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Science

Human Chip Implant Info 48

Posted by Hemos from the can-i-be-on-10base-t dept.
CNN is currently running an article about the realities of human chip implant, and how soon it will come. Warwick, a professor at the University of Reading, had a chip implanted last Aug 24., and talks about the uses for chip implanting. Heck, I just want to be able to read my e-mail over my field of vision.
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Human Chip Implant Info More

Human Chip Implant Info

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  • He wasn't the first. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I don't know why he claimed that he was the first to have a microprocessor implanted in himself. What about pacemakers and those implantable defibrolators?
  • Posted by nix geek:

    Where do we sign up??
  • Actually pacemakers do some pretty impressive amounts of work, given the device parameters (size, power usage, I/O requirements, analysis, etc.).

  • Wow... And to think... When I used to play Cyberpunk and Shadowrun [fasa.com] I always *dreamed* about one day having a SPU running in my crainum with a data port so that I could "Jack-In" to the Matrix. Woe is me. I'm not going to be the first. Where can I sign up to be the first person to be *permantly* implanted? Think about the possibilities... Never need that little black book anymore. Never have to worry about cramming for an exam. Just upload baby! Wait till the stuff like in the ShadowTech [fasa.com] book is available for all the rest of the Drek-heads like me. I'll have to invest in that $ to NuYen converter I've been dreaming about. *sigh* Back to reality...
  • A lot of these comments are saying the same things: An implant that functions as a readily-available proximity ID badge is stupid!

    That's not the point, folks. Of course there are better ways of doing that. This experiment serves to show that implants that perform more advanced functions can be done. People hearing about what he's done will start seeing that useful implants are right there on the horizon, hopefully furthering research into the area and helping people overcome the psychological issues surrounding the use of such things.

    Imagine an implant reporting your medical status (blood sugar, blood pressure, perhaps heart rate, respiration, chemistry, etc.) at regular intervals. Information gathered this way could be immensely useful to you and your doctors.

    Also, like stated in the article, implants could be used to augment or work with your nervous system to control prosthetics and devices in the external world (like computers, lights, doors, etc.).

    There are hundreds and thousands of potential uses for this technology. Just because he's just using it as an ID badge doesn't mean the technology is worthless. Look at the big picture here, guys. This experiment just shows that computerized implants are realistic and feasible.
  • Just to clear up: modern pacemakers do have a good deal of data processing capabilities in them. New models have a feature (not of the MS kind) that let them adjust the hearbeat rate according to physical activity, so that the heart behaves more like a normal heart, instead of sending a fixed signal.
  • Imagine being able to listen to your favourite music without the bulky headphones. Just upload the MP3s, and tag along. - And make sure you're not thinking hard about anything else when you do, lest you don't mind having the music skip frames during "high brain utilisation" -. Heh.
  • Am I the only one who noticed that the chipmaker refused to be identifide ?

    Yo. Linus. What kinda CPU is it REALLYYYYYY ?
  • We can't read minds yet, much less "inject" thoughts into somebody's head. We've
    got a long way to go before we can make sense out of anything the brain does...

    Tell that to
    Russ Wuertz [null.org].
  • How about an agent that knows what your thinking and posts that information to the web for other people to read?

    Oops, I scared myself.

  • ...if they didn't sound like they were using the chip a somekind of human tracking device. I wouldn't want someone to be able to just look me up and track my migration like I was somekind of polar bear in the Arctic.
  • ...for more than a few seconds, anyhow.

    True, direct neural-silicon interface is a bit more complicated than working out the physics of flight, but I don't think it will be a hundred years until we understand our noodles.

    AI will probably help a lot with sorting out this kind of information, and the rate of progress will take off at an even steeper slope than what we've got now.

    The real question isn't when, but why. I vacillate between excitement and dread when I think of where technology is going. The thought of augmenting my wetware with hardware gives me shivers, both good and bad. Even now, with super-fast, super-vast databases, I tingle with eagerness at the thought of all the information to be managed. At the same time, though, it bothers me that big brother can fairly accurately keep tabs on where I am and what I'm doing, in a general sense. "Hrm, he charged gasoline and several cases of beer in Boston on Friday, so he's probably visiting his friends for the weekend."

    Yes, I could use cash, and I could move to a shack in Montana, but I *like* technology. It's who I am.

