Teenager injects microchip into his hand
Fifteen-year-old Byron Wake may be the youngest person in the world to have an electronic chip implanted under his skin, a technological 'advance' we may all be using one day.
Want to get into your office, share contact details, or go through passport control? All may be done with the touch of a hand in the future, thanks to a tiny radio-frequency identification chip, hardly bigger than a grain of rice, implanted in your hand.
A Swedish company has already implanted microchips in employees' hands which allows them to open security doors, use photocopiers and even pay for lunch.
And Byron, a self-confessed techno "nerd", is discovering how useful a tag can be after ordering an XNT chip and insertion kit from the United States, and implanting it himself.
He believes that there are only 10,000 people worldwide using the tags, and that he is the youngest.
There has to be some sort of infrastructure to read the tag's ID.
Most android phones can do so and in the absence of a boss wanting to authorise him to be tagged to enter the office Byron is enjoying seeing his chip authorise phone actions.
"I can set it up to go to Bluetooth device, to pair with my Bluetooth speaker," he said demonstrating the device with the help of his smart phone at his home at Martock, near Yeovil.
He touches the phone to his hand, the speaker lights up nearby and music fills the room. It is just another experiment for a student who is aiming for a career in IT. His philosophy follows that of German Otto Lilienthal, who made the first successful glider flights, but died when his glider crashed on August 10 1896: "Sacrifices must be made".
Byron's parents Lilian and Nicholas were not delighted when they found out what he had done, especially when they learned that the kit's supplier recommends that the user should obtain the services of a registered nurse or medical doctor to make the implant. Byron explained that the kit is sterilised, he had followed instructions on how and where it should be inserted, and that the chip is encased in bio-safe glass, similar to the chips used to identify dogs.
"It's not as though I was pumping metal into my hand," he said.
The Department for Health has no advice on chips, because they are not medical devices, which has given some reassurance to Byron's parents.
But Mrs Wake said: "We're still not entirely certain about it."
Byron, a student at Huish Academy, already reviews equipment for Vodaphone, and will review the chip for its supplier, Amal Graafstra of Seattle-based dangerousthings.com
Byron has received support from Professor Kevin Warwick, the world's leading expert on cybernetics, who became the world's first 'cyborg' when he underwent an operation to surgically implant a silicon transponder chip in his forearm in the Department of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, back in 1998.
He went on to have an implant which allowed him to control an electric wheelchair and an intelligent artificial hand.
The professor, who is now deputy vice-chancellor (research) at Coventry University, said: "There is no risk to it. Quite a few people have them, but he may well be the youngest.
"There are all sorts of possibilities for it in the future and I think one is a device as an extra piece of information for a passport so that people could be dealt with more quickly.
"To fly the flag for the UK on this futuristic technology the first trial was in the UK and it is good to see this young man's interest."
But for some the technology begs the question, will "chipping" allow Big Brother to keep us under his eye, and leave future generations with an understandably big chip on their shoulders? WDP