Location tracking -- for people, products, places -- is fast coming into its own

It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where your _______ is?

In one operating room at Massachusetts General Hospital, doctors and nurses wear radio tags that register their comings and goings on a 42-inch television screen so other members of the medical team know who is attending the surgery at any given moment.

At an old-soldiers home in King, Wis., elderly residents who are at risk of wandering off carry a small wireless beacon that signals their location within a residential facility, and triggers an audio alert over the public address system when one gets close to a potentially risky area, such as a stairwell.

At the Illinois Institute of Technology, prospective students could take a self-guided tour using a tablet PC that spits out information on activities happening near where they are standing on the Chicago campus or gives them architectural highlights of the Mies van der Rohe building as they walk by.

Such tracking technologies, including new applications for Global Positioning Systems, are coming to a campus, cafe, or care center near you.

After years of false starts and underwhelming results, systems for locating people, places, and objects are finally finding themselves. Once the province of the fanciful imagination of Q from the James Bond series, location technologies are wending their way into ordinary business practices and extraordinary human applications, from monitoring the elderly to connecting a cardiac patient admitted to the emergency room with the nearest surgeon.

The advances are being aided by upgrades in hand-held and other mobile devices, which can now process prodigious amounts of data generated by navigation and related technologies. Communications networks are more robust and can provide more saturated coverage, and the costs of chip sets for GPS and other tracking technologies have fallen steeply.

Indeed, consumers are now so accepting of mobile devices such as cellphones that industry analysts predict they won't be reluctant to adopt this next wave of newfangled technologies.

''Everyone in the family now has a cellphone," said David H. Williams, whose firm, E911-LBS Consulting of Wilton, Conn., specializes in wireless technology. ''That change in consumer sentiment has made the time right to go the next level."

Not everyone is pleased about the technology's potential, however. Privacy advocates warn that tracking technologies can invite unwarranted snooping or unwanted spamming. Yet businesses are moving ahead with myriad uses, often in cases for which there is a real safety need to know where someone or something is.

LoJack Corp. of Westwood is exploring whether to market a version of its highly successful system that locates stolen vehicles to track at-risk people, such as Alzheimer's patients. Because Alzheimer's patients sometimes tear off valuables or accessories such as cellphones or watches when they wander, the tracking device would have to be secured to the person, said William Duvall, LoJack's chief technology officer. ''It would have to be a kind of bracelet, something not easy to get off," he said.

LoJack has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to use the same public safety radio frequency they use to track stolen vehicles to track people, hazardous materials shipments, or other ''cargo."

Another increasingly popular form of tracking is radio frequency identification, or RFID, a technology that use radio waves to transmit information that's stored on a silicon chip over tiny antennas, together called a ''tag," to a machine that can read it and process that data to a computer. Officials at several Boston hospitals, including MGH and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, are researching using RFID tags on patients, to track them through one station of care to another, and on doctors, to locate a specialist in an hurry.

''We could make stuff happen based on knowing when a patient is moving from one location to another," said Dr. John Halamka, chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconess. ''As they leave the emergency room, you could kick off a whole number of processes -- discharge papers or alerting a doctor when a patient has physically arrived in a room."

Beth Israel Deaconess is already using RFID tags to find critical devices within its sprawling emergency department. The hospital's wireless network detects the location of a tagged medical device and relays that information to a server, where it is mapped and displayed as an icon on a computerized floor plan.

The hospital is also studying another application: tagging doctors with RFID devices that can be read by medical computers. For example, computers in an operating room could detect an anesthesiologist entering the operating room and switch applications to display vital signs relevant for this particular specialist. The application would go beyond Mass. General's system, which simply displays the name of who is in the room. At Beth Israel, the doctor's detected presence would automatically initiate such things as a display of vital signs.

''The system is taking an intelligent guess, based on the proximity of the doctor, that it is most relevant to display this or that piece of information," said Richard Barnwell, chief technology officer for PanGo Networks Inc., of Framingham, which provides software Beth Israel uses to track equipment.

Meanwhile, the students who designed the computerized self-guided tour of the Illinois Institute of Technology have moved on from tablet PCs to a new vehicle: a Segway scooter. Students hope to have a working model of a Segway by December that will provide a verbal rundown of the sights and attractions, based on where the touring student is motoring at the moment, said Santhosh Meleppuram, a computer and electrical engineering major who currently heads the project. The system will use both GPS, to determine coordinates outside on the campus grounds, and a WiFi network for indoor location where GPS doesn't work as well.

The practical application for such technology needs to be simple to be effective, said Tuomo Rutanen, vice president of business development for Ekahau Inc., a Saratoga, Calif., firm that provides the software for both the Illinois and Wisconsin veterans' home tracking systems.

''The whole end-user experience has to be very transparent and very easy," he said.

It also has to be affordable, or location services will be just another wayward technology.

David H. Williams, the wireless consultant, said consumers can expect location services to be built into cellphones or PDAs or Internet service, and to pay extra monthly fees if they want to activate the system.

''You're not going to wind up buying the equipment," Williams said. ''Instead it's going to be the longer-term usage and ongoing service fees" that will make it profitable for providers and affordable to customers.

Posted October 17, 2005 ---------------------------

MasterCard Pursues No-Touch Retail

MasterCard International Inc. Vice President Oliver Steeley is working to make contactless payment available to millions of Americans. Contactless payment is where a customer authorizes a charge to a credit card without the credit card being touched, often by using a key fob, a smart credit card or a chip embedded in something else (such as a cell phone or wristwatch).

The authorization is sent to a reader wirelessly, from which it is then communicated to a POS (Point of Sale) unit, which might be a significant distance away.

The major card companies—including MasterCard, Visa International Service Assoc., American Express Co. and Discover Card—are embracing contactless payment for its convenience.

Credit card firms are also working to make it easier for retailers to use contactless payment in all kinds of purchases, including small purchases where cash would typically be preferred.

Steeley, MasterCard International's vice president of wireless payment devices, said he envisions a much more convenient world in which almost anything can become a virtual POS and MasterCard can play a major role.

A customer walking up to a display for a new movie, for example, could point a payment-enabled cell phone at one part of the display and instantly order movie tickets; another part of the display might download movie-themed ring tones for immediate use.

These ideas are just drawing board concepts and are years away from deployment, but they allow a sneak peek into the thinking of one of the world's largest credit card firms as it envisions a very different future.

Another scenario from Steeley would allow a consumer to take a picture on a cell phone, then tap the phone against a television to have it display the picture.

A video could be played through a home surround system. A phone conversation could continue while the consumer walks around the house, where a series of microphones turns a suburban colonial into the world's largest speaker phone.

Developments like these are the next logical step for the contactless technology already in use, such as key fobs that automate a customer's payment for cash at the pump (ExxonMobil's SpeedPass) and a visor-based chip that can speed cars through a tollbooth without ever stopping (EZPass).

MasterCard said it wants to take a central role in expanding contactless payment. But, Steeley said, the first step might very well be ditching the credit card itself and giving that payment power to some other device, most likely a cell phone.

"People think of MasterCard as a credit card company. But the truth is that we're about a payment brand and, in the future, we'll be less about the card itself," Steeley said. "The form factor issue is a crucial and critical one for the payments industry. Payments will be less about the cards and more about how devices communicate with one another."

David Robertson, publisher of credit card analysis firm The Nilson Report, said he agrees that contactless payments are leading the credit card companies in the next logical change.

"This is confirming the evolution of this industry. MasterCard and Visa were the first U.S. credit card companies. Then they were international credit card companies. Then they were international credit and debit card companies," Robertson said.

"At Visa, there are more debit card transactions than anything else. But people still think of them as a credit card company. With MasterCard, they still have more credit card transactions."

There has been lots of talk about the security of contactless payments, raising questions about the actual distance required to read the devices and how much of that might be useful to thieves intending to steal either money or identities.

Steeley sides with those who argue that contactless payments are neither safer nor riskier than the magstripes on which current cards depend. Contactless cards are safer in some ways and riskier in others, but overall, the new model appears to be a security wash, he said.

The most frequently cited argument for the safety of contactless devices is that they never leave the customer's possession. The counter argument is that thieves could theoretically read the data on a contactless card without the customer's knowledge, which is quite hard to do with a magstripe card.

Streeley agreed with these arguments, but added that the MasterCard devices are set to be accessed from "zero to four centimeters maximum. You have to be pretty friendly to me to get that close to my phone," he said.

Posted October 15, 2005 ---------------------------

              THE END TIMES - THE LAST DAYS - ARE UPON THE EARTH!

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

           THIS IS NO GAME! - THIS IS THE REAL THING! - DO NOT WAIT!

                            ------------------------------------------

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... Just a fingerprint reader?? When you get used to that what's next??? The back of your hand or forehead???

Consumers Give Thumbs Up to Biometrics

Regardless of whether your primary form of payment is credit card, debit card, check or cash, three out of five U.S. consumers believe that the unique image of their finger would be the most difficult form of identification to forge or steal, according to a recent national survey conducted by Los Angeles, CA-based Kelton Research Group.

In the survey titled "Changing Behaviors in Retail Commerce," consumer confidence in biometrics far exceeds confidence in a passport, photo ID, major credit card, birth certificate and signature combined.

Americans have reason to stress about identity fraud given the financial impact to their wallets, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of $52.6 billion and growing, according to the Identity Theft Survey, Javelin/Better Business Bureau. Credit card leader VISA International has acknowledged that the yearly cost of fraud worldwide is about $.05 per dollar.

The Changing Behaviors in Retail Commerce survey conducted by Kelton Research Group was commissioned by biometrics payment leader BioPay as a means of gathering insight into today's consumer payment preferences, behaviors and patterns. More and more retailers are considering advanced payment solutions such as biometrics because of the security advantages and financial savings to their businesses and increased convenience for consumers at checkout.

Among the findings in the survey by Kelton Research Group are:

-- The Identification of Choice. More Americans believe that finger images are a more secure form of identity than passports, credit cards, photo IDs, birth certificates and signatures combined (51% to 36%).

-- Women Take to Technology. Women under the age of 44 showed the most confidence in the use of finger image technology; 15 percent more than men of the same age (63 percent to 48 percent).

-- Payment at Checkouts - Faster Please. Forty-eight percent of those surveyed blame long check-out lines on people who wait until the last minute to find their credit or debit card. Another 20 percent believe check writing is burdensome to the shopping transaction as well.

"There is a great deal of routine and consistency in the American form of retail payment," explains Walter Hamilton, Chairman of the International Biometric Industry Association. "However, this research commissioned by BioPay begins to tell a story of America's waning comfort in traditional forms of payment fraught with fraud and their openness to biometric-based payment technology that delivers more convenience and security than what's available in the marketplace."

Until recently, merchants and consumers had to rely on traditional forms of payment such as check, debit and credit card transactions. Merchants can eliminate as much as 75 percent of their transaction costs associated with a VISA or American Express if they opt for a biometric solution from Herndon, Virginia-based BioPay. BioPay has processed 17 million transactions in excess of $6.9 billion.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, 42 percent of identity theft cases involve credit card fraud. More than one in three Americans has either misplaced, had stolen or forgotten their wallet, credit card, check book or ID at least occasionally, reports Kelton Research.

How Biometrics Works Compared to Other Technologies

The BioPay system uses a person's unique finger image and their chosen BioPay number (usually a phone number) to authorize a secured debit direct from their checking account or other payment accounts. One-time enrollment takes less than two minutes and can be completed at any merchant that offers the biometric payment service. Once enrolled, the customer can make a purchase with their finger in seconds at any BioPay Payments location across the United States. The BioPay service is free to the consumer.

RFID is a technology that allows the user to carry a small "transmitter" in a key fob (like Mobil's SpeedPass) or on a credit card (like Chase's Blink). While RFID applications provide the speed, they still require the consumer to carry something (which is less convenient than their finger) and provide inferior security than a biometric match can provide.

"Our goal is to provide the convenience of a secure, wallet-less world where a person can buy coffee or shop for groceries without the inconvenience and vulnerability of a wallet loaded with credit cards and cash," explains Tim Robinson, president of BioPay. "We also believe that retailers pay too much in credit and debit card fees, and BioPay solves that problem. With merchant pricing that starts at a nickel per transaction, BioPay is not only dramatically less expensive than VISA's typical two percent fee, but we effectively compete with the cost of processing a cash transaction.

Posted October 14, 2005 ---------------------------

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... Just a fingerprint reader?? When you get used to that what's next??? The back of your hand or forehead???

Pay By Touch Coming To A Grocery Store Near You

A San Francisco start-up, Pay By Touch Solutions, is expected to announce today $130 million in fresh financing for a novel way of paying for groceries and other goods and services: a machine that reads your fingerprint.

The capital raised -- $55 million of it in convertible notes and $75 million in loans -- will help the company build out its finger-reading payment systems at several nationwide retailers, including in California in the first quarter of next year.

The company has already rolled out its so-called ``biometric'' payment system in a ``couple of hundred'' stores, mostly on the East Coast.

Here's how it works: Customers sign up once, by registering a checking account or a credit card, and showing government identification such as a driver's license. The Pay by Touch technology records the lines and ridges of their fingerprints, and translates the data into a numerical algorithm that is stored in a secure database. The customers thereafter never have to carry a wallet or purse back to the store, and can use their finger to pay for goods across the Pay By Touch network, which now includes stores in 10 states.

Most recently, Pay By Touch announced the system had been implemented across 85 stores in the Piggly Wiggly Carolina grocery chain. The company has also signed a half-dozen contracts with other supermarket chains, including two of the top five in the country, said John Morris, president and chief operating officer.

The goal, said Morris, is to be the dominant player in the biometric transactions area.

Installing the hardware costs a couple of hundred dollars per lane, said Morris, for which capital needs to be raised upfront. Pay By Touch is sharing the cost of each installation, and it gets a fee per transaction of between 12 and 14 cents, he said.

That is cheaper than what stores pay for alternative payment methods, he explained. A credit card transaction typically costs a store about 60 cents for an average $25 purchase of groceries. A debit card costs a store about 50 cents, and a paper check costs 39 cents. Even cash costs a store about 19 cents, after things like handling, shrinkage and the cost of an armored car are factored in, he said.

Pay By Touch will also help manage discount and other store loyalty programs. Customers will be able to swipe their finger into a device at restaurants and see the meals they have already purchased, and waiters can offer them deals based on their preferences and so on, said Morris. The company also wants to introduce the system to the health care arena so that patients can use it for payments and records.

Executive Vice President Gus Spanos said the company sought the large financing on the assumption that there was interest in funding such a deal. ``The capital markets were very open to us,'' he said.

Posted October 13, 2005 ---------------------------

Spychips Sees an RFID Conspiracy

A new book by privacy advocates makes the case that corporations and government agencies are in collusion to put tiny radio transmitters on nearly everything we buy. Companies say it's about providing thought leadership, not the Mark of the Beast.

Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre hope to become the twin Erin Brockoviches of RFID, by revealing the threat posed by the radio tag replacements for barcode labels.

How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID. An RFID tag sewn into a brand name clothing label, discovered at a trade show by Katherine Albrecht. An RFID tag after a round in the microwave. 'Don't try this at home,' write the authors of Spychips. A public advertising display that responds to the RFID tags in a person's pockets and customizes his experience. Katherine Albrecht examines RFID-tagged shampoo bottles at a German retail store.

They may get their wish, if readers believe the conclusions of the privacy advocates' new book, Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID.

Albrecht and McIntyre make a staggering accusation in Spychips: that Philips, Procter and Gamble, Gillette, NCR and IBM are conspiring with each other and the federal government to follow individual consumers everywhere, using embedded radio tags planted in their clothing and belongings.

The businesses, who form the center of the RFID industry, hope to wirelessly monitor the contents of consumers' refrigerators, medicine cabinets, basement workbenches -- even their garbage pails, the book claims.

These companies have long insisted they are interested only in making their supply chains run more smoothly.

The authors, who run the consumer privacy rights group Caspian, support their assertions with company documents, records of patents and patent applications, and statements made by RFID industry leaders at corporate events.

They also cite magazine articles and news reports in which industry executives appear to be rubbing their hands over the power of RFID tags to track consumers. In one example, Gillette vice president of global business management Dick Cantwell in quoted in a 2001 Technology Review article as saying he looks forward to the company using (RFID) readers "to track consumer use of its products at home."

Those who have been following the RFID privacy debate will find no shocking revelations of smoking guns in Spychips. But by assembling in one place a vast amount of documentation and history, and stretching it all together into a coherent narrative, the authors clearly hope to reach a broad group of ordinary consumers -- enough, perhaps, to mobilize a movement against the technology.

Spychips is published by the Christian media publisher Thomas Nelson, and a forthcoming Christian edition of the book will contain an additional chapter linking RFID to the Mark of the Beast passage in the Bible's Book of Revelation, as well as "minor updates throughout the text to reflect Christian concerns," said Albrecht.

The Spychips Threat: Why Christians Should Oppose RFID Technology and Surveillance is due out in January 2006.

While the authors' religious motives might make the books easier for critics to dismiss, others note that successful consumer exposés are rarely written in an academic style by researchers with PhDs.

"Unsafe at Any Speed and Silent Spring were not written by academics," said Ronald Shaiko, a senior fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences at Dartmouth. "The Jungle (about Chicago's meat packing industry) was a novel," he said.

All of those books caused U.S. laws to change, said Shaiko.

As described by Albrecht and McIntyre, the RFID "conspiracy" amounts to more of a marriage of convenience between corporate and government interests. Marketers believe RFID tags on goods will help them figure out what makes a shopper pick an item off a shelf and put it back, while the government may want to use the tags to monitor individuals suspected of crimes or under the scrutiny of state social workers.

RFID will help officials "ensure the well-being of the people they serve" through contact with social workers monitoring people in their homes, according to one patent application filed by Big Five consulting firm Accenture, described in Spychips.

The authors also relate imagined scenarios in which stalkers and lechers armed with handheld, rogue RFID readers terrorize and humiliate their prey.

Procter and Gamble spokeswoman Jeannie Tharrington declined to comment on Spychips, saying the company had not had the opportunity to review the book, which goes on sale Tuesday. But she wrote in an e-mail that the company "remains committed to protecting consumer privacy while moving forward with our plans to continue testing and learning about the cost and benefits" of RFID.

An executive who handles RFID business at NCR division Teradata believes the Spychips' authors took much of their source material out of context in spinning their conspiracy theory. Companies in the RFID industry are in the business of imagining every conceivable application for the technology, he said.