    Ack. Perhaps I should reinvent myself. Heh. I may have to, if the Y2K-TEOTWAWKI folks are correct.
  • I think they have the wrong show.

    --
  • It would be nice to have an embedded processor and a few gigs of memory added to the old bean. Just think of all the stuff you would never forget again - and all the things you could do without the need to carry around a bunch of devices. No visors, no laptops, no cell phones, no credit cards, no beepers, and no PDAs. Brings to mind the RPG CyberPunk.

    Too bad the full potential is all pie in the sky for now. When (if?) it does finally arrive, I'll bet people would risk their lives to gain that kind of power. Myself included - after beta testing of course :)
  • I want to have my brain implanted into the *computer*. Still haven't found a way to surgically remove my body tho. *sigh*
    --Dast
  • Yup, a nice data port socket right behind my ear :) Walk up to any computer and just 'plug in' ... Ahhhhh The cure for Carpal Tunnel, the ultimate in Multitasking ....

    Someday ....

  • Sure, there are some usefull applications of this stuff, (wetdrives, replacing damaged nerve paths, and stuff from that previous article about the brain-sensors and implants.) but the demonstration this guy gave would be more likely to get applied in prisons for keeping track of prisoners and enforcing curfew.
    Seriously, what does his chip do? It reports his location and ID to sensors in the building. Do you really want to be permanently stuck with something like that? I'd rather carry ID like that outside of my body, thanks.
  • INTERFACE

    Stephen Bury
    ISBN 0-553-57240-7
  • Any chip that is implanted is certian to have IP rights owned by some big corp. Dealing with copyright and patenting laws in software is bad enought, I really don't want to deal with these kind of controls when it comes to my body. Further, if implanting chips becomes common it opens us up to a whole new era of surveillance and loss of privacy - it would be a trivial matter to put GPS (or whatever) into an implanted chip, and the NSA (or FBI, etc) will claim that they will only be used to find missing children.
  • I think that this technology might be useful for dedicated functions, but some of the ideas being floated here about implanted PCs, I think are fanciful. How do you upgrade, add more RAM, or secondary storage? With the pace of PC development you would need to have a zipper at the implant site. In order to have a Gateway style Your-ware program you would need to put a surgeon on retainer. Imagine having to wait at the doctor's office in order to get a defective unit repaired or replaced.
  • "They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown." - Carl Sagan

    If I can't turn the damn thing off -- if I can't *take* it off -- I don't want it.
  • I want to download MP3s directly into my brain... mmmmm lots of live They Might Be Giants bootlegs...
  • ...Exactly what I have been thinking since I first heard about it.

    The pacemakers that I have seen are very sophisticated. Many have a coil antenna inside the case that can be used to communicate with a good old PC through a simple transceiver plugged into the serial port. Logged data about the heart, pacemaker battery status and such can be dumped, and new operating parameters can be sent back.
  • It's basically an ID card, and I'd rather have a card in my wallet than a glass bauble in my arm. That bit about it possibly shattering during racquet ball was frightening. Ouch.

    Now, when it can do something other than transmit: HEY! PERSON #435823 IS APPROACHING, then there might be some potential.

    Let's face it, the real breakthrough will not be getting a chip into someone (oooh...we know how to sterilize stuff) but getting a chip into someone that actuall has an interface to living tissue.

    How about it? Anyone up for designing an interface that links to your optic or aural nerves? To hell with reading my email; I want to watch South Park.

  • "Hello, Professor Warwick," his PC announced when Warwick
    crossed the threshold of his office"

    Arrgh.. the talking doors of Sirius Cybernetics
    in the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.. why do I feel
    like Marvin all of a sudden?
    (but I _would_ like to get a two-way implant for improving my memory!)
  • What measures are they taking to stop the body from rejecting the chip? It isn't natural... but that's not to say it's wrong.

  • I'd love to have a chip in my arm. Think linux could be ported to some kind of medical implant?
    Then I could sit in #weirdness on the undernet and
    tout the fact that BitchX is running in my biceps.
  • revelations foretold this would happen "bearing the mark of the beast in their forehead or right hand)". The bible is true!
  • Prof Warwick is a publicity man, he's out to make his name, sell his books and promote the department of cybernetics at Reading University. I used to be there, he's a nice chap, but he comes out with the scare stories because that's all the mainstream media (and hacker web sites) are interested in.

    --

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