any hospital worker will be able to scan and eventually access the patient’s entire medical information (Scheeres).

The special scanner looks like a Palm handheld computer. Particularly, Jeffrey Jacobs experienced a serious car accident, upon arriving in the hospital, he was in no shape to tell his health background to the hospital workers. Nanochip technology implants could give voice to the patients when they don’t have one (qtd. in