"That's part of creating thought leadership," said Richard Beaver, director for retail offer development at Teradata. "Many of the documents we produce or use are concept documents. You can make all kinds of assumptions about the future (based on them)."

Posted October 12, 2005 ---------------------------

VeriChip(TM) Named Among Top 20 New Products of the Year by Access Control & Security Systems Magazine

VeriChip Corporation, a subsidiary of Applied Digital (NASDAQ:ADSX) and the world's premier RFID company for people, announced today that VeriChip(TM) was named as a finalist in Access Control & Security Systems magazine's 2005 Top 20 New Products competition.

About VeriChip -- "RFID for people"

VeriChip is a subsidiary of Applied Digital and provides state-of-the-art RFID security solutions that identify, locate, and protect people, their assets, and their environments. From the world's first and only FDA-cleared, human-implantable RFID microchip to the only active RFID tag with patented skin sensing capabilities, VeriChip's technology ensures the safety and security organizations are looking for. Its market-leading infant protection, wander prevention, asset tracking, and patient identification applications make VeriChip the predominant RFID solutions provider in the healthcare industry. And today, VeriChip systems are installed in over 4,000 locations worldwide in healthcare, security, industrial, and government markets making it the world's premier RFID company for people. For more information on VeriChip, please visit www. verichipcorp .com.

About Applied Digital -- "The Power of Identification Technology"

Applied Digital develops innovative identification and security products for consumer, commercial, and government sectors worldwide. The Company's unique and often proprietary products provide identification and security systems for people, animals, the food supply, government/military arena, and commercial assets. Included in this diversified product line are RFID applications, end-to-end food safety systems, GPS/Satellite communications, and telecomm and security infrastructure, positioning Applied Digital as the leader in identification technology. Applied Digital is the owner of a majority position in Digital Angel Corporation.

Statements about the Company's future expectations, including future revenues and earnings, and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, and the Company's actual results could differ materially from expected results. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequently occurring events or circumstances.

Posted October 11, 2005 ---------------------------

              THE END TIMES - THE LAST DAYS - ARE UPON THE EARTH!

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

           THIS IS NO GAME! - THIS IS THE REAL THING! - DO NOT WAIT!

                            ------------------------------------------

CHEP Announces Its Latest RFID Innovation: 3-in-1 Tag

CHEP today announced their latest RFID product innovation here at the 7th CGCSA/ECR-SA Conference. The company showcased the new 3-in-1 tag, which provides the facility to be read through RFID, Bar code, or visually using a human readable identification number.

CHEP is an industry leader in supply chain RFID research, and incorporated important findings from its practical experience in RFID implementations. The new tag innovation demonstrates a number of key features:

* Multi-mode readability (RFID, Bar-code and Visual identification), reducing the need for installation of RFID readers in all supply chain locations

* Total conformance to EPCglobal standards

* Full Read-Write capability, with two pages of user memory enabling CHEP customers to temporarily write product-related information, such as serial shipping container code (SSCC) to the tag, whilst permanently identifying the CHEP asset

* Unique packaging format that both protects the tag from external interference (metals and moisture), and optimizes the readability of the tag with standard EPC readers

* Clear identification of the tag through coloring and high quality symbology printing

The first application of this innovative tag solution will be in CHEP's United States Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC) business. These containers are used to ship liquid raw materials and food ingredients. The new tag design is particularly appropriate for the metallic construction of the IBC and the liquid contents. Through the deployment of the 3-in-1 tag, CHEP customers will be able to further improve their product trace ability.

"We are delighted to bring this exciting innovation to the market," notes Jurie Welman, President, CHEP Africa/Middle East. "Such innovation in RFID deployment demonstrates our commitment to supply chain efficiencies and we believe it will help our customers comply with the ever increasing requirement for trace ability across the supply chain."

"This solution allows all CHEP customers to improve data capture for product tracking purposes irrespective of their readiness for reading RFID tags," concludes Brian Beattie, Senior Vice President, Marketing, CHEP.

About CHEP

CHEP is the global leader in pallet and container pooling, serving many of the world's largest companies. With global headquarters based in Orlando, Florida, CHEP operates in 42 countries around the world, with a global staff compliment of over 7,700 people. Combining superior technology, over five decades of experience and an asset base of more than 265 million pallets and containers, CHEP handles pallet and container supply chain logistics for customers in the consumer goods, produce, meat, home improvement, beverage, raw materials and automotive industries. With global partners that include Procter & Gamble, SYSCO, Kellogg's, Kraft, Nestle, Ford and GM, CHEP is known for Handling the World's Most Important Products. Everyday. For more information about CHEP, please visit: www.chep.com.

Posted October 8, 2005 ---------------------------

Banker Gets ID Chip Implant

To help publicize a company that makes microchips that can be implanted in humans for identification purposes, a prominent San Francisco banker got "chipped" Monday so that his living will is just a scan away if he ever becomes seriously ill.

Before some 40 investors and entrepreneurs in San Francisco, Jon Merriman, chairman and CEO of investment firm Merriman Curhan Ford & Co., was injected with a rice-sized radio frequency identification (RFID) tag in his upper arm.

Mr. Merriman said he got "chipped" partly to support Florida-based VeriChip, saying he was "taking one for the team." He also said he wanted the chip to enable swift access to his living will information should he became disabled.

The chip was an answer to his "increasing paranoia of having the specific provisions in his living will executed" in a worst case scenario, said Mr. Merriman, who does not have any serious medical conditions.

The RFID market, which commonly tracks goods in a supply chain and streamlines factories, is estimated to become a multibillion-dollar industry over the next five years. But whether or not implanting RFID tags in humans will become popular is still highly controversial.

The stunt, which the company called a "live chipping," makes Mr. Merriman only one of roughly 50 people in the United States who have received an implanted RFID tag. The tag was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last October.

But Mr. Merriman was not bothered by the early stage of the application, saying, "I am psyched to be at the forefront of this technology."

Sales from the implantable RFID are expected to grow to $5 million in 2006 and $25 million in 2007, said VeriChip CEO Scott Silverman, who also has been implanted with the company's chip. Mr. Silverman said chipping has yet to catch on as many people aren't aware of its benefits and others are concerned about privacy issues.

"The biggest market barrier is education," said Mr. Silverman.

The company sells its chips to industries like healthcare and security. The chip is implanted right under the skin with a syringe and then can be read by a reader enabling applications in fields that require location tracking and quick identification.

For example, several Mexican government officials received the chip for security purposes to combat kidnapping attempts.

In a healthcare setting, hospital staff could use a patient's RFID chip to quickly pull up the patient's information quickly, even if the patient were unable to communicate with the caregiver.

Critics say privacy concerns are a big issue for implanting RFID tags in humans because the radio signal emitted from the tag could be tracked by any unknown source. An implanted chip could potentially expose the wearer to anyone looking to use the information for harm, if the chip could unlock personal or medical information.

Critics also point to the fact that millions of pets already have a similar system with implanted ID tags. As the critics see it, implanting chips in humans could lead to negative associations and might deter customers from getting chipped.

But the company is no stranger to high-profile public moves.

In July, Tommy Thompson, the former head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, joined the company's board to back the chip company and promote its health and security applications.

Though Mr. Thompson has not been chipped yet, VeriChip said he is "trying to schedule the procedure between his travel and his other commitments."

VeriChip debuted its technology by chipping clubbers at a bar in Spain, enabling customers to use a bar tab by swiping their arms under an RFID reader.

Last Friday, the company said it had started chipping corpses in the hurricane-affected Gulf Coast region.

The company said it had implanted RFID tags into 100 corpses for the Mississippi State Department of Health, and is also in talks with Louisiana health authorities.

"These bodies are in an advanced stage of decomposition," said John Procter, VeriChip's director of communications. "Many of them have no identification marks, no wallets, no IDs. In some cases a toe tag is not even viable.

Posted October 3, 2005 ---------------------------

Just wave and pay

Say goodbye to swiping your card. Now you can just wave it. Consumers in Western New York and other parts of the country will soon have a new way to pay for their Big Mac, Slurpee, drugs or movies.

Rather than sliding their credit, debit, or prepaid card through a reader or giving it up to a store clerk, they can just flash their card or key chain attachment in front of the machine or tap it and be on their way. No need to sign a receipt or get change, and no need for long lines.

Just as with the EZ Pass toll system for highways and bridges, or Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Speed Pass for gas, the new "contactless" system uses radio frequency waves, or RFID, to transmit encoded information. You have to be very close to the receiver, but there's no need to give up your card to a clerk or insert it into a machine to read the magnetic stripe. And there's no need to dig for cash or coins.

"It is the new wave," said Dave Jentsch, senior vice president of card products for HSBC Bank USA. "People don't want to have to swipe a card and then wait to either sign a receipt or enter PINs. They want to get in, get out and pay quickly."

Such "contactless" payments are the newest effort by banks, credit card companies and merchants to extend the reach of plastic payments and reduce Americans' reliance on cash. The goal is to make it possible to pay for small-dollar purchases by using credit or debit cards where they haven't been used before, but without tying up the consumer and merchant.

Banks and merchants say the electronic payments are faster, easy, more secure and more convenient than cash, and they're cheaper for the business to handle. And by accepting fast plastic for purchases, merchants hope to bring in more business - and larger purchases - from consumers who are in a hurry or who don't have enough cash on them.

"Those merchants recognize that people don't want to stand in line," said Tom O'Donnell, senior vice president of marketing for J.P. Morgan Chase's Card Services division. "Customers will keep driving if the line is too long, if there's too many sets of taillights, or if there's too many people parked at the convenience store."

For consumers, no signature or personal identification number is required for purchases of less than $25. And bankers say using cards means it's easier for consumers to track spending.

"Right now, if you take out $50 from the ATM, by the end of the day it's gone, and you're sitting there scratching your head trying to figure out where did it go," said David Sanderson, debit card product manager for Cleveland-based KeyCorp.

Such pie-in-the-sky initiatives have been unsuccessfully tried before - witness the colossal failure of "smart" cards in the United States because of a lack of participation. But the contactless movement - known as "tap 'n go" or "wave 'n pay" - appears to be for real.

Three major credit card brands and several major U.S. banks and card issuers - including KeyBank, HSBC, and J.P. Morgan - have already begun issuing contactless credit and debit cards to customers, using the same technology standards to ensure consistency. All of the cards also can still be used with traditional magnetic stripe readers.

Key said in August that it would issue 2.1 million MasterCard Paypass contactless debit cards to existing and new customers, beginning Sept. 1. HSBC followed this month, also with PayPass, and will reissue 1 million cards by year-end.

And major merchants like 7-Eleven, CVS Corp., McDonald's Corp., Ritz Camera Centers and Regal Entertainment Group have started - or even completed - rolling out new machines that can read the cards. CVS and 7-Eleven expect to have terminals in 5,300 locations each by early 2006, while Ritz will install them in 1,100 of its shops.

McDonald's, which has been looking at electronic payments for five years, now has 8,000 U.S. restaurants accepting contactless payments, and 12,000 accepting cashless payments. The cost is subsidized by MasterCard International.

"It's going very well for us," said spokesman Bill Whitman. "This is something that our customers see tremendous value in, given that it helps speed service at the front counter and the drive-thru, whenever they come into our restaurants. Anything that benefits our customers is of great interest to us."

Locally, contactless card readers are already in place at a number of CVS drugstores and McDonald's locations, but the cards are just getting into consumers' hands so there's not much use yet.

But merchants are eager for that to change. "We'll be able to provide quicker service," said Lori Tschohl, owner of four McDonald's. "By the time they tap their card or slide their card, it's actually faster than having to give them change."

However, consumers locally have mixed feelings. Dwayne Cox, 54, of Buffalo, eating breakfast at Tschohl's McDonald's on William Street, said he would use such a card if he had it. "It sounds good. You wouldn't have to have money when you went out," he said.

"It's easier and simple," agreed 25-year-old Nefertiti Abernathy of Buffalo.

But Paul Walker of Buffalo was more reticent. "It would be something I'd have to think about," said the 57-year-old McDonald's patron. "I'd have to know more about it. You have to know about things before you use them."

The financial services industry has been aggressively pushing more transactions into electronic form, either through credit, debit or prepaid cards, or by converting checks to electronic transactions. That reduces the need to use cash and checks, which cost more for banks, merchants and the government to hold, safeguard, transport and process.

It also ensures the U.S. payments system can't be interrupted by natural disasters or terrorism disrupting travel. And bankers say it increases business for them and develops customer loyalty.

But one holdout area has been cash-intensive businesses that handle mostly small transactions, like fast-food restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores, movie theaters, parking garages, transit services and unstaffed vending areas. These businesses generated $160 billion in U.S. sales in 2002, with 95 percent of them cash, according to Ariana Michele-Moore of Celent Communications, a research firm.

Such businesses rely on speed and convenience to satisfy customers, so card purchases took too long because of the need to connect to the computer system, get approval and sign receipts. Also, the credit card network fees were too high.

Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard, together with their member banks, developed a faster processing method, and cheaper merchant fees, for small transactions. They've been actively promoting it to merchants, who want to reduce lines and encourage more spending.

The contactless cards and other devices are the latest attempt down that road. They contain small microchips and radio frequency antennas that send out a limited wireless signal. The signal, which is encrypted, contains a one-time use card number for each transaction.

It's read by the receiver on the payment terminal, which sends the information through the regular payment system to be decoded and approved. The receiver will light up and beep to acknowledge the transaction.

All of the cards, machines and technology use the same technology standard, so that any contactless card will work with any contactless reader, regardless of issuer or merchant. And since the transactions are going through the major credit card networks, they will work at any merchant who is part of the network and has the reader.

To ensure security for consumers, the signal is only good for up to four inches, and is only activated when the card comes in range of high-frequency radio waves emitted by the receiver. The signal can be read through a wallet - so you could just tap the wallet without ever taking the card out - but the customer must be in front of the machine.

"You have to have a payment that's tee-ed up and ready to be paid, and you have to bring the card within close range of the reader," O'Donnell said. "It has to be a very intentional act."

The terminal can only read one card at a time. The tight distance and encryption also means it's not that easy to steal the signal. And since it's still a credit or debit card, consumers have the same protections as before.

"People don't have to be concerned if they walk next to the terminal if they're going to pay for someone else's groceries," Key's Sanderson said. "We wouldn't have gotten into it if there were any flaws."

***REVELATION 13:16 "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

Posted  September 30, 2005 ---------------------------

THE END TIMES - THE LAST DAYS - ARE UPON THE EARTH!

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

THIS IS NO GAME! - THIS IS THE REAL THING! - DO NOT WAIT!

                            ------------------------------------------

Hospitals Track More Patients With RFID

Hospitals in Connecticut, Alabama, and Pennsylvania are using RFID to improve equipment management and to track patient and staff movement.

Randianse, of Lawrence, Mass., announced that it has installed its active RFID indoor positioning solution at Yale-New Haven Hospital to increase efficiency, enhance safety and reduce costs. It will cover nearly 1,000 pieces of medical equipment and managers, allowing convenient tracking with web-based searches. Later this year, the Connecticut hospital will add patient location, using a wrist-sized device.

PinnacleHealth Hospitals in Harrisburg, Pa., has installed the system for real-time patient location with time stamps to improve communication and efficiency. St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, Ala., a member of Ascension Health, is also using the system to track some patients.

Dr. Craig Wisman, vice president of medical affairs for Pinnacle Health said in a statement that he strongly supports indoor positioning. He said it allows staff to find patients easily and determine whether they are prepared for medical procedures.

Radianse has installed similar systems in Massachusetts and Missouri.

The Last Days - The End Times - ARE HERE! - Get ready - Get ready - Get ready - Jesus is coming!

REVELATION 13:16 & 17 "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

Posted  September 29, 2005 ---------------------------

Chipping Controversy

Critics say privacy concerns are a big issue for implanting RFID tags in humans because the radio signal emitted from the tag could be tracked by any unknown source. An implanted chip could potentially expose the wearer to anyone looking to use the information for harm, if the chip could unlock personal or medical information.

VeriChip said its RFID tags only contain an anonymous 16-code number that can be entered into a database for applications, but which the company said is meaningless if the code is read on its own.

Critics also point to the fact that millions of pets already have a similar system with implanted ID tags. As the critics see it, implanting chips in humans could lead to negative associations and might deter customers from getting chipped.

But the company is no stranger to high-profile public moves.

In July, Tommy Thompson, the former head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, joined the company’s board to back the chip company and promote its health and security applications.

Though Mr. Thompson has not been chipped yet, VeriChip said he is “trying to schedule the procedure between his travel and his other commitments.”

VeriChip debuted its technology by chipping clubbers at a bar in Spain, enabling customers to use a bar tab by swiping their arms under an RFID reader.

============

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... Is this setting a president for YOU???

Katrina corpses implanted with RFID chips

A company that makes ID chips for humans said this week it has started "chipping" corpses in the Katrina-ravaged region of Mississippi to help expedite the identification process.

Florida-based VeriChip said it has already implanted radio frequency identification (RFID) tags into 100 corpses in the state for the Mississippi State Department of Health.

"These bodies are in an advanced stage of decomposition," said John Procter, VeriChip's director of communications. "Many of them have no identification marks, no wallets, no IDs. In some cases a toe tag is not even viable."

Mr. Procter said the procedure costs $200 to tag each corpse, though the company is providing the service for free.

Using RFID tags to ID corpses is the company's latest move in the growing field of RFID, which is expected to one day replace barcode technology. The RFID market, which commonly tracks goods in a supply chain and streamlines factories, is estimated to become a multibillion-dollar industry over the next five years.

Last October, the company received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a rice-sized chip that's implantable in humans. The company implants the device with a syringe under the skin of its customers.

The chip can then be read by a reader enabling applications in fields that require location tracking and quick identification. The company sells its service to the security and health industries.

For example, several Mexican government officials received the chip for security purposes to combat kidnapping attempts.

In a healthcare setting, hospital staff could use a patient's RFID chip to quickly pull up the patient's information quickly, even if the patient were unable to communicate with the caregiver.

But chipping people remains highly controversial.

Critics say privacy concerns are a big issue because the radio signal emitted from the tag could be tracked by any unknown source. An implanted chip could potentially expose the wearer to anyone looking to use the information for harm, if the chip could unlock personal or medical information.

Critics also point to the fact that millions of pets already have a similar system with implanted ID tags. As the critics see it, implanting chips in humans could lead to negative associations and might deter customers from getting chipped.

If the past is any guide, it's likely that tracking corpses will also raise ethical concerns. For instance, would the person consent to disclosure of personal information contained in the chip after the death?

But the company is no stranger to high-profile public moves.

On September 19, the company plans to publicly chip a "senior executive" of the investment bank Merriman Curhan Ford in downtown San Francisco.

In July, the former head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, joined the company's board to back the chip company and promote its health and security applications.

Though Mr. Thompson has not been chipped yet, VeriChip said he is "trying to schedule the procedure between his travel and his other commitments."

VeriChip debuted its technology by chipping clubbers at a bar in Spain, enabling customers to use a bar tab by swiping their arms under an RFID reader.

------------------------------------------

REVELATION 13:16 & 17 "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

Posted  September 28, 2005 ---------------------------

Texas Bill Would Require Transponders in All Cars

A bill introduced in the Texas House of Representatives by Larry Phillips, Vice-Chairman of the Transportation Committee, would require electronic transponders to be built-into state automobile inspection stickers. This new device would be initially used to allow an roadside verification of every passing vehicle's insurance information. A car with expired insurance information would be mailed a $250 ticket.

Each transponder would transmit the vehicle's VIN, insurance policy number, license plate number and any other information the DMV requires. The legislation creates a database of every Texas automobile insurance policy to allow the checks. The transponder would also operate with Texas toll roads.

Anyone who does not receive or respond to the mailed ticket would have his license and vehicle registration suspended.

=================

Sales from the human implantable RFID are expected to grow

VeriChip, a subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions, counts less than $1 million in revenue annually from its human implant business. The company attributes the rest of its revenue to pet ID implants and RFID-enabled medical ID bracelets.

Sales from the implantable RFID are expected to grow to $5 million in 2006 and $25 million in 2007, said VeriChip CEO Scott Silverman, who also has been implanted with the company’s chip. Mr. Silverman said chipping has yet to catch on as many people aren’t aware of its benefits and others are concerned about privacy issues.

“The biggest market barrier is education,” said Mr. Silverman.

The company sells its chips to industries like healthcare and security. The chip is implanted right under the skin with a syringe and then can be read by a reader enabling applications in fields that require location tracking and quick identification.

For example, several Mexican government officials received the chip for security purposes to combat kidnapping attempts.

In a healthcare setting, hospital staff could use a patient’s RFID chip to quickly pull up the patient’s information quickly, even if the patient were unable to communicate with the caregiver.

Posted  September 27, 2005 ---------------------------

Texas Department of Transportation to instate RFID TxTag

The Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) selects TransCore's eGo(R) Plus radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for use in the area's Central Texas Turnpike Program, a $2 billion transportation initiative. The multimillion-dollar contract allows for the initial release of 500,000 eGo Plus tags, branded locally as TxTag, with a total of 2 million tags over two years.

The Central Texas Turnpike Program was designed to increase mobility by adding capacity and reducing congestion in the region. The Texas Transportation Institute's 2005 Urban Mobility Report singled out electronic toll collection as one of several key tools for reducing congestion. Incorporating toll roads is gaining support nationally because it provides a means to build roads more rapidly than possible with traditional funding, particularly because it allows roads to operate according to the rules of consumer choice.

According to the report, over the last 10 years in 85 major U.S. urban areas, the annual delay increased almost 20 percent. During peak travel times, the figure is closer to 40 percent, and the cost of these delays is well over $60 billion, up 60 percent.

RELATED:

Beaten but not dead: Texas HB 2893, Replacing All Vehicle Inspection Stickers with RFID Tags

Perry's freeway tolling authority Withholding Public Information.

Federal Effort to Create "Next Generation" Intelligent Transportation System Means GPS tracking and Toll Roads for Everyone

Privatization of US Toll Roads and Other Infrastructure Gaining Speed

Plans to Turn All Major US Roads into a Toll Roads

Highway bill could pave way toward more tolls on interstates

"At a time nationally when there is a real need to come to grips with congestion, TXDOT is taking major strides to increase volume while improving efficiency of the state's transportation infrastructure," said John Worthington, TransCore president.

As the network of toll roads grows in Texas, interoperability of the tags used for wireless payment is essential for motorists who want to use one tag in many parts of the state. The particularly appealing benefit of TXDOT's selection of the eGo technology, along with the paper-thin, lower cost design, is the interoperability (or multiprotocol) feature that allows motorists to use the wireless payment feature on toll roads throughout Texas. In Houston and Dallas interoperability between tolling systems has been available since November of 2003, allowing nearly two million TollTag and EZTag users the convenience of wireless payment on four major toll roads in both cities.

Texas joins other authorities such as the Georgia State Road and Tollway Authority; Puerto Rico's Highway and Transportation Authority; Shenzhen Customs in Shenzhen, China; the Washington State Department of Transportation; and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency in choosing the landmark design capabilities of the eGo RFID technology for large-scale applications. More than one million eGo tags are already in active service worldwide.

Posted  September 24, 2005 ---------------------------

Banker Gets ID Chip Implant

To help publicize a company that makes microchips that can be implanted in humans for identification purposes, a prominent San Francisco banker got “chipped” Monday so that his living will is just a scan away if he ever becomes seriously ill.

Before some 40 investors and entrepreneurs in San Francisco, John Merriman, chairman and CEO of investment firm Merriman Curhan Ford & Co., was injected with a rice-sized radio frequency identification (RFID) tag in his upper arm.

Mr. Merriman said he got “chipped” partly to support Florida-based VeriChip, saying he was “taking one for the team.” He also said he wanted the chip to enable swift access to his living will information should he became disabled.

The chip was an answer to his “increasing paranoia of having the specific provisions in his living will executed” in a worst case scenario, said Mr. Merriman, who does not have any serious medical conditions.

Mr. Merriman's firm is an advisor to VeriChip but the bank hasn't invested in the company, VeriChip said.

The RFID market, which commonly tracks goods in a supply chain and streamlines factories, is estimated to become a multibillion-dollar industry over the next five years. But whether or not implanting RFID tags in humans will become popular is still highly controversial.

The stunt, which the company called a “live chipping,” makes Mr. Merriman only one of roughly 50 people in the United States who have received an implanted RFID tag. The tag was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last October.

But Mr. Merriman was not bothered by the early stage of the application, saying, “I am psyched to be at the forefront of this technology.”

Posted  September 23, 2005 ---------------------------

About eGo(R) Plus Technology

The paper-thin eGo Plus tag, priced under $10, a significant cost savings compared to many of the current hard case battery tags that typically sell for $25 to $30, is similar in size to a vehicle inspection sticker and mounts easily on a motorist's windshield.

The eGo Plus sticker tag is a 915 MHz radio frequency programmable, beam-powered, windshield-mounted tag. Packaged as a flexible sticker, this tag is ideal for applications that require low-cost, easily installed tags and is appropriate for electronic toll collection, airport access and ground transportation management systems, parking access, and security access. The tag supports multiple protocols, making it easy to migrate from a mixed-tag population to a common tag.

The eGo Plus, non-battery sticker tag offers a read range of up to 31.5 feet (9.6 meters) and 2048-bit read/write memory at a fraction of the cost of older, less flexible RFID technology. The tag provides the capability to read, write, rewrite, or permanently lock individual bytes. Custom printing and labeling is also available.

Each eGo Plus sticker tag comes equipped with a factory-programmed unique tag identification number that prevents the tag from being duplicated. The eGo Plus sticker tag is read by TransCore's family of readers, which are configurable to support a protocol compliant with ANSI INCITS 256-2001 and ISO 10374 standards, and the ATA Standard for automatic equipment identification.

Posted  September 22, 2005 ---------------------------

Lawmaker Wants Texas Registration Stickers To Have Microchips

Texans who own cars, trucks or SUVs may get a new high tech sticker on their car if one state legislator has his way.

Republican representative Larry Phillips of Sherman wants Texas drivers to get an inspection sticker that is embedded with a microchip.

The chip would house information about the owner's vehicle, registration and insurance coverage.

There is no word if the proposal will make it out of committee.

Posted  September 21, 2005 ---------------------------

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... A FRONT TO THE EVENTUAL CHIPPING OF LIVE PEOPLE??? THE MARK OF THE BEAST SYSTEM???...

RFID tags used to track Hurricane Katrina dead

The US Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team and health officials in Mississippi's Harrison County are implanting human cadavers with RFID chips from VeriChip

...in an effort to speed up the process of identifying victims and providing information to families, VeriChip said on Friday September 16, 2005.

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... Will this be the forerunner to THE MARK OF THE BEAST SYSTEM??? Will this lead to excuses to put these chips into live people??? Oh I know you think I am crazy but I tell you the TRUTH - all this is following a plan and that plan is anti-christ.

REVELATION 13:16+17 "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

================

TxTag allows one RFID tag ET in Dallas, Houston

Texas' effort at providing interoperability between the big electronic toll (ET) systems of Dallas and Houston bear fruit Oct 6 2003 with the introduction of TxTag, a brandname for interoperability, due to be recognized eventually throughout the state. The logo will be on display wherever interoperability is implemented. Until now the TollTags of the North Texas Turnpike Authority (NTTA) in Dallas and the EZ-TAGS of the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) in Houston have not been able to work with the equipment of the other, even though they are physically similar old generation Amtech passive backscatter ET systems.

For the moment Houston motorists are getting the better part of the deal. Their TollTags are now usable in all lanes of all Dallas pikes which include the Dallas North Toll Road, the Pres Geo Bush Turnpike, and the smaller tunnel and bridge toll facilities, but not yet the DFW airport.

NTTA TollTags from the Dallas area are being accepted in 20 special ET lanes in Houston marked with the TxTAG logo from 2003-10-06. Houston's HCTRA will be progressively increasing the number of toll lanes accepting the Dallas tags with the aim of having the whole Houston system Dallas-friendly by July 2004.

The state tollsters TeamTX get-togethers were a main forum for the interoperability effort. Early in the year the two toll agencies reached a formal agreement to allow interoperability to proceed, though the planning went back about two years.

Dallas and Houston lay 388km (241mi) apart and the vast majority of the patrons only use one system or the other. However the number of multiple system users is growing. And the number of toll systems is growing too. 2004 or 2005 will see tolling begin in central Texas under the auspices of the Texas Turnpike Division of TxDOT and south of Harris Co in Fort Bend - tho it will be using HCTRA tags. Next year HCTRA will open America's first multi-interchange transponders-only toll faclity, the Westpark Tollway, which is certain o provide another boost to use of transponders.

There are about 640k TollTags on issue in the Dallas NTTA area in a system that started ET in the middle of 1989, the first in the US. NTTA does 780k tolls/day 530k or 68% by ET. Houston has some 1.3m EZ-TAGs. They began in 1992 and got a huge jump up with HCTRA's early implementation of full highway speed open road tolling through their mainline plazas, plus a discount. The tags do about 430k of the 800k toll transactions done in Houston each day.

The TxTag arrangement does not encompass toll tags used by Texas toll agencies on the Mexican border.

California, Italy and Japan have always had one interoperable toll system. Florida has moved towards one interoperable system, as is Australia. The northeast US with E-ZPass is virtually one system and it is spreading with Virginia finally announcing it will join and New Hampshire and Maine soon to join too. Those Europeans are working at interoperability too. Even with identical equipment the business arrangements are often difficult to integrate.

Posted  September 17, 2005 ---------------------------

THE END TIMES - THE LAST DAYS - ARE UPON THE EARTH!

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

THIS IS NO GAME! - THIS IS THE REAL THING! - DO NOT WAIT!

                            ------------------------------------------

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... This is only one of the reason God is angry with the coasts of sin. WHY? Because it could become what the bible calls "666," the MARK OF THE BEAST SYSTEM!

Verichip to feature live demonstrations of its human-implantable RFID microchip

VeriChip Corporation, the world's premier RFID company for people and a subsidiary of Applied Digital, announced that this week it will be featuring live demonstrations of its state-of-the-art, human-implantable RFID microchip as part of its VeriGuard Local Area Location & Access application at the ASIS International 2005 Seminar and Exhibits show in Orlando, Florida.

This marks VeriGuard's first public demonstration in North America, providing security industry professionals the opportunity to see an RFID security solution based on the use of implantable microchip technology.

"As a provider of leading-edge RFID security solutions, we consider the ASIS International conference a key event for us, as it gives us the perfect opportunity to showcase our patented implantable technology and the related security applications," said Kevin McLaughlin, Chief Executive Officer of VeriChip Corporation.

"To those wishing to see the latest in RFID security solutions - including applications using implantable, wearable, and attachable RFID tag technology - we extend the invitation to visit the VeriChip booth at ASIS."

In October 2004 VeriChip received FDA clearance to market its human-implantable RFID microchip for medical applications. About the size of a grain of rice, the chip is inserted just under the skin.

With its unique 16-bit electronic ID, the chip can be used in such applications as patient identification in emergency departments or for access control in high-security areas. Unlike conventional forms of identification, the chip cannot be lost, stolen, or duplicated, ensuring a level of identification and protection never possible before.

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... You bet it is and will be unlike anything that has ever been possible before - The End Times - The Last Days - ARE - Upon The Earth

At the ASIS show, VeriChip Corporation will be demonstrating its chip technology integrated with its security application, VeriGuard. VeriGuard, a featured new product by ASIS this year, provides individual location and distress alert capability, access control, and asset tracking for the identification, location, and protection of individuals and assets. VeriChip's market-leading infant protection and wander prevention solutions will also be on display.

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... Will someone attend this thing and send me pictures PLEASE!

Posted  September 5

Thinking Blink: JPMorgan Chase gets a jump on the smart card market, one blink at a time

It has a catchy name, it’s convenient to use and, most importantly, it offers card members peace of mind. That’s what JPMorgan Chase is banking on in promoting its Chase with “blink” contactless credit card. Chase introduced the card in June in an effort to be the first to pave the way for a national switch to smart cards in the U.S. To date, Chase has issued two million blink cards to Visa and MasterCard credit cardholders in Colorado and Georgia and it’s continually adding new merchant locations to the 400-plus initially slated for the rollout.

Blink uses MasterCard’s trademarked PayPass technology, which allows consumers to pay for purchases by waving their card in front of a point-of-sale terminal equipped with a contactless reader. Essentially, blink looks like a credit card, offering cardholders the same security features while allowing for quick, easy payment -- the PayPass technology, claims promoters, can shave up to 20 seconds off traditional transaction times.

Chase chose to introduce blink as a standard credit card featuring a magnetic-stripe and embossed account and cardholder information so users would need only one card for traditional credit and contactless transactions. But key to blink’s charm is that cardholders never have to turn the card over to someone else in order to conduct transactions. Blink is embedded with an RFID tag that communicates with an RFID-equipped payment terminal. The technology allows for a short read range which enables cardholders to wave their cards within four inches of the POS terminal. For today’s identity-theft conscious consumers, that can bring peace of mind.

Marketing and education to determine the future of contactless payments

By marketing its new payment vehicle “blink,” Chase hopes to differentiate the card’s brand name (blink) from the contactless chip technology (PayPass) and method of payment symbols (Visa and MasterCard) at the point of sale. “Blink refers to what the card does. PayPass refers to where to use it,” explains Tom O’Donnell, senior vice president, Chase Card Services.

But will the specific branding of blink and its future competitors lead to confusion among consumers in the market looking for merchants who will accept their brand of contactless credit? Perhaps, but as the first adopter of the technology, Chase plans to capitalize on blink, not only as a brand name but also as a safe and secure way to pay.

Dove Consulting’s Chris Allen, senior manager, says he doesn’t see distinct brand names for the contactless cards as being a hindrance to acceptance or adoption of the technology. From a cardholder perspective, “there may be some confusion at first, but consumers were able to figure out the whole PIN versus signature-based debit concept. The key is in how Chase educates its consumers.”

In addition to television, radio and print advertising as well as card mailers, Chase developed an interactive web site, chaseblink.com, to educate users on the benefits of the card. The site explains how and where customers can blink as well as lists promotional discounts by select merchants when cardholders choose to blink their transactions. For example, users can blink a drink at 7-11 stores, blink lunch at Arby’s restaurants and blink a flick at United Artist theaters.

Making a decision to become the 'first to leap'

According to O’Donnell, Chase’s smart card initiative was a natural extension of its credit card business, which currently has more than 94 million cards in circulation. So when Visa announced in May that it had agreed to adopt MasterCard’s PayPass ISO 14443-certified technology in an effort to share a common communications protocol for RF-based payment at the point of sale, Chase moved forward. The ISO 14443 standard allows retailers to use a single terminal to accept smart cards from Visa, MasterCard and American Express (American Express launched its ExpressPay contactless key fob program in 2004 and has recently announced that its Blue cards would now incorporate the ExpressPay technology).

Industry observers see Visa’s and MasterCard’s move to cast aside their long-time association rivalry as determination to become dominant players in the next generation of payment technology in the U.S. Unlike elsewhere around the world, the banking industry here has made slow progress in migrating from magnetic-stripe to chip cards. “There are a number of issuers interested in this (contactless cards), but Chase has the most experience,” says Allen.

The launch of blink follows on the heels of a PayPass market trial in Orlando in 2003 involving Chase, Citibank and MBNA as well as 16,000 cardholders and 60 retail locations. That test, coupled with MasterCard’s ongoing PayPass alliance with McDonald Corp., demonstrates that the convenience and security of contactless end-to-end transactions appeal to U.S. consumers. To date, 7,500 McDonald’s restaurants accept PayPass cards and the fast food chain announced plans to expand acceptance to some 13,600 U.S. restaurants by year end.

Geographic approach to a nationwide rollout

Key to blink’s expansion is the synchronization of card issuance and merchant acceptance on a market by market basis. With already one million cards in the hands of customers in each of the two launch markets, Chase is poised to shop for new markets to introduce blink. O’Donnell wouldn’t reveal specific locations but said the payment versatility of blink would open the door for debit applications in the future. KeyBank, however, beat Chase to the punch when it recently announced it will issue PayPass-enabled debit cards beginning September 1 to KeyBank’s new and existing checking account customers.

For now, Chase is enjoying its position as the first bank card issuer to offer contactless credit and is encouraged to see its cardholders using the card for both traditional credit purchases as well as blinking their transactions. “This is really the first major introduction to credit cards in 30 years, since the introduction of magnetic-striped cards. People can see the benefits right away and others will move up to the curve as they understand its value,” acknowledges Chase’s O’Donnell. “It demonstrates a significant change in how people use their plastic. It benefits the customer, the merchants and the card companies, as well.”

Dove’s Allen agrees, “As soon as consumers realize they can just tap and go, contactless is really going to take off.”

Posted  September 1, 2005 ---------------------------

The New USA Getting Chipped Healthcare System

Applied Digital wants millions of Americans to be implanted with an RFID chip for medical purposes, and the Frist-Clinton bill (S. 1262) would pave the way.

Former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson, who served in the Bush administration’s first term, recently joined the board of directors of Florida-based Applied Digital. Applied Digital is the owner of VeriChip, the company that specializes in making implantable radio frequency identification chips (RFID) for both people and pets.

On July 31, London’s The Business reported that Thompson “is putting the final touches to a plan that could result in US citizens having [an RFID] chip inserted under their skin.” Scott Silverman, CEO of Applied Digital, told WebMD Medical News on July 27 that “some 2,000 people worldwide are using” his company’s implants. “But,” the WebMD report noted, “soon he expects that millions of people will get VeriChip implants every year.”

According to The Business report, “the RFID capsules would be linked to a computerized database being created by the US Department of Health to store and manage the nation’s health records.” Thompson said he “intends to publish the proposal in the next 50 days, by which time he plans to have had a VeriChip inserted in his arm.” The former HHS secretary is definitely positioned to use his past employment to help his new employer.

Conveniently, on June 16, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) introduced S. 1262, with its very benign-sounding title of “Health Technology to Enhance Quality Act of 2005.” During a press conference at George Washington University Hospital, Senator Clinton tidily summed up the nature of S. 1262: “This legislation marries technology and quality to create a seamless, efficient health care system for the 21st century.” Senator Frist described it as “an interoperable national health information technology system.”

The bipartisan duo proposed before the Senate “three concrete steps” to construct this “seamless” system. The first one would be to establish “standards for electronic medical records.” S. 1262 would codify into statute the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, an office already set up by President Bush in April 2004. The coordinator’s major duty would be, among other things, to “facilitate the adoption of a national system for the electronic exchange of health information.” This certainly looks like the same system mentioned by the July 31 London-based Business report.

The second step would be to “[reduce] barriers and facilitate the electronic exchange of health information among providers in a secure and private way to improve health care quality and meet community needs.” S. 1262, if enacted, would do just that by bribing states with “incentive grants,” giving priority to those “that provide assurance that any funding awarded under such a grant shall be used to harmonize privacy laws and practices.” Translation: the bill would take money from taxpayers in some states and give it to other states that “harmonize” their laws with the federal government’s standards. And it wouldn’t take long for those reluctant states that are missing out on their share of the spoils to get in line.

Third, S. 1262 would also allow the government to “use the data [collected in the system] to focus intensely on improving the quality of health care.” “With this data,” said Clinton, “we can begin to move to a health care system that actually rewards providers who give their patients superior care.” S. 1262’s “reward” mechanism allows for “competitive grants” to be doled out “to eligible entities to implement regional or local health information plans to improve healthcare quality and efficiency.” Those on the government’s potential client list are “group health plans or other health insurance issuers,” “health centers,” “rural health clinics,” “consumer organizations,” “employers,” or “any other healthcare providers or other entities.”

Senator Clinton, whose efforts to nationalize healthcare were stymied in the 1990s, now has a capable, influential, and willing cosponsor whose conservative veneer is just the right spoonful of sugar to help this totalitarian socialist medicine go down.

If this socialist healthcare scheme is allowed to pass, and Applied Digital succeeds in partnering with government, then Americans will be seduced into accepting a “seamless” nationalized healthcare system. But those who participate will also end up with a medical ID implant that will undoubtedly morph into a mandatory national ID.

Posted  August 23, 2005 ----------------------------------

U.S. Government May Soon Track You by Your License Plate

A controversial plan to embed radio frequency identification chips in license plates in the United Kingdom

...also may be coming to the United States.

SEE NEXT POST FOR AUGUST 17...

Posted  August 17, 2005 ----------------------------------

Wireless World: Chips track license plates

A controversial plan to embed radio frequency identification chips in license plates in the United Kingdom also may be coming to the United States.

The so-called e-Plate, developed by the British firm Hills Numberplates, is a license plate that also transmits a vehicle's unique identification via encryption that can be read by a small detector, whose output can be used locally or communicated to a distant host.

"RFID is all the rage these days," said Bradley Gross, chairman of Becker & Poliakoff, a law firm in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., "but my fear is that this use of the technology is tracking at its worst."

The reason for the concern in the legal and privacy-rights communities is that e-plates may expand the ability of police to track individuals by the movement of their vehicles.

A single RFID reader can identify dozens of vehicles fitted with e-plates moving at any speed at a distance of about 100 yards. The e-plate looks just like a standard plate, but it contains an embedded chip that cannot be seen or removed. It is self-powered with a battery life of up to 10 years.

"Police will be able to track your every move when you drive," said Liz McIntyre, an RFID expert and author of the forthcoming book, "Spychips: How Major Corporations and the Government Plan to Track Your Every Move With RFID" (Nelson Current, October 2005). "What if they put these readers at a mosque? They could tell who was inside at a worship service by which cars were in the parking lot."

Indeed, the makers of the technology boast that the e-plates can furnish access control, automated tolling, asset tracking, traffic-flow monitoring and vehicle crime and "non-compliance." The chips can be outfitted with 128 bit encryption to prevent hacking.

The problem is people other than the vehicle's owner quite often are at the wheel.

"Will this, ultimately, stop terrorism?" Gross asked. "The occupants of cars change continuously. Terrorists can steal cars."

Similar technology already has been used in the United States, experts said. "The technology side of this is readily available, as it is used in the high-frequency battery-powered transmitters in the toll road systems like Fastrak," said attorney Dave Abel, with the international law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP, who was an engineer before coming to the bar.

"To use the toll road, a user signs up -- providing name, address, billing info, et cetera, which is stored in a database. Each time they drive past the reader station they are billed or a credit is deducted from an account."

Security access points could justify the expense, but placing them even at key intersections may not be very practical, according to lawyers at Pittiglio, Rabin, Todd & McGrath in Costa Mesa, Calif., a spokeswoman said.

The cost of roadside readers is significant -- although the price per chip is estimated to be only 20 cents.

Some experts said governments already are using the chips embedded in tollway access cards without heed to privacy rights. In Texas, for example, tollway authorities have been "making printouts of the records of every time you pass through a toll booth, what time you passed through," McIntyre said.

"The government hasn't established a privacy policy for this, and people are not being informed that they are doing this. This is an instance of Big Brother on the highway."

Posted  August 15, 2005 ----------------------------------

Foreign Government Could End Up Controlling U.S. Radio Frequency Identification System

The controversial Carlyle Group is poised to own the company that pioneered the new radio frequency identification system to be used on foreign visitors to the U.S.A

Posted  August 13, 2005 ----------------------------------

THE END TIMES - THE LAST DAYS - ARE UPON THE EARTH!

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

THIS IS NO GAME! - THIS IS THE REAL THING! - DO NOT WAIT!

                            ------------------------------------------

UK high tech chipped license plates

The British government is preparing to test new high-tech license plates containing microchips capable of transmitting unique vehicle identification numbers and other data to readers more than 300 feet away.

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... I have long been saying they had readers to 50 feet and possibly farther. DID YOU LAUGH THEN? ARE YOU LAUGHING NOW? Now they can be read at MORE THAN 300 feet! Will it stop there??? I DOUBT IT!!!

Posted  August 12, 2005 ----------------------------------

Why the "Real ID" Act, Which Requires National Identity Cards, is a Real Mess

In May 2005, Congress passed the "Real ID" Act, which requires states - starting in May 2008 -- to issue federally approved driver's licenses

...or identification (ID) cards to those who live and work in the U.S. 

Unlike the USA Patriot Act and other politically sensitive pieces of legislation, Real ID has not made many headlines

Posted  August 8, 2005 ----------------------------------

Doctor tagged with RFID worries about privacy

Since my chip contains my medical identifier, unauthorized reading would not disclose health information...

But Halmaka argued that technology modeled on spy ware is possible that would allow individual people to be tracked.

Posted  August 5, 2005 ----------------------------------

Cash or plastic? How about fingerprint?

Instead of keeping countless cards and pieces of information that verify your identification, soon there may be only one thing you need: yourself.

As identity theft has become the bane of consumers everywhere, technologies aimed at making transactions more secure are gaining ground. Such "biometric technologies" include iris scans, as well as those for fingerprints, palm, skin, voice and face patterns.

"In everyday life, the use of biometrics has been growing," said Philip Youn, a consultant at International Biometric Group.

The underlying strength of biometrics is that it uses patterns that are unique to each individual. Your fingerprints belong to you alone, and unlike that password to your online bank account, you can never lose it.

Where can you see it now?

Retail. Albertson's, the No. 2 supermarket chain, is one of hundreds of retailers testing biometric payment systems that let customers pay for purchases with a mere swipe of a finger.

It works like this: You register your fingerprint and your bank account with a service provider. The main ones are Pay By Touch and BioPay.

When you shop at a participating merchant, you just swipe your finger and the payment is automatically transferred from your bank to the merchant -- you don't have to hand over a card, sign a receipt or punch in a PIN.

Earlier this year, Albertson's joined the Pay By Touch network and is testing the service at four of its stores in the Portland, Oregon area.

"One thing we've heard repeatedly from our customers is that they would like to speed up the checkout process," Albertson's spokeswoman Shannon Bennett said. The feedback has been "very positive" she said, although the company hasn't announced any expansion plans for the program.

So far Pay By Touch is available at 100 to 200 stores while rival BioPay's system can be accessed at 150 locations.

"Biometric payments are the safest because no information is passed to the merchant," said Donita Prakash, vice president of marketing at BioPay.

And because you don't have to present your card at the point of sale, the transaction is faster, Pay By Touch marketing director Shannon Riordan said.

Another selling point: biometrics could offer are instant age verification for alcohol and tobacco sales.

Computers. Getting started with biometrics for your computer is as easy as picking up a product like the Biopod Password Manager produced by APC. The small fingerprint scanning device, which plugs into a USB port, stores all your passwords in your fingerprint.

When you go visit your favorite Web sites -- whether it be Amazon.com or your investment portfolio -- all you have to do is scan your fingerprint.

If you don't want to deal with external hardware, IBM, Toshiba and Compaq all sell notebook models already outfitted with a fingerprint reader.

The price of the Biopod is about $50 while laptops with the device built-in can sell for as little as $1,300.

Travel. If you travel internationally, then soon you'll be carrying some high-tech identification. The Department of State has launched a plan to introduce electronic passports that come with a chip that stores the usual personal information as well as a digital photo which enables biometric comparison through the use of facial recognition technology at international borders.

According to State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore, the electronic passports are still in test mode, but partial implementation is planned for the fall and full implementation in 2006.

Posted  August 4, 2005 ----------------------------------

Chip Implants: Better Care or Privacy Scare?

They're here.

They have FDA approval.

But are Americans ready to get chipped?

Getting chipped means having a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip implanted in your body.

The chip — about the size of a large grain of rice — lies dormant until a special scanner is passed within six inches of the implant.

Then it emits a radio signal that beams a 16-digit number to the scanner.

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... This is incorrect as the chip can be read by special scanners at 30-50 away and I suspect as time passes even at longer distances. Think of this senario: A thief does what he does best and steals a scanner, drives up the road looking for the readout to tell him what house has a HD TV in it that costs in the thousands, sees the RFID indentification number of your Sony WEGA 60" wide screen, pull in and and stals your TV.

The Last Days - The End Times - ARE - ARE - Upon the earth

***OH! Did I mention that same scanner also would identify that you were or were not home if you were convinced to take the chip???

REVELATION 13:16 "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

Posted  August 3, 2005 ----------------------------------

Chip Implants: Better Hospital Care or Privacy Scare?

They're here.

They have FDA approval.

But are Americans ready to get chipped?

Getting chipped means having a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip implanted in your body.

The chip — about the size of a large grain of rice — lies dormant until a special scanner is passed within six inches of the implant.

Then it emits a radio signal that beams a 16-digit number to the scanner.

Posted  August 2, 2005 ----------------------------------

U.S. Homeland Security mandatory car chip

Homeland Security to Launch Radio Frequency ID at Five Canadian, Mexican Border Crossings

A U.S. security official said Wednesday it will use wireless technology at five border posts with Canada and Mexico to track foreigners driving in and out of the United States.

Bob Mocny of the Department of Homeland Security said wireless chips for vehicles would become mandatory at designated border crossings in Canada and Mexico as of Aug. 4

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... hmmmmmm are we next for mandatory chipping??? After all it is only to track foreigners... or is it?

The Last Days - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth

REVELATION 13:16 "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

Posted  August 1, 2005 ----------------------------------

Oakland, California Requires ID Chips for Dogs

You have no choice but to have a microchip imbedded under your skin in Oakland, Calif. – if you’re a dog.

City officials have drafted an ordinance that requires dog owners to have a rice-sized I.D. chip implanted in their pets. And those who don’t comply could be hit with a fine of $100 for a second offense and $1,000 for subsequent infractions.

The intrusive measure not only makes it a crime for a pet owner to forgo the chip, but also forces owners to pay $10 to have the chip implanted.

The chip stores an I.D. number that can be read by a scanner and provides a link to the animal's owner. It will help police deal with dog theft, a growing problem.

The ordinance also bars Oakland residents from owning more than three dogs unless granted permission – and, leaving no stone unturned, bans the ownership of roosters within city limits.

Posted  July 27, 2005 ----------------------------------

CVS, 7-Eleven, and others have announced plans to deploy contactless readers in test markets nationwide

On Track Innovations announced that its Saturn 5000 contactless reader has received certification from Visa USA to support its contactless payment program. The Saturn 5000 has already received certification by major US financial institutions. Visa along with MasterCard and American Express have already announced that they are in different stages of implementation for contactless payment programs. Recently 7-Eleven, CVS, and others have announced plans to deploy contactless readers in test markets nationwide.

Visa along with MasterCard and American Express have already announced that they are in different stages of implementation for contactless payment programs. Recently 7-Eleven, CVS, and others have announced plans to deploy contactless readers in test markets nationwide.

The Saturn 5000 is designed to allow quick upgrades of existing POS terminals to accept contactless payments, with the reader facing the customer for easier payment experience. The Saturn 5000 can support multiple payment applications and is currently compatible with the major POS terminal providers and acquirers. Supporting the major contactless payment programs, the software integrated in the Saturn 5000 can read a variety of sources including credit cards and key fobs. OTI also offers OEM solutions that can be integrated into payment terminals.

“The Visa contactless payment program certification for the Saturn 5000 and recent advancements in contactless payments in the US demonstrate the great growth potential in this market,” said Oded Bashan, President and CEO of OTI. “The Saturn 5000 multi-approval status combined with its small counter space “footprint” makes it an attractive solution to merchants accepting contactless payments.”

Posted  July 26, 2005 ----------------------------------

Living under house arrest

In more and more walks of life, if what you want to do is not traceable, you can't do it. Most consumers have had the experience of trying to buy something negligible -- a pack of gum, say -- and being told by a cashier that it's impossible because ''the computer is down.''

It now seems quaint that after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Congress argued over whether ''taggants'' should be required in explosives to make them traceable. Today everything is traceable.

Altered plant DNA is embedded in textiles to identify them as American. Man-made particles with spectroscopic ''signatures'' can be used, for example, as ''security tags'' for jewels.

The information collected about consumers is the most sophisticated and confusing taggant of all.

It is a marvelous tool, a real timesaver and a kind of electronic bracelet that turns the entire world into a place where we are living under house arrest.

Posted  July 25, 2005 ----------------------------------

Human RFID chip active implants

When such crime-fighting aids are available, people clamor for them. In October, the F.D.A. approved, for medical use, the VeriChip, a device the size of a grain of rice.

It can be implanted under a patient's skin and activated to permit emergency personnel to gain access to personal medical records.

It's extremely useful when patients are unconscious, but there is a suspicion that the real application lies elsewhere.

Similar devices can easily be fitted with other types of transmitters. ''Active'' implants are already being put to other uses: to trace livestock and lost pets and, in Latin America, to discourage kidnappings.

Those who can put two and two together will find this VeriUnsettling. Monitoring can quickly change from convenience to need.

Would you support a chip-based security system for nuclear power plant employees?

If you were in the Army Special Forces, wouldn't you want a transmitter embedded in you?

Posted  July 23, 2005 ----------------------------------

THE END TIMES - THE LAST DAYS - ARE UPON THE EARTH!

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

THIS IS NO GAME! - THIS IS THE REAL THING! - DO NOT WAIT!

                            ------------------------------------------

Identity imprint implant chip

The case for "implantable personal verification systems"

"Once implanted just under the skin, via a quick, simple and painless outpatient procedure (much like getting a shot),

...the VeriChip can be scanned when necessary with a proprietary VeriChip scanner.

. . . VeriChip is there when you need it. Unlike traditional forms of identification, VeriChip can't be lost, stolen, misplaced or counterfeited."

Source: VeriChip Corporation (www.adsx.com/investorrelations/pdfs/VeriBro.pdf)

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... I DID NOT CHECK THE ABOVE LINK OUT! Use it at your own risk!

Posted  July 22, 2005 ----------------------------------

A Pass on Privacy?

Anyone making long drives this summer will notice a new dimension to contemporary inequality: a widening gap between the users of automatic toll-paying devices and those who pay cash.

The E-ZPass system, as it is called on the East Coast, seemed like idle gadgetry when it was introduced a decade ago.

Drivers who acquired the passes had to nose their way across traffic to reach specially equipped tollbooths -- and slow to a crawl while the machinery worked its magic.

But now the sensors are sophisticated enough for you to whiz past them.

As more lanes are dedicated to E-ZPass, lines lengthen for the saps paying cash.

Posted  July 21, 2005 ----------------------------------

EZpass worries

Paying your tolls electronically raises two worries. The first is that personal information will be used illegitimately. The computer system to which you have surrendered your payment information also records data about your movements and habits.

It can be hacked into. Earlier this year, as many as half a million customers had their identities ''compromised'' by cyber-break-ins at Seisint and ChoicePoint, two companies that gather consumer records.

