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Edible Authentication Microchip

If your company handed you an edible microchip and a glass of water on your first day at work, would you swallow it?


(Video on Google's edible microchip)

Dugan, who is Head of Advanced Technology at (Google-owned) Motorola, told an audience at the All Things D11 Conference that the company was working on a microchip inside a pill that users would swallow daily in order obtain the “superpower” of having their entire body act as a biological authentication system for cellphones, cars, doors and other devices.

“This pill has a small chip inside of it with a switch,” said Dugan. “It also has what amounts to an inside out potato battery. When you swallow it, the acids in your stomach serve as the electrolyte and that powers it up. And the switch goes on and off and creates an 18 bit ECG wide signal in your body and essentially your entire body becomes your authentication token.”

Dugan added that the chip had already been FDA approved and could be taken 30 times a day for someone’s entire life without effecting their health...

Science fiction writers have been working with this idea for a while. In his 1984 book Neuromancer, William Gibson wrote about executives who had special chips implanted for identification.

Friday night on Ninsei...

He stepped out of the way to let a dark-suited saraiman by, spotting the Mitsubishi-Genentech logo tattooed across the back of the man's right hand.

Was it authentic? If that's for real, he thought, he's in for trouble. If itt wasn't, served him right. M-G employees above a certain level were implanted with advanced microprocessors that monitored mutagen levels in the bloodstream. Gear like that would get you rolled in Night City, straight into a black clinic.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 1/7/2014)

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