The second worry is that personal information will be used legitimately -- that the government will expand its reach into your life without passing any law, and without even meaning you any harm. Recent debate in Britain over a proposed ''national road-charging scheme'' -- which was a national preoccupation until the London Tube bombings -- shows how this might work.

Alistair Darling, the transport secretary, wants to ease traffic and substitute user fees for excise and gas taxes. Excellent goals, all. But Darling plans to achieve them by tracking, to the last meter, every journey made by every car in the country.

It seems that this can readily be done by marrying global positioning systems (with which many new cars are fitted) with tollbooth scanners. The potential applications multiply: what if state policemen in the United States rigged E-ZPass machines to calculate average highway speeds between toll plazas -- something easily doable with today's machinery -- and to automatically ticket cars that exceed 65 m.p.h.?

Posted  July 20, 2005 ----------------------------------

RFID & The Mark Of The Beast

Privacy advocate Katherine Albrecht, an opponent of the use of radio tags on consumer goods and in ID documents, is a woman any X-Files fan could love.

She's youthful-looking and attractive, with fair skin and cherry-blonde hair. A former schoolteacher, Albrecht also has a master's degree from Harvard, where she is completing a doctoral degree.

Albrecht is suspicious of the government and big business. She's been an electrifying guest on Coast to Coast AM, the cult radio show featuring talk about aliens, ghosts, conspiracies and cryptozoology.

As director of the consumer privacy group Caspian, Albrecht is a darling of the mainstream news media too. In hundreds of interviews, in a list of publications that includes Business Week and Times of London, she has warned of privacy risks posed by RFID tags, the radio devices that retailers plan to use as a replacement for bar-code labels.

Albrecht fears that retailers will match the data emitted by the tags with their customers' information, turning each tag into a potential tracking beacon. She also suspects the government will want access to the retailers' RFID databases.

But one aspect of Albrecht's anti-RFID crusade has been attracting a lot of attention from other privacy groups: her religious beliefs.

Albrecht does not often discuss her religious views with reporters. But she believes that RFID technology may be part of the fulfillment of the Mark of the Beast prophesied in the Book of Revelation.

Other privacy rights advocates want Albrecht to help them connect with Christians who believe that RFID tags -- tiny chips that emit serial numbers -- are the Mark of the Beast. Many of those Christians believe humans one day will be compelled to bear a mark on their heads or wrists, to engage in the buying and selling of goods.

"Sometimes, it's as if they are saying, 'Hooray, we've got one (a Christian) in our midst,'" said Albrecht. "'Maybe she can tell us what to do.'"

Bill Scannell, a privacy advocate, and Lee Tien, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, are among those who have talked to Albrecht about reaching out to Christians who take parts of the Bible literally.

"Many of us in the mainstream privacy community," said Tien, "don't know how to reach out to (the Christian community)."

Albrecht is already reaching at least a few of her fellow Christians, through videos produced by Endtime Ministries, that link RFID to the Book of Revelation.

"The Mark of the Beast, 666: a prophesy from 2000 years ago," says Albrecht, at the beginning of her video, On the Brink of the Mark, produced two years ago. "How many people know that technological developments of the last 10 to 20 years could be combining to make the Mark of the Beast a reality, and possibly even in our lifetimes?"

Endtime, based in Richmond, Indiana, claims to have sold thousands of copies of On the Brink of the Mark and other videos featuring Albrecht.

Albrecht has been a guest on Endtime's radio program, Politics and Religion, as well as other religious programs. She also has a book deal with Thomas Nelson, the Christian book publisher

With a Bible-thumper in the White House, and the popular success of the Left Behind series of Christian-themed novels, American culture may be ready to hear Albrecht's message that RFID tags, such as the rather bizarre VeriChip implant, may become the must-have gadget for any servant of Satan.

"The impact Katherine could have on America's Christians is significant," said Politics and Religion co-host Edward Sax. "If she wanted to start a political movement, she could."

Scannell and Tien do not share Albrecht's biblical interpretations.

But there is nothing wrong with people who oppose RFID for theological reasons, said Scannell.

"I have a lot of time for Katherine Albrecht and for the Endtime people, when it comes to this particular issue," said Scannell, who has himself appeared on the Politics and Religion radio program. "I can work with anyone willing to fight this stuff."

The RFID industry must pay attention to the concerns of those who believe RFID may become the Mark of the Beast, said Peter de Jager, an expert on the adoption of new technologies.

"You have to take the social context into account when implementing a technology," said de Jager.

But some companies "are laughing in the face of the opposition, almost daring people to resist them," said de Jager. "And you don't do that to consumers."

But retailers may not have much to fear, as long as Christians don't have to pay more for their goods, said Tim Miller, professor of religious studies at the University of Kansas and chairman of the editorial board of the Religious Movements Homepage at the University of Virginia.

"There may be lots and lots of preaching," said Miller, speaking of potential religious opposition to RFID tags. "But as long as the bargains are there, any boycott will not likely have much adverse effect."

Posted  July 15, 2005 ----------------------------------

Gates Foresees Computer Implants for Humans

Technological advances will one day allow computers to be implanted in the human body - and could help the blind see and the deaf hear - Bill Gates said Friday. But the Microsoft chairman says he's not ready to be hardwired.

"One of the guys that works at Microsoft ... always says to me 'I'm ready, plug me in,"' Gates said at a Microsoft seminar in Singapore. "I don't feel quite the same way. I'm happy to have the computer over there and I'm over here."

Meshing people directly with computers has been a science fiction subject for years, from downloading memories onto computer chips to replacement robotic limbs controlled by brain waves.

The fantasy is coming closer to reality as advances in technology mean computers are learning to interact with human characteristics such as voices, touch - even smell.

Gates, whose Redmond, Washington-based company is spending more than $6 billion on research and development this year to stay a world leader in software development, was asked at the seminar whether he thought computers would ever be implanted in the human brain.

He noted that cochlear implants and other medical implants were already being used to treat hearing problems and some conditions that cause constant pain, and were changing some people's lives dramatically.

Cochlear implants, which employ digital pulses that the brain interprets as sound, can help profoundly deaf people hear.

Advances were also being made on implants that can help fix eyesight problems, Gates said.

These types of technologies would continue to be improved and expanded, especially in areas where they would be "correcting deficiencies," he said.

"We will have those capabilities," Gates said.

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... Remember recently it was announced that RFID radio frequency chipping technology, will be added to and included in future versions of Microsoft Windows...

REVELATION 13:16 "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... Do you believe me now when I say - The Last Days - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth??

Posted  July 9, 2005 ----------------------------------

Microsoft to build RFID into Windows

Microsoft is planning to make RFID applications and tag-readers compatible with Windows.

According to Scott Woodgate, group product manager of business processes for Microsoft, the company is trying to integrate RFID programs with the operating system and make the majority of devices work with plug-and-play functionality.

Woodgate: "RFID has not been widely adopted because of the cost of devices and implementation of management. One of the things we're doing is working on standards-based and non-standards-based RFID readers. There's a whole host of them out there and they'll work on Windows as plug-and-play devices."

RFID tags broadcast unique identifier signals over a radio frequency, which means their movement can be tracked over long ranges.

Woodgate said compliance and business needs are driving the demand for RFID tags: "People will build applications that use RFID. You will get visualization of what stock you have in your warehouse, or what stock is on the way from San Francisco to Detroit. You'll get that information in real time and it'll be faster than chasing people and checking inventories."

Yesterday Microsoft announced a partnership with RFID company Alien Technology and said it will provide plug-and-play compatibility for the company's RFID reader and tag products.

Alien is also taking part in an RFID council that Microsoft created to look at issues such as privacy. Woodgate said: "There is the privacy issue of RFID. 'Concerned' is the wrong word but we take very seriously the privacy issues of RFID. Standard measures need to be in place as with any technology to ensure that there's privacy for everyone."

The company has yet to release details of which versions of Windows will be compatible with RFID devices but yesterday at the TechEd conference in Amsterdam, Microsoft staff demonstrated a pre-beta version working on Windows Server 2003.

"We've made no decisions on how to package this but it works with many of the readers worldwide," Woodgate said.

He would not comment on when the Windows RFID functionality will be released.

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... Have an opinion about this report? Call my voice mail US CODE 1 - 607-427-8550

Posted  July 6, 2005 ----------------------------------

ID Cards on Trial: Will ID cards have RFID tags?

After watching the ID card bill debate last night, it is now clear that the Government is not just ‘reacting to the international demand for biometric passports’, but creating that demand.

Its Passport Agency is developing the supporting technology, and is lobbying worldwide for its adoption.

Posted  July 5, 2005 ----------------------------------

Fears over microchips developed for remote scans

MICROCHIPS carrying sensitive personal information that can be scanned by sensors from a distance could be included in the proposed national identity cards, it emerged yesterday.

While the government's legislation cleared its first hurdle last night, there could be trouble ahead as the ID card could use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.

Posted  July 2, 2005 ----------------------------------

THE END TIMES - THE LAST DAYS - ARE UPON THE EARTH!

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

THIS IS NO GAME! - THIS IS THE REAL THING! - DO NOT WAIT!

                            ------------------------------------------

Novation to Offer eXI RFID Patient Tracking Systems

VeriChip Corp.'s recent acquisition, eXI Wireless Inc., has signed a three-year, dual-source agreement with Novation,

...the supply company of VHA Inc. and the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC).

With this contract, two of eXI's RFID solutions for the healthcare industry will now be made accessible to more than 2,500 VHA and UHC members as top-of-the-line protection solutions.

The contract offers HALO, an infant protection system, and RoamAlert patient-wandering protection.

Using skin-sensing RFID tag technology, HALO helps healthcare facilities prevent infant abductions, accidental baby-switching, and medical equipment theft and loss.

It can also be used to protect pediatric patients, monitor flight-risk patients, and track patients from admission to discharge.

RoamAlert helps nursing homes and assisted living facilities provide patient, staff, and medical equipment protection and tracking.

Cell Phones Now Playing Role of Wallet

Already a device of multiple disguises, from camera to music player and mini-TV, the cell phone's next trick may be the disappearing wallet. After all, since more than a quarter of the people on the planet already carry around cell phones, and hundreds of millions are joining them every year, why should they bring along credit and debit cards when a mobile device can make payments just as well?

At the simplest level, all that's needed is to embed phones with a short-range radio chip to beam credit card information to a terminal at a store register. It's not unlike the wireless system used to pay tolls on many highways or the SpeedPass keychain wand used to buy gas at Exxon Mobile Corp. pumps.

This is already a reality in Japan, where NTT DoCoMo Inc. says 3 million cell phone subscribers use its Mobile Wallet service to buy things at 20,000 stores and vending machines.

Similar services may be on the way in the United States and Europe. MasterCard International Inc. has been testing phone-based versions of its PayPass contactless payment technology since 2003, and may conduct a significant market trial next year.

But there also are more ambitious visions brewing that contemplate the cell phone as a new focal point for managing your personal finances. The phone would supplant not only credit and debit cards, but wallets, checkbooks, Web sites, computer programs like Quicken, and online bill payment services such as PayPal or CheckFree.

Despite the logic of tying all your financial dealings to a device that many people keep by their side at all times, major credit card companies don't see the phone as a convenient nerve center for managing finances. The card companies' main goal is to drive more spending — and card transaction fees — by making the phone a quick way to pay with a single designated account.

"The benefits of having a wallet on your phone with multiple cards are overblown," said Murdo Munro, a MasterCard executive involved with PayPass. "If a consumer has to boot up an application on the phone, and then go through four or five menus, and then choose a card to make a payment, that's an awful lot slower and less convenient than just taking a card out of your wallet."

The PayPass system aims to improve even on that step. A credit card number is embedded in a chip that is activated by waving it in front of a reader, ringing up a sale quicker than handing plastic to a merchant or swiping it.

That technology is already gathering momentum without being installed in phones: In May, JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced plans for a mass-market rollout of MasterCard and Visa cards with a radio chip, starting this summer in Atlanta with nearly 1 million of the cards going out to consumers. Likewise, major merchants led by McDonald's Corp. and 7-Eleven Inc. are already installing radio terminals over which customers can flash these new-age plastic cards.

But C-Sam founder Sam Pitroda, a rags-to-riches telecommunications entrepreneur from India, sees the mobile wallet as a means to empower the masses in emerging markets and as a prospective boon for financial institutions, wireless companies and retailers.

"There are 1.8 billion cell phone users, but not 1.8 billion checking accounts," Pitroda said. "So there's a big potential for banks if they can get more people to open accounts, even if it's just $50 or $100."

One wild card that may bolster the case for Pitroda's wider vision — making the cell phone more than just an oddly shaped credit card — is the wireless industry, where network operators may eye new revenue streams from financial services.

Notably, the wireless payment transmitters in NTT DoCoMo's phones are not connected in any way to the circuitry of the overall device, so there's no way to integrate charge transactions with a wallet application on the handset.

But Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. are developing mobile handsets that integrate the payment chip with the rest of the phone, opening the way for more innovative applications.

Handset makers rarely invest in new technologies without interest from cellular carriers. Which means the wireless wallet could make a push even without the financial industry behind it.

Posted  June 22, 2005 ----------------------------------

IBM expands efforts to promote RFID

IBM's software division also plans to introduce a 'starter kit' of programs intended to help clients more quickly develop ways to link data generated by radio scanners

...into existing corporate software packages that manage functions like order entry, shipping and inventory controls.

IBM's printing devices unit expects to announce plans to market a bar code printer and radio tag dispenser that checks the tags to make sure they are working before applying them to a product.

Posted  June 21, 2005 ----------------------------------

U.S. extends biometric passport deadline

The EU Observer reports: “Washington has officially announced it will extend the deadline for visa-free EU countries to introduce biometric passports.

US officials informed a summit of G8 justice and home affairs ministers in Sheffield, UK, on Wednesday (15 June) that the deadline was to be put back.

The decision marks a significant shift in US policy, as authorities had earlier warned they would not extend the deadline for the second time.

Under the ruling, the 27 states that enjoy visa-free travel to the US will have one extra year to introduce full-scale biometric passports, according to the Financial Times.

They were originally supposed to start issuing documents with special microchips containing genetic information about the passport holders by 26 October, or face visa obligations when entering the US.

But due to pressure from the American travel industry and the European Commission, Washington has agreed to accept passports with digital photos, as a substitute for biometric data.

It is still not clear what kind of provisions will be set for France and Italy, the only two countries still using laminated pictures for their citizens' travel documents.

Officials last night confirmed that the French and Italian issue had been ‘addressed and resolved’, while not making it clear if the two states would be granted visa-free access after October or not…”

Posted  June 16, 2005 ----------------------------------

[999 you realize is 666 upside down...therev "Might" be a hoax of some kind]

UK: Patients get 999 chip implants

"The sensor, which includes a Pentium microprocessor just 2mm square, will initially be implanted in diabetics. Trials will begin by Christmas at St Mary’s hospital, London.

The implant will be programmed to send an emergency text message via a mobile phone, alerting medical staff to changes in blood-sugar levels...

...Oracle, the technology company that is backing the project, has designed the software to be compatible with the NHS’s new £6.5 billion computer system."

Posted  June 13, 2005 ----------------------------------

Satellite toll plan to make drivers pay by the mile

British motorists face paying a new charge for every mile they drive in a revolutionary scheme to be introduced within two years.

Drivers will pay according to when and how far they travel throughout the country's road network under proposals being developed by the Government.

Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport, revealed that pilot areas will be selected in just 24 months' time as he made clear his determination to press ahead with a national road pricing scheme.

Each of Britain's 24 million vehicles would be tracked by satellite if a variable "pay-as-you-drive" charge replaces the current road tax.

In an interview with The Independent on Sunday, Mr. Darling warned that unless action is taken now, the country "could face gridlock" within two decades.

Official research suggests national road pricing could increase the capacity of Britain's network by as much as 40 per cent at a stroke, he said.

The rapid uptake of satellite navigational technology in cars is helping to usher in the new "pay-as-you-drive" charge much sooner than had been expected. Figures contained in a government feasibility study have suggested motorists could pay up to £1.34 for each mile they travel during peak hours on the most congested roads.

Although a fully operational national scheme is still considered to be a decade away, Mr. Darling said local schemes could be up and running within five years. Manchester is considered a front-runner, with local authorities in the Midlands and London also pressing to be considered for a £2.5bn central fund to introduce the change.

Most of the necessary technology already exists. Lorries will be tracked by satellite and charged accordingly from 2007. The main obstacle to constructing a scheme to track Britain's 24 million private vehicles is public opinion, and Mr. Darling is determined to start making the case now.

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... First it starts "over there" then it comes "over here"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get Ready to pay!

Posted  June 11, 2005 ----------------------------------

THE END TIMES - THE LAST DAYS - ARE UPON THE EARTH!

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

THIS IS NO GAME! - THIS IS THE REAL THING! - DO NOT WAIT!

                            ------------------------------------------

Russia to introduce biometric passports in 2007

MOSCOW - Russia will begin introducing biometric passports with personal data stored on an electronic chip in 2007, officials said.

The new 32-page passports will have red covers, digitally stored data and digital photographs, said the Goznak corporation, which prints Russia's money, passports and stamps.

Posted  June 8, 2005 ----------------------------------

American Express introduces 'contactless' cards

The new cards offer a function already common at many U.S. gas stations. They are an alternative to the traditional cards that are swiped through a machine that reads information embedded in a magnetic strip.

American Express's Blue cards with ExpressPay will allow payment to be authorized in seconds and will not require a signature.

Convenience store chain 7-Eleven will test the card in 170 stores and eventually plans to accept it at all its 5,300 stores.

Posted  May 31, 2005 ----------------------------------

Cash Payments Gone In A "Blink"

Last week, Chase's credit cards division became the first credit card issuer to announce a contactless payments program. Beginning this summer, it will issue MasterCard and Visa credit cards embedded with RFID tags used to make transactions via radio communication with an RFID-enabled payment terminal. Chase calls the contactless functionality 'blink,' and plans to begin sending blink cards to millions of MasterCard or Visa cardholders in two undisclosed U.S. cities in late June.

The cards contain an ISO 14443-compliant RIFD tag, used to process payments through an RFID-enabled point-of-sale terminal. Blink cardholders will be able to make payments at select retailers by tapping or holding their cards 4 inches or less from an RFID-enabled terminal, rather than swiping or handing their cards to a cashier. Chase's efforts to raise consumer awareness of the blink cards will include television, radio, newspaper and billboard advertising, as well as mailings to cardholders.

Rau claims that results from the blink pilot and other research shows that consumers consider contactless technology to be "simple, fast and convenient," and that "consumers enjoyed the added security from retaining possession of their cards while paying."

Pilot programs have found as much as a 20-second reduction in transaction time using contactless payments, and the results of pilot tests point to higher per-transaction spending when consumers use contactless payment devices instead of cash. Contactless payment systems are being promoted, both by Chase and other credit card companies, as a convenient alternative to cash payments. Contactless cards can be linked to debit and checking accounts, credit accounts or prepaid accounts. The Chase blink card, however, is linked only to credit accounts.

In parts of Asia and Europe, RFID-enabled cards and cell phones to pay for goods and services, including mass transit, are more widely used than in the U.S, where consumer exposure to contactless payment methods has been limited to pilot programs launched by MasterCard for its PayPass program, and by American Express for its ExpressPay program. Some U.S. transit systems are starting to deploy RFID-based fare systems, as well, but these are still uncommon. MasterCard, AmEx and Visa, which has piloted the Visa Wave contactless card in Asia, have established an infrastructure of retailers that have retrofitted their payment terminals to accept contactless payments, or are in the process of doing so. All three credit card companies have endorsed ISO 14443 as the most appropriate air interface protocol for contactless payments because it supports encryption and a very short read range between the chip and reader, both of which allow for secure transactions. This standard allows retailers to install single terminals that will accept contactless payment cards from American Express, MasterCard or Visa.

Because consumers apply for, are issued and manage their credit card accounts through providers such as Chase, Citibank and MBNA, however, it is up to credit card issuers to make contactless payment devices available to consumers. There are currently 94 million Chase-issued credit cards in circulation in the U.S. That makes this Chase announcement a significant development in the adoption of contactless payments.

In addition to distributing the cards at the two undisclosed cities, Chase says that its Visa and MasterCard cardholders in other markets will begin to receive new cards with blink, but did not specify when that will happen or the location of those other markets.

7-Eleven announced that it would accept the blink cards at 170 of its stores by the end of the year. Sheetz, a convenience store and gas station chain based in Altoona, Pa., will be the first retailer to cobrand a blink MasterCard credit card. Account holders of the cobranded Sheetz/MasterCard cards will receive rebates on Sheetz purchases and loyalty-based incentives, and will pay no annual card. Sheetz announced in January that it would begin accepting MasterCard PayPass devices at all of its more than 300 locations. Blink cards linked to MasterCard accounts are treated the same as PayPass cards. (In March, Sheetz announced that it would also accept the American Express ExpressPay contactless card.)

According to MasterCard, cardholders with MasterCard accounts will see the PayPass logo on the back of their blink cards and will be able to use them at any retail location that accepts PayPass cards. The payment terminals the consumers use will have the PayPass logo. As more credit card issuers launch contactless credit cards, they might re-brand PayPass cards with a different logo, as Chase has done with the blink cards, or they might keep the PayPass brand on the face of the card.

MasterCard further announced this year that PayPass cards are being accepted at select McDonald's and Ritz Camera locations. Regal Cinemas, United Artist Theatres and Edwards Theatres throughout the United States will accept PayPass payments, and some in New York already do. In February, MBNA began offering PayPass-enabled NFL Extra Points MasterCard credit cards (see MasterCard PayPass Beefs Up NFL Lineup. Because PayPass is based on the same standards as blink, any retailer that accepts PayPass cards—which have only been issued to participants of MasterCard pilot programs in the U.S.—will also accept blink cards.

Aside from the method of collecting the cardholder's account information, contactless payments are processed in the same way as traditional credit cards that are swiped. The account information, which is encrypted, is sent to and processed by the retailer's merchant processing partner. If the account is valid, then an authorization number is issued, a signature is collected if required and the transaction is completed.

Posted  May 27, 2005 ----------------------------------

California Senate Passes Bill Prohibiting RFID

...in Identification Cards and Documents

"with broad bipartisan support (29-7) that would prohibit state and local governments from issuing identification documents, driver's licenses,

...and ID cards containing a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag, a device that can broadcast an individual's most private information including their name, address, telephone number, and date of birth."

Posted  May 25, 2005 ----------------------------------

The 'wave' of the future

Tired of swiping your credit card over and over because the magnetic strip is worn? Help is on the way: cards that you wave, rather than swipe.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. the nation's largest credit-card issuer, said it will issue a new credit card with so-called "blink" technology that can be waved in front of a special reader, as well as being swiped through a traditional terminal.

The nation's No. 2 bank said it will start rolling out the cards this summer and reissue new "blink" cards to existing customers.

J.P. Morgan Chase has about 94 million credit cards in circulation and is the first bank to issue Visa- and MasterCard-branded cards with the new "blink" technology.

Additionally, American Express Co plans to issue its "ExpressPay" version of the wave cards to new credit-card customers next month.

Posted  May 18, 2005 ----------------------------------

Those of you who are being told by your Pastor you will be out of here before the mark. please, PLEASE take note of this next report. Let's not argue doctrine, let's talk bible and realize there is no Bible verse that says you will be ruptured out before the mark. REVELATION 3:2-3 "Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." So watch now this next report...therev

Chief Of Police Who Received Verichip Advocates Forced Government Chipping To Buy And Sell

The Bergen County, New Jersey Chief of Police Jack Schmidig barked, "do I trust the government?

I am the government!" as he advocated mandatory government implant chipping by law to buy and sell.

Schmidig made nationwide headlines when he personally got chipped last month.

***REVELATION chapter 13 and verses 16 and 17... "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

***REVELATION chapter 3 and verse 5... "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."

The Last Days - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth...thewatchman

Posted  May 13, 2005 ----------------------------------

USDA Foresees Livestock IDs by 2009

The discovery of mad cow disease in a Washington state Holstein is driving the push to a mandatory nationwide system of animal identification.

The Agriculture Department proposes beginning with voluntary registration of cattle, hogs, poultry and other livestock, then shifting to mandatory reporting of livestock movement by January 2009.

***REVELATION 13:16 "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark... Have you ever thought that this verse might apply also to animals?? Mandatory identification... may I dare to use the word "MARKING" by January 2009! How long before people will be asked to voluntarily be "MARKED" errrr excuse me "identified"?? It is happening in hospitals now, yes right now! Will the date of mandatory "MARKING" of people be near January 2009?? Will it come before or after that date?? Who knows?? Ask the Illuminati!

***REVELATION 13:17 "And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

***Have you ever noticed that this verse gives not just one way but three ways to sell your soul to the coming beast system??

***The End Times - They are not coming - They are here!...therev

Posted  May 1, 2005 ----------------------------------

Handheld Reader from ACG for RFID project at Jacobi Medical Center

Patients at Jacobi Medical Center in New York are being equipped with RFID wrist bands that contain the patient's medical history and identifying number.

To read those wristbands, Siemens Business Services chose a portable hand-held reader supplied by ACG Identification Technologies.

At the end of 2004 and after a successful pilot test, Jacobi Medical Center, the largest public hospital in the Bronx with more than 800 beds, began fitting all patients with RFID enabled wristbands upon admission.

The wristbands are embedded with an RFID integrated circuit containing the medical history and unique number for each patient, allowing the hospital staff to identify patients almost instantly and get online access to a database.

In contrast to barcode, RFID wristbands do not require direct access with the reader; they can be scanned through clothing and blankets.

Posted  May 10, 2005 ----------------------------------

Cisco slammed for RFID staff tracker

Cisco has come under fire from privacy groups as it prepares to launch a wireless RFID server that can track people and equipment using existing Wi-Fi networks.

The Wireless Location Appliance 2700 is designed to track RFID tags down to a few meters and display the location on a central map.

Alarms can be raised if the tag moves out of a predefined area, allowing companies to track equipment and, more controversially, personnel.

"This can track your most valuable assets and people," said Phil Dean, manager

It will only work with active RFID tags, which carry a power source, rather than the smaller passive systems that only activate when scanned.

The active tags cost at least $5 each, which would boost the cost of wide scale deployment.

Posted  May 9, 2005 ----------------------------------

Implanted chip ID tags are getting under the skin

It took the young emergency-room doctor three days to identify the unconscious El Salvadoran man wheeled into a Los Angeles hospital with his head bashed in.

Tracing trails of receipts, clothes tags and phone numbers, Dr. John Halamka got good at tracking down the names and medical histories of "John" and "Jane Doe" patients. "Arthur Conan Doyle would've been proud," he recalled.

But Halamka also daydreamed of ways to make the sleuthing unnecessary, saving time and lives. When he heard of VeriChip, a computer-linked ID tag that can be implanted in the human body, he decided to test one out himself.

On Halamka's lunch break one day last December, a colleague at Harvard's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where Halamka is now chief information officer, injected the tiny microchip under the skin of his right upper arm.

Halamka had been "chipped," joining some 1,000 people implanted with the device worldwide, the chipmaker says. Implants are intended to track easily disoriented Alzheimer's patients, give the chronically ill quick access to complex medical records and restrict entry to high-security areas.

Because it's imbedded in the flesh, the tag can't be stolen or lost. "It is always there when needed," chip designer Dr. Richard Seelig told a federal panel last January.

VeriChip is the first tag patented and marketed for use in humans. More than 8,000 have been sold to distributors since 2002, according to Florida-based Applied Digital, the parent company of VeriChip.

Doctors certified by the company purchase, resell and administer the microchips, which are the size of a grain of rice. The procedure involves a quick syringe injection and costs about $200.

The radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology that VeriChip employs has revolutionized manufacturing, retail and security businesses.

The microchips act as wireless bar codes, receiving and transmitting data via radio waves, tracking goods from assembly line to store shelf, verifying passports and security codes, and tracing the movements of livestock and pets.

Now the chips are being used to tag humans.

To date, most of VeriChip's customers are outside the United States, particularly from Latin America, where the chip could deter kidnappings. Officials in the Mexican attorney general's office have been implanted with the device to access high-security areas. Meanwhile, chipped VIPs at a Barcelona nightclub can pay for drinks by waving their hands under a scanner.

In the United States, the FDA approved VeriChip for medical use last October.

"This is not something the man on the street is going to walk in and say, 'Give me a VeriChip!'" said Angela Fulcher, vice president of marketing for the firm. "But the people who need it can really perceive the advantage."

In 2002, Jeff and Leslie Jacobs and their then-14-year-old son became the first humans ever implanted with the device.

Jeff Jacobs had been fighting Hodgkin's disease and a string of degenerative diseases for more than 25 years, making frantic trips to the emergency room.

His wife always carried a scrunched-up list of her husband's frequently changing medications in her wallet. Soon, she said, she won't have to worry: Doctors will simply scan her husband's arm and use the ID number imbedded there to access his medical records in a VeriChip database.

At Jacobi Medical Center in New York, tagged hospital bracelets already ease patient care, saving more than 10 hours of nursing time a day, according to chief information officer Dan Morreale.

"I would put a chip in myself, absolutely," he said. "It's a question of, 'Does the convenience and benefit outweigh the risk?' That's a question you have to answer yourself."

Still, VeriChip has yet to catch on with the general public because the infrastructure to support it is not yet in place. Maryland internist Albert Lee has 20 chips in stock at his Bethesda office, but not a single customer, he said, because most hospitals aren't equipped to detect the device.

Human tagging raises a host of ethical qualms as well. Defenders insist the system is hard to break into, and stress that the chip is implanted only with patient consent.

But privacy advocates decry the device as a forerunner to "Big Brother," and on the Internet, several fundamentalist Christian groups have lambasted the chip as "the mark of Satan."

Some researchers worry the system is hackable. At the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute, Dr. Avi Rubin last year led a team that cracked the security code encrypting a similar device in remote-control car keys.

Rubin fears the stealthy abuse of human chipping. "Imagine you had a spouse you didn't trust, and you managed to implant one of these in them when they were sleeping," he said. Install a chip-scanner near where you believe your spouse is having an affair, and a pager could alert you every time your spouse appeared.

Unbeknownst to most Americans, RFID chips are already prevalent in everyday life. Some 1.8 billion tags have been sold to date; by 2015, that number will exceed 1 trillion, according to industry consultant IDTechEx.

Meanwhile, the tags are used to speed passage through toll booths, track inventory at Wal-Mart and take attendance at school. New U.S. passports will be chipped by next year, and some states are considering following suit with driver's licenses. The U.S. military, which already uses RFID tags to track basics like food supplies, has talked with VeriChip about implanting dog tags under soldiers' skin, Fulcher said.

Posted  May 7, 2005 ----------------------------------

THE END TIMES - THE LAST DAYS - ARE UPON THE EARTH!

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

THIS IS NO GAME! - THIS IS THE REAL THING! - DO NOT WAIT!

                            ------------------------------------------

Digital Angel Testing Bio-Thermal Capabilities

Digital Angel Corporation, an advanced technology company in the field of rapid and accurate identification location tracking,

....and condition monitoring of high-value assets and VeriChip Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Applied Digital

...today announced that the companies plan to initiate clinical studies on an enhanced version of its Verichip implantable radio frequency identification device.

Posted  May 6, 2005 ----------------------------------

Massive Government RFID market emerging

Most of the public attention given to RFID has focused on the retail supply chain, especially Wal-Mart's 2005 mandate to its top 100 suppliers.

But the U.S. Department of Defense is also mandating its use in 2005 -- not to merely 100, but to all of its 43,000 suppliers.

Add to that the needs of the aerospace industry, particularly the two giant aircraft makers, Boeing and Airbus, and the shape of a massive vertical RFID market emerges.

Posted  May 5, 2005 ----------------------------------

Digital Angel signs new distributors

For Asian, European and Middle East re - Digital Media VeriChip Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Applied Digital,

...a provider of Security Through Innovation announced that it has selected new distributors for the Asian, European and Middle Eastern regions.

Through these selections, the company expects to expand the use of VeriChip for security and medical applications in China, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Israel and Germany.

Posted  May 4, 2005 ----------------------------------

New Jersey Chief of Police implanted with the VeriChip

VeriChip Corporation announced today that the Bergen County, New Jersey Chief of Police has been implanted with the VeriChip. Chief of Police Jack Schmidig, a member of the police force for over 30 years, received a VeriChip as part of the Company's strategy of enlisting key regional leaders to accelerate adoption of the VeriChip.

With hospital emergency room infrastructure forming, patients will have the ability to provide secure ID and medical record access in an emergency or clinical situation. High-profile regional leaders are accepting the VeriChip, representing an excellent example of our approach to gaining adoption of the technology," said Kevin H. McLaughlin, VeriChip Corporation's CEO. "The northern New Jersey area represents one of our early regional targets, and in a short time period we have secured a leading hospital in the region which has agreed to adopt the VeriChip System to scan patients; initiated efforts to educate the physician community in conjunction with one of our distribution partners Henry Schein Corporation, and implanted several high-profile members of the community with the VeriChip. We intend to employ this approach on a regional basis to accelerate acceptance of this Class II medical device."

VeriChip Corporation has adopted three key elements to its marketing strategy to develop regional acceptance for VeriChip. They include developing the infrastructure at regional hospitals to support the VeriChip System (scanner and database) in the Emergency Rooms; educating the medical community in the region in conjunction with Henry Schein and other distribution partners; and seeking high-profile members of the community to receive the VeriChip to raise awareness of the device.

Initially, the Company has identified several groups of patients that are likely to benefit from the VeriChip due to medical conditions. These include diabetics, chronic and cardiac care patients, memory impaired patients and patients with implanted medical devices. These patients would benefit from having a VeriChip as a result of medical conditions that increase the likelihood of an emergency room visit, which could require time-sensitive procedures where access to medical records would be critical.

Using the VeriChip System, the emergency room attendant could scan the VeriChip in the patient's arm, accessing a unique 16-digit ID number. This number would be linked to a medical records database, which would provide detailed information on implanted medical devices and patient medical records, which could provide valuable information allowing the hospital to quickly implement the appropriate procedures on patients who otherwise might not be able to communicate medical histories due to impaired conditions.

Posted  May 3, 2005 ----------------------------------

Imagine a world without cash

It's another Monday morning. Late for work and desperate for caffeine, you trudge to the deli and end up fourth in line.

The woman at the head of the line is painstakingly counting out her pennies to make the exact payment. "I just know I have it," she says over the din of the coffee bean grinder. The man after her insists on using his credit card to buy a $2 croissant. And the girl just in front of you fumbles with her purse and loudly wonders if she can get cash back with her sandwich. You glance at the time and groan.

Now imagine a world where none of these aggravations exist: no groping for your wallet, no bothering with money back or small change. Imagine a world in which paying for a latte and a newspaper take a fifth of a second. Imagine a world without cash.

Sound intriguing? The fantasy may not be too far off if Transport for London is successful with its plans to expand the scope of the Oyster smart card – already used by 2.5m commuters – to pay for small purchases at newsagents, pubs, coffee houses and sandwich shops.

"In the 18 months since we've introduced the Oyster card, we've managed to establish public trust and confidence," says Jay Walder, managing director for TfL. "We've ingrained smart card infrastructure and habits – people in London are already accustomed to the notion of top-up and pay. So, why stop there?"

Why indeed. According to the Association of Payment and Clearing Services, cash is still very much king in this country. Cash spend in the UK totals £266bn a year with £43bn spent in London alone. The average Londoner doles out £16 in cash a day – and two-thirds of these transactions involve purchases are for less than a fiver. An everyday card – that can be used in place of cash and where the value of purchases is automatically deducted – is a natural next step, says TfL.

"The key to challenging the ubiquity of cash is to find something that people will always have on them, and that gives them the same flexibility as cash," says Robert Courtneidge, a partner at the law firm Osborne Clarke who has worked in the cards and payments systems arena for over more than 10 years. "Oyster fits in with that ambit – people have gotten used to carrying them and using them. It makes sense to expand it."

Moreover, says Walder, the advantages of Oyster – a solid reputation, lower cash-handling costs and quicker turnaround time at the till – more than make up for the commission, which will probably be less than three3 per cent, Oyster would collect from retailers who sign up to the system.

Already several high street banks and credit card companies, including Alliance Leicester, Barclays, HSBC, Visa and American Express have expressed interest in partnering with Oyster, as have other businesses from including Marks Spencer, the retailer, to Ericsson, the mobile phone group, and Starbucks, the coffee vendor.

TfL says it hopes to begin testing a new system at the end of the year and start full delivery in January 2006 – potentially expanding to other cities in the UK within the next few years.

All over the globe, smart cards, or stored-value cards, are growing in popularity – particularly in Asia In 2002 , for example, Singapore launched its EZ-link card for public transport. It now has 6m cards in circulation and is which are accepted at various retailers from McDonald's to 7-Eleven to film theatres cinemas and hair salons. In Japan, there are now more than 10m Suica cards – which were launched in 2001 – and they are accepted at station convenience stores and shops throughout Tokyo.

Perhaps the most successful and widely accepted form of electronic currency is Hong Kong's Octopus card. Octopus, a joint venture between the territory's main public transportation operators, was launched in 1997 as a transport payment system. It is now accepted at more than 300 merchants and thousands of locations across Hong Kong, including parking meters, fast-food outlets, municipal swimming pools and horseracing tracks.

Octopus, which TfL says is the model for how it plans to expand Oyster's capabilities, in the micro-payment market, behaves like a pre-paid top-up card. Funds are subtracted when the card is held over a reading device , which is a low-range radio transmitter that can be built into doors, turnstiles and countertops. Money can be added to the cards at machines in underground stations, convenience stores and via an automatic draw from a bank account.

The card's usefulness lies in its capacity to process low-value purchases: where it is not worth the hassle of using a full-fledged credit card. The current average retail transaction using Octopus is HK$6.50 (43p).

"These contactless systems are taking off all over the world and Octopus has helped blaze the trail," says Chris Corum, executive editor of Contactless, a US-based publication that tracks applications of smart card technology. "The fact that they are "tap and go" – meaning that you need only to wave your card over a reading device – offers a level of neatness to the consumer and an element of convenience to the merchant because they can move more people through the queue more quickly."

But the big unanswered question is will it work here? Ivan Remsick, a senior financial services analyst at Forrester research, says the answer is not yet clear: "Oyster is a good product and it makes our lives easier – however it's quite incompatible with current card payment systems like Visa and MasterCard, and for it to work it will have to be modified."

For instance, he says: "Oyster cards are transferable – meaning that you can loan them to your friends, but bank cards are certainly not. Also, if you lose your Oyster card, you can get a refund – which is a nice feature for transport but it doesn't work for e-purse schemes in the financial services world," he says.

This is also not the first UK time that Britain has experimented with an e-cash system. In 1993, a consortium of banks and BT, the telecommunications group, launched the Mondex, card, a plastic card which contained a computer chip loaded with cash from a bank account that enabled customers to make purchases in vending machines, via pay telephones and over the internet. It first was introduced in Swindon and then at university campuses in Exeter, Edinburgh and Nottingham. But in spite of trials in about 20 countries, Mondex, which was eventually taken over by MasterCard, hardly got beyond the test stage.

"Money is a difficult thing to compete with and in the fundamental sense, we were too early," says Tim Jones, the inventor of Mondex.

Jones says that ultimately the card failed because it was too foreign a concept to users who weren't accustomed to having to carry around a separate payment card for certain purchases. "It was far too much change put in front of consumers in one go – we should have presented something that was more incremental. Oyster is in a much better place," he says. "You've already got almost 3m people using the card and you don't have to persuade them of anything."

Today Jones is a consultant to Simpay, a mobile platform from Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and Telefónica Móviles that allow users to pay for ring tones, music downloads and other digital content with their mobile phones.

Jones believes that , similar to smart cards, mobile phone payments could become a significant competitor for smaller transactions – particularly given their huge popularity in the youth market. He points to the success in Japan of a mobile phone-based payment system from NTT DoCoMo, Japan's dominant mobile operator.

This week DoCoMo said it was in talks with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and JCB, the country's biggest credit card providers, about investing in their credit card businesses in a step forward for its vision of towards integrating mobile communications with financial services. "It's not completely comprehensive, but what DoCoMo is doing is clearly wonderful," he says.

Posted  April 28, 2005 ----------------------------------

GPS-enabled school uniforms hit Japan

With GPS-enabled school uniforms on the way in Japan, the timeless parental refrain "don't forget your jacket" is about to assume new significance.

According to gizmo hub Engadget, the jackets, in addition to letting parents track their kids, sport a panic button that children can push in an emergency, immediately summoning a security agent to their exact location. The GPS-enabled blazers are made by school uniform maker Ogo-Sangyo, with GPS technology provided by Secom, which previously teamed up on a kids' backpack with built-in GPS.

RFID tags have been used to track kids in Japan before, and they've been considered elsewhere, including the United States.

But the notion of electronic IDs in schools has proven more than a little controversial, with some calling them a cutting-edge way to monitor attendance and keep kids safe and others assailing them as an assault on the youngsters' right to privacy.

The student tags employ the same technology used in building access badges commonly issued to employees for security purposes.

Drivers who sign up for quick-pay toll programs use similar devices to cruise by toll booths. And RFID technology has recently been found in chain stories, libraries and casinos.

Posted  April 25, 2005 ----------------------------------

Facing the future with a chip "in" the shoulder

Forget mobile phones as the hottest new media technology - for anyone under 30, handsets as we know them will be gone in 20 years. The world's tech-savvy youngsters will be using microchip implants to communicate and transact.

The microchip movement is one of dozens of forward-looking scenarios that some of Australia's major companies got a fix on this week courtesy of Network Ten's innovation and future scoping program.

If the microchip scenario sounds too much like a Star Trek episode, London nuclear physicist, marine biologist and futurist Wolfgang Grulke has news: it's already happening.

Last April, Barcelona's Baja Beach Club began micro chipping its VIP nightclub members, to let them into exclusive areas and clock up drinks and food via a chip implant in the arm produced by VeriChip Corporation. Within a decade, Mr Grulke says, microchips will be common. Already two scientists at Britain's Warwick University have chips embedded under their skin that let them send emails just by thinking.

The process is still cumbersome, Mr Grulke says, but by willing a cursor around a keyboard on a computer screen with their mind, they can write and send emails. "It's really the start of interfacing the chip with the nervous system," he said.

"Twenty years from now, we (older generations) will still hate it, but kids will never know a world without it."

The arrival of the hip, young micro chippers is only the start of radical industry-changing trends that Mr Grulke says big companies are struggling to address because of their reluctance for "radical innovation".

Posted  April 15, 2005 ----------------------------------

Car trackers drive some to distraction

With the help of a dime-size adhesive tag on a vehicle's windshield and cutting-edge technology that detractors equate with Big Brother,

...police soon could track Texas cars and trucks — if a legislator's bill makes it into law.

Though the bill hasn't made it out of the Texas House of Representatives' Transportation Committee,

...it already has generated outrage among technophiles and privacy advocates who believe the technology, once introduced, will creep into other law enforcement areas.

Posted  April 13, 2005 ----------------------------------

Aerospace & Defense Give RFID Huge Push

Most of the public attention given to RFID has focused on the retail supply chain, especially Wal-Mart's 2005 mandate to its top 100 suppliers.

But the U.S. Department of Defense is also mandating its use in 2005 -- not to merely 100, but to all of its 43,000 suppliers.

Add to that the needs of the aerospace industry, particularly the two giant aircraft makers, Boeing and Airbus, and the shape of a massive vertical RFID market emerges.

Posted  April 12, 2005 ----------------------------------

RFID is literally getting under people's skin

Joseph Krull doesn't have a chip on his shoulder. But he has one in it.

The San Antonio security consultant is one of a small but growing number of people who essentially turn themselves into wireless network nodes for the sake of making personal information available to authorized parties with the wave of a radio frequency identification (RFID) scanner.

In Krull's case, the chip was implanted two months ago so hospital staff could access his medical information quickly in emergency situations. Others are "getting chipped," as those in the know call it, for everything from

entertainment to personal safety.

Krull's chip is basically the same kind of RFID-based technology that's been used for years to tag dogs so they can be identified if lost, except the human chip works on a different radio frequency.

Since Applied Digital, on behalf of its subsidiary VeriChip, got authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last October to sell the chips for human implantation, about 1,000 chips have gone live.

"I have a blown pupil, a detached retina, in my left eye from a skiing accident," says Krull, explaining his decision to have a physician with a syringe stick a chip in him under local anesthetic in what he described as a

fairly simple procedure. "I'm supposed to wear a MedAlert bracelet because one of the indicators of a head injury is a blown pupil. One thing they might do in that kind of emergency is drill holes in your skull."

The thought of having holes unnecessarily drilled into his head, because of a misdiagnosis during a medical emergency, got Krull thinking about having a chip implanted after he heard about it during a conference in Spain. "I wanted to get chipped," he says.

His family -- wife, sisters, nephews and nieces -- was wary.

"They said, 'Are you nuts?' They had a lot of questions, like will the chip be visible or is there a risk of rejection," Krull says.

Now officially human No. 1020000000, Krull can access his personal data stored online at VeriChip's portal and make any changes he wants by using a reader and a PIN code. Krull elected to store his medical information and address, phone numbers, fax and e-mail at the Web site.

While his family has grown relaxed about it all, "the biggest opposition is from people in my own field - security," Krull points out. Critics say the chip poses a huge privacy and security threat that will let the government and

private-sector snoops get personal information.

Krull says he understands the point of view taken by some privacy advocates but contends there's little value in keeping information such as the condition of his eyeball a secret.

"It's entirely up to me what I put on my chip," he says. "I've been involved with authentication for 20 years, working with biometrics, and I was promoting the token. Now I am the token."

Fellow implantees include the attorney general of Mexico City and some of his staff, who were chipped to help identify them in the event that they become crime victims. Some are getting implants just for kicks - a nightclub in Glasgow, Scotland, called Bar Soba, offers to implant chips in its guests so the bar can prepare each patron's favorite drink the minute he walks in.

Posted  April 11, 2005 ----------------------------------

THE END TIMES - THE LAST DAYS - ARE UPON THE EARTH!

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

THIS IS NO GAME! - THIS IS THE REAL THING! - DO NOT WAIT!

                            ------------------------------------------

Posted  April 11, 2005 ----------------------------------

Privacy Advocates Criticize Plan To Embed ID Chips in Passports

A government plan to embed U.S. passports with radio frequency chips starting this summer is being met by resistance from travel and privacy groups who say the technology is untested and could create a security risk for travelers.

The embedded chips are designed to make passports work more like employee ID cards that can be passed over an electronic reader to gain access to a building. State Department officials said the new technology, commonly known as radio frequency identification (RFID), would allow customs agents to quickly process passengers at airports and borders. The passports are to be issued to diplomats starting in August, and then the program would expand to applicants for new passports over the next year.

The State Department said the use of radio frequency identification tags is part of a global effort to cut down on fraud associated with passports.

State Department officials said the chips are part of a global effort to prevent passport fraud. Each chip will contain a digital record of all information printed on the passport, including the holder's name and document number. The chip will also contain the passport holder's photograph, enhanced by facial recognition technology. That way, even if the paper passport is altered, customs agents would be able to compare the information on the chip with the person presenting it.

Groups representing travel-related businesses and privacy advocates say the high-tech chips would do more harm than good. Each chip has a built-in miniature antenna that uses radio waves to transmit information to a machine reader. Critics contend that terrorists or thieves could use hand-held chip readers to identify U.S. citizens, even on a crowded street, anywhere they travel. Such readers are available for $500 to several thousand dollars, depending on the level of sophistication.

"If you're walking around in Beirut, it would be well worth Al Qaeda's money to use one of these readers to pick out the Americans from the Swedes without any problem," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program.

State Department officials and some RFID industry executives said it would be difficult, if not impossible, to intercept transmissions because the antenna to be embedded in U.S. passports can only be read from four inches away, not several feet. "A four-inch read range makes it very difficult," said Mark Roberti, publisher of RFID Journal, a trade publication. "You have to be close to the person to be able to scan that."

Critics of the technology say it is too untested to know for sure whether it could be breached. "The problem is that this data is now traveling through the air, so there is a gap and it's conceivable someone could somehow intercept that data," said Donald Davis, editor of Card Technology magazine. In Europe, Davis said, consultants have been able to intercept data on chips from several feet away.

Steinhardt said that in one lab test at the institute, researchers using a powerful chip reader were able to pick up on a passport chip from several feet away. The State Department said the radio-frequency reader was not able to see information contained on the chip during the test; it only could detect that communication was in process.

Moss said the department does not like to call the passport chip RFID, because people typically refer to the technology as it is used by retailers, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and the Defense Department, which use it to track shipments. Instead, he calls it "contactless smart card technology".

The State Department said it has received more than 550 comments from the public, with several hundred coming in the past week after privacy activist Bill Scannell launched a Web site called RFIDkills.com that calls the chip-embedded passports "terrorist beacons." The public comment period ends tomorrow.

Groups representing the travel industry also have expressed concern about the technology. The Association of Corporate Travel Executives said 93 percent of its members, who are travel managers and representatives of airlines and hotels, opposed using the technology in passports in an e-mail poll.

"It could put the safety of Americans at risk," said Greeley S. Koch, the group's president.

Posted  April 8, 2005 ----------------------------------

Student Radio Tracking System Sets Bad Precedent

A privacy rights advocate is criticizing the use of radio frequency identification badges to take attendance in some schools.

A school district in Sutter, California, briefly implemented a program that had students carry tags containing what is known as "radio frequency identification" technology, or RFID, in order to help monitor student attendance. The program was a pilot project for a small start-up company called InCom, which had developed its "InClass" system to help elementary and secondary schools automate attendance-taking.

Along with the passive RFID tags attached to student ID card holders, the InClass system uses ultra high-frequency "readers" mounted in the doorways of school classrooms. As students pass through the a doorway, the reader sends the tags' unique ID numbers to a central computer server. A software program installed on the server then collects the tag data and wirelessly uploads a list of present, absent and tardy students (based on when each student enters the classroom) to a personal digital assistance (PDA) device that is issued to the teacher.

The teacher can then perform a visual check on the InClass-generated attendance list. After he or she confirms the information, the list is submitted wirelessly via the same PDA to school administrators, who are required to file attendance records with a state board of education.

On Feb. 15 at a school board meeting InCom announced it had ended the pilot test. Nevertheless, the pilot test stirred great interest, and InCom has been flooded with calls and e-mail messages from school administrators across the U.S. that are interested in testing the product for themselves.

But Beth Givens with the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse feels school officials should not be too hasty in latching onto InClass, as administrators at Brittan perhaps were. She says instead of fully exploring the ramifications of such a program, the elementary school may have looked to the new technology as a "magic bullet" for an administrative problem without stopping to consider its potential impact on the school and the students themselves.

Givens warns that if systems like InClass are implemented in a school, the social environment there and the way students act within it may change profoundly. "Young people are going to get used to the idea or comfortable with the idea that they are always being watched," she says. "So what kind of adults will they grow up to be? Will they not be as risk-taking as perhaps entrepreneurs of earlier decades have been?"

How, the PRC spokeswoman wonders, would introducing an RFID system affect the communication and self expression of school children? "Will they be cautious about what they say? Will they not speak out? Will they not have a passionate interest in certain things?" she asks.

Some proponents of the RFID badge system argue that it will make tasks like attendance-taking more efficient and that it also offers an effective way to ensure the safety of children. But even though the InClass program at Britton Elementary may have appealed to many school administrators, teachers, and even some parents as a harmless and potentially very helpful technology, Givens warns that such new technologies can harbor hidden implications and raise unforeseen issues.

"Rarely is an information technology put into place that only is used for that one limited use and nothing else, the privacy rights activist notes. "The word I use is 'function creep' or 'mission creep.' Once you put something in place, it starts to be used for all kinds of other things. It is added onto in future years. There are more variations, more complex developments of that technology."

Posted  April 7, 2005 ----------------------------------

Biometric Passports Set to Take Flight

It's official. Your passport is going high-tech.

Biometric passports have made it out of the discussion and testing phase. The State Department's Office of Passport Policy, Planning, and Advisory Services recently announced that it is ready to begin issuing biometric passports.

These passports, which feature an RFID chip, will bring about speedier and more secure entry into and exit from the United States, the government says. However, critics say the technology behind the passports is flawed and puts your personal privacy at stake.

The New National ID

According to the State Department's proposed implementation rule, the agency plans to issue the first passport carrying an RFID chip by mid-2005.

That chip includes all the personal data found on the information page of today's passports. It also contains a biometric component--a digital facial image.

Within a year, all passports issued in the U.S. will feature this technology.

The new passports will comply with requirements set forth by the International Civil Aviation Organization. In 2003 that group adopted a global plan for the implementation of machine-readable passports containing biometric information for its 188 member countries, the United States included.

Your New Passport

The RFID chip will contain a chip identification number (printed on the chip when it is manufactured) and a digital signature (a series of numbers assigned to the chip when the passport is issued). The two numbers will be stored in a central government database along with the personal information contained on the information page.

Once the chip is printed, the information stored on it cannot be altered. Because of this, the Department of State has decided to eliminate today's passport amendments: Going forward, if your information changes, you'll need a new passport.

Normally you have to pay a fee to receive a new passport, but under the new system you'll have one year from when your information changes to apply for a new passport free of charge. That's key, as the price of passports will go up to cover the cost of the new technology. Congress has authorized a $12 surcharge to all new passports, which brings the cost of new 10-year passports from $85 to $97.

Protecting Your Information

The State Department says that information contained in the passport chip will not be encrypted because it's no different from that viewable on the information page. Plus, it says, encrypted data takes longer to read and requires more complicated technology, which makes it difficult to coordinate with other nations.

One of the primary concerns with using RFID chips in the new passports is that the chips can be read from a distance. That means that, potentially, someone with the proper equipment could access the data on your passport if they are physically close enough.

How close is in question. Some privacy experts allege that the RFID chips can be read from as far away as 30 to 65 feet, while government officials say it can be read only in close proximity. The State Department will require all chip readers to be electronically shielded so that electronic signals sending and receiving information will not be transmitted beyond the reader. Additionally, each passport will contain an anti-skimming feature designed to prevent identity thieves from activating and reading the chip from a distance, they say.

The State Department may be trying to protect your privacy, but public interest groups like the Electronic Privacy Information Center say the technology itself is a poor choice.

"Anybody with a little bit of money can read the passports at a distance without getting your consent," says EPIC Technology Fellow R.P. Ruiz. "As a citizen, I would have serious doubts about carrying a U.S. passport. I would feel my government is placing me at unnecessary undue risk."

Ruiz says RFID technology is a scary choice when it comes to electronic identification. "What does being readable from a distance have to do with authenticating a person's identity?" he says. "Why the heck is this not a contact card?"

More Secure?

A contact card, which would be readable by placing a passport or card through a slot (like a credit card), Ruiz says, would significantly reduce the risk of identity theft. RFID "is great technology for tracking cattle; it's absolutely horrible technology for tracking people.

"People who want to read it will [and will do so] at a very safe distance," he says. He also says this type of technology makes it easy to "surreptitiously track anyone's comings and goings. It makes it very easy to target people in public places."

Another area of concern for Ruiz: State Department rules state that if your new passport's electronic chip is damaged or stops working you don't have to replace it. The agency reasons that since that same information resides on the data page of the passport, there's no need to replace a damaged chip.

Ruiz finds that policy puzzling. "If that component is broken," he says, "it's no more secure than what we have now."

If you're concerned about the security of the upcoming passports, Ruiz offers this advice: "Get your paper copy right now before they go electronic."

Passports are valid for a long time, he notes. "You can have five to ten years for [the State Department] to see the error of their way and do it right later," he says.

Posted  April 6, 2005 ----------------------------------

Brain chip reads man's thoughts (additional report)

A paralyzed man in the US has become the first person to benefit from a brain chip that reads his mind.

Matthew Nagle, 25, was left paralyzed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair after a knife attack in 2001.

The pioneering surgery at New England Sinai Hospital, Massachusetts, last summer means he can now control everyday objects by thought alone.

The brain chip reads his mind and sends the thoughts to a computer to decipher.

Mind over matter

He can think his TV on and off, change channels and alter the volume thanks to the technology and software linked to devices in his home.

Scientists have been working for some time to devise a way to enable paralyzed people to control devices with the brain.

Studies have shown that monkeys can control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain.

Recently four people, two of them partly paralyzed wheelchair users, were able to move a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes that pick up brain waves.

Mr. Nagle's device, called BrainGate, consists of nearly 100 hair-thin electrodes implanted a millimeter deep into part of the motor cortex of his brain that controls movement.

Wires feed the information from the electrodes into a computer which analyses the brain signals.

The signals are interpreted and translated into cursor movements, offering the user an alternative way to control devices such as a computer with thought.

Motor control

Professor John Donoghue, an expert on neuroscience at Brown University on Rhode Island, is the scientist behind the device produced by Cyberkinetics.

He said: "The computer screen is basically a TV remote control panel, and in order to indicate a selection he merely has to pass the cursor over an icon, and that's equivalent to a click when he goes over that icon."

Mr. Nagle has also been able to use thought to move a prosthetic hand and robotic arm to grab sweets from one person's hand and place them into another.

Professor Donoghue hopes that ultimately implants such as this will allow people with paralysis to regain the use of their limbs.

The long term aim is to design a package the size of a mobile phone that will run on batteries, and to electrically stimulate the patient's own muscles.

This will be difficult.

The simple movements we take for granted in fact involve complex electrical signals which will be hard to replicate, Dr Richard Apps, a neurophysiologist from Bristol University, the UK, told the BBC News website.

He said there were millions of neurones in the brain involved with movement. The brain chip taps into only a very small number of these.

But he said the work was extremely exciting.

"It's quite remarkable. They have taken research to the next stage to have a clear benefit for a patient that otherwise would not be able to move.

"It seems that they have cracked the crucial step and arguably the most challenging step to get hand movements.

"Just to be able to grasp an object is a major step forward."

He said it might be possible to hone this further to achieve finer movements of the hand.

Posted  April 4, 2005 ----------------------------------

THE END TIMES - THE LAST DAYS - ARE UPON THE EARTH!

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

THIS IS NO GAME! - THIS IS THE REAL THING! - DO NOT WAIT!

                            ------------------------------------------

Chip Reads Mind of Paralyzed Man

Matthew Nagle, 25, was left paralyzed from the neck down after a vicious knife attack in 2001. He uses a wheelchair and is unable to breathe without a respirator, and doctors say he has no chance of regaining the use of his limbs.

But following an operation at New England Sinai Hospital in Massachusetts, Mr Nagle has become the first patient in a controversial trial of brain implants which could help disabled people to be more independent by tapping into their brain waves.

During the three-hour operation, electrodes were attached to the surface of Mr Nagle's brain. They were positioned just above the sensory motor cortex, where the neural signals for controlling arm and hand movement are produced. Surgeons completed the operation by fitting a metal socket to Mr Nagle's head so he could be hooked up to a computer.

The scientists, lead by Professor John Donoghue, a world expert in neurotechnology at Brown University in Rhode Island, used a computer to decipher the brain waves picked up by the implant. In early trials, Mr Nagle learned to move a cursor around a computer screen simply by imagining moving his arm.

By using software linked to devices around the room, Mr Nagle has since been able to think his TV on and off, change channel and alter the volume. "Eventually, we want him to be able to use it to control the lights, his phone and other devices," said Prof Donoghue.

In the most recent tests, performed earlier this year, Mr Nagle was able to use thought to open and close an artificial prosthetic hand and move a robotic arm to grab sweets from one person's hand and drop them in another. He has also sharpened his skills at computer games by playing the old arcade game Pong.

Prof Donoghue hopes the implant, called BrainGate, will ultimately allow paraplegics to regain the use of their limbs. "If we can find a way to hook this up to his own muscles, he could open and close his own hands and move his own arms," he said. "We're very encouraged by Matthew, but we're cautious. It's just one person. There's further to go, but we're absolutely on the way."

Posted  April 1, 2005 ----------------------------------

RFID Cards Get Spin Treatment

Conspiracy theorists and civil libertarians, fear not. The U.S. government will not use radio-frequency identification tags in the passports it issues to millions of Americans in the coming years.

Instead, the government will use "contact less chips."

The distinction is part of an effort by the Department of Homeland Security and one of its RFID suppliers, Philips Semiconductors, to brand RFID tags in identification documents as "proximity chips," "contact less chips" or "contact less integrated circuits" -- anything but "RFID."

The Homeland Security Department is playing word games to dodge the privacy debate raging over RFID tags, which will eventually replace bar-code labels on consumer goods, said privacy rights advocates this week.

An RFID tag is a microchip attached to an antenna, which transmits unique information to a reader device that can be anywhere from a few inches to several feet away. The technology, with its many names ("contact less chips" has been around for some time), is used in security access cards, E-ZPass automatic toll-paying devices and ski-lift tickets.

Computer scientists and data-encryption experts, the editors of an RFID industry journal -- even the makers of the contact less chips themselves -- all agree that the Homeland Security Department is using RFID technology.

But the Homeland Security Department is very carefully avoiding use of the term "RFID." The department, along with Philips, is also backing a trade group that is branding ID documents with RFID tags as "contact less smart cards."

"We'd prefer," said Joseph Broghamer, Homeland Security's director of authentication technologies, "that the terms 'RFID,' or even 'RF,' not be used at all (when referring to the RFID-tagged smart cards). Let's get 'RF' out of it altogether."

The Homeland Security Department this spring will begin issuing RFID-tagged employee ID cards (which include fingerprint records) to tens of thousands of its employees. Homeland Security's employee ID card has "contact less" technology to speed workers' access to secure areas, said Broghamer. He also wants to replace conventional reader devices, because their metal contacts break down after repeated use.

The department is also evaluating technology pitches from several RFID tag manufacturers, including Philips, for an RFID-tagged passport containing biometric data. The government's plan will earn billions of dollars for the RFID suppliers while helping security officials track individuals more effectively by detecting their ID documents' radio signals in airport terminals, or wherever reader devices are present.

The Homeland Security Department and Philips said they worry that the public will confuse the RFID tags in ID documents with those used by retailers, such as Wal-Mart, to track consumer goods. Contact less chips, said Broghamer, are more sophisticated than retail RFID tags, because they can carry more information and can better protect sensitive personal information.

But there is another problem with the "RFID" name: Many people associate the term with radio chips "that blab personal information indiscriminately" to any reader device, said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Privacy rights groups such as the EFF, the American Civil Liberties Union and CASPIAN have for years argued that RFID tags on consumer goods could be used to spy on individuals.

That is why Homeland Security is engaging in doublespeak, to dupe Americans into accepting RFID tags on their passports, said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program.

"It's a frightening, Orwellian use of the language," said Steinhardt, referring to the "contact less" branding effort. Steinhardt called the RFID tags the Homeland Security Department is using, which have faster processors and more storage capacity than retail tags, "RFID on steroids."

Government agents will use reader devices to track individuals wherever they use their RFID-tagged identification documents, Steinhardt and Tien said.

"They can call it a contact less chip," said Tien, "but it is still RFID. And it shares virtually all of the same vulnerabilities."

thieves will be able to lift an RFID-tagged passport holder's personally identifiable information with reader devices that can be purchased for less than $500, said Steinhardt.

Terrorists could also track down and kidnap Americans oversees by secretly reading their chipped passports.

"Let's say you are in Beirut, carrying a passport with an RFID tag," said Steinhardt. "A terrorist with a portable reader device could easily tell who is the American (in a public space)."

University of California at Berkeley assistant professor David Wagner, who researches computer security and cryptography, has reviewed engineering studies of the type of RFID tag that will be used in passports. Wagner called Steinhardt's terrorist scenario "absolutely conceivable."

"And," said Wagner, "unlike an ID with a bar code or magnetic strip, you'd never know your card has been read."

Homeland Security's Broghamer insisted that the contact less chips for ID documents are vastly different from RFID tags used in retail supply chains, because contact less chips must be held very close to a reader device to be activated and to transmit their data.

RFID manufacturers are typically making radio tags for ID documents that comply with ISO/IEC 14443, the contact less chip industry technology standard. This standard limits transmission ranges to a distance of about 4 inches. Other RFID tags can be read at distances up to 30 feet, making them easier targets for identity thieves trying to capture their data, said Broghamer.

Broghamer would not admit to something engineers testing ISO/IEC 14443-compliant chips have demonstrated, however: that electronic eavesdroppers up to 30 feet away can capture data (including biometric records) while it is being sent by the chips to an authorized reader device.

ISO/IEC 14443-compliant chips can also be read directly over much longer distances by specially built devices, according to a Tel Aviv University study (.pdf).

Broghamer seemed eager to stay on-message about the Homeland Security Department's name for its RFID technology, despite its apparent vulnerabilities.

"I nearly fell out of my chair," Broghamer said, when he read a Wired News report that the Homeland Security Department's employee ID card will include an RFID tag. "I never used the term 'RFID,'" said Broghamer, describing a presentation he made at a technology conference last month. "I only used 'contact less chip' or 'proximity chip' to describe it."

A Philips sales executive, however, testifying last summer to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, called contact less smart cards "RFID systems with advanced computing power, storage and strong encryption accelerators, offering advanced services with enhanced security and privacy protection."

The Homeland Security Department's employee ID card will use state-of-the-art authentication and encryption systems to protect the department and its employees from identity thieves and spies with unauthorized RFID tag readers, said Broghamer.

But the chips in passports will not have any of those digital security features, said Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Kimberly Weissman. "We want it to be compatible," she said, "with as many reader devices used by other countries as possible."

Chip Implants Under The Skin Could Create In-Body Computers

Your body could soon be the backbone of a broadband personal data network linking your mobile phone or MP3 player to a cordless headset, your digital camera to a PC or printer, and all the gadgets you carry around to each other.

These personal area networks are already possible using radio-based technologies, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, or just plain old cables to connect devices. But NTT, the Japanese communications company, has developed a technology called RedTacton, which it claims can send data over the surface of the skin at speeds of up to 2Mbps -- equivalent to a fast broadband data connection.

Using RedTacton-enabled devices, music from an MP3 player in your pocket would pass through your clothing and shoot over your body to headphones in your ears. Instead of fiddling around with a cable to connect your digital camera to your computer, you could transfer pictures just by touching the PC while the camera is around your neck. And since data can pass from one body to another, you could also exchange electronic business cards by shaking hands, trade music files by dancing cheek to cheek, or swap phone numbers just by kissing.

RedTacton is arguably the first practical system because, unlike IBM's or Microsoft's, it doesn't need transmitters to be in direct contact with the skin -- they can be built into gadgets, carried in pockets or bags, and will work within about 20cm of your body. RedTacton doesn't introduce an electric current into the body -- instead, it makes use of the minute electric field that occurs naturally on the surface of every human body. A transmitter attached to a device, such as an MP3 player, uses this field to send data by modulating the field minutely in the same way that a radio carrier wave is modulated to carry information.

Receiving data is more complicated because the strength of the electric field involved is so low. RedTacton gets around this using a technique called electric field photonics: A laser is passed though an electro-optic crystal, which deflects light differently according to the strength of the field across it. These deflections are measured and converted back into electrical signals to retrieve the transmitted data.

An obvious question, however, is why anyone would bother networking though their body when proven radio-based personal area networking technologies, such as Bluetooth, already exist? Tom Zimmerman, the inventor of the original IBM system, says body-based networking is more secure than broadcast systems, such as Bluetooth, which have a range of about 10m.

"With Bluetooth, it is difficult to rein in the signal and restrict it to the device you are trying to connect to," says Zimmerman. "You usually want to communicate with one particular thing, but in a busy place there could be hundreds of Bluetooth devices within range."

As human beings are ineffective aerials, it is very hard to pick up stray electronic signals radiating from the body, he says. "This is good for security because even if you encrypt data it is still possible that it could be decoded, but if you can't pick it up it can't be cracked."

Zimmerman also believes that, unlike infrared or Bluetooth phones and PDAs, which enable people to "beam" electronic business cards across a room without ever formally meeting, body-based networking allows for more natural interchanges of information between humans.

"If you are very close or touching someone, you are either in a busy subway train, or you are being intimate with them, or you want to communicate," he says. "I think it is good to be close to someone when you are exchanging information."

RedTacton transceivers can be treated as standard network devices, so software running over Ethernet or other TCP/IP protocol-based networks will run unmodified.

Gordon Bell, a senior researcher at Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center in San Francisco, says that while Bluetooth or other radio technologies may be perfectly suitable to link gadgets for many personal area networking purposes, there are certain applications for which RedTacton technology would be ideal.

"I recently acquired my own in-body device -- a pacemaker -- but it takes a special radio frequency connector to interface to it. As more and more implants go into bodies, the need for a good Internet Protocol connection increases," he says.

In the near future, the most important application for body-based networking may well be for communications within, rather than on the surface of, or outside, the body.

An intriguing possibility is that the technology will be used as a sort of secondary nervous system to link large numbers of tiny implanted components placed beneath the skin to create powerful onboard -- or in-body -- computers.

Posted  March 26, 2005 ----------------------------------

THE END TIMES - THE LAST DAYS - ARE UPON THE EARTH!

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

                            ------------------------------------------

Proposal For RFID Laws To Protect Privacy

A proposal for changes to the federal legislation concerning RFID has been published. The proposal addresses the possible "cracking" of RFID. Authors Reuven R. Levary, David Thompson, Kristen Kot, and Julie Brothers examine how federal and state laws control RFID.

Privacy and RFID have gone hand in hand as important issues in the last few years. The proposal comes after fears that sensitive information such as prescriptions that are stored using RFID could be easily hacked.

More importantly, it would provide local law enforcement justification to prosecute anyone trying to "crack" or clone any RFID tag.

This could be a significant additional aspect to the development of RFID pedigree tags for pharmaceuticals.

Having a cloned RFID tag could, itself, be proof of criminal activity and provide sufficient evidence to secure search warrants or pursue further criminal investigations.

Read more: RFID and Privacy Laws

Posted  March 24, 2005 ----------------------------------

Medicines could be RFID-tagged

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology could be introduced in chemists across the UK within the next 12 months, following a successful trial.

A three-month pilot backed by a number of pharmaceutical companies, which ended at the end of January, added RFID tags to 180,000 medicines to improve visibility in the supply chain and to counter the distribution of counterfeit and illegal drugs.

Results of the trial were announced earlier this week. The technology companies involved in the project are now discussing a national scheme with the government and industry bodies such as the National Pharmaceutical Association and the Dispensing Doctors' Association.

'We're now working to create an integrated system and are in discussions with major stakeholders, who are looking to move the group forward to take the next commercial step,' said Ian Rhodes, chief executive of Aegate, the lead technology company in the pilot.

'I would say a commercial launch is possible in as little as 12 months, but can't estimate how long those discussions will take.

'This pilot is not about tracking product from A to B. It's about checking that, as a pharmacist is about to hand over a drug to a patient, the product will be received as intended when leaving the manufacturer, and dispensed as prescribed by a doctor.'

The trial involved 44 pharmacies - including chemists and hospital dispensaries - which scanned tags attached to various products to check each item's supply chain status against a central database, matching its traditional barcode number.

The Authentication at the Point of Dispensing (APOD) system also flags other features, such as expiry dates, associated recalls or alerts, and will eventually cross-reference the name and dosage against the prescription before the drug can be dispensed to the patient.

The system uses six products from eight manufacturers, including Merck, Novartis, Schering Healthcare and Solvay.

Rhodes says the group behind the trial is working with patient medical record system vendors and the NHS to integrate the APOD system into a commercial scanning device.

Fliss Davies of Cordon Pharmacy, one of the chemists that took part in the trial, told Computing : 'This project helps chemists finally feel as though they are on an integrated NHS network, and not just shopkeepers.'

Rhodes estimates that the cost of fraud in the industry could be $68bn (£36bn) by 2009.

Posted  March 22, 2005 ----------------------------------

RFID set to revolutionize retail payments

Contact less payments and radio frequency identification technology will transform the way people pay for goods, shop from home and identify themselves at work

Radio frequency identification tags and contact less payment cards will transform the UK payments market, according to Dave Birch, director of IT consultancy Consult Hyperion.

A growing number of retailers and manufacturers have rolled out RFID tags across their supply chains, but Birch predicted that RFID chips would be embedded or attached to debit cards, mobile phones or key rings and used to make payments.

Banks and retailers have also introduced chip and Pin cards in a £1.1bn initiative to cut card fraud by 60%.

"It would be wrong to see the development of chip and Pin as the retail e-payment technology development of the year. RFID is absolutely the next evolution of retail payments," said Birch.

Card providers, including MasterCard, Visa and American Express, are developing contact less payment cards that incorporate an RFID chip and authorize payments when the card is waved near a terminal. The payment is cleared in the same way as a normal transaction.

MasterCard's RFID chip card is similar to the Oyster smart card used on the London Underground. The card has embedded RFID technology that interacts with a terminal to allow customers to pay for journeys.

"Consumers like contact less payment cards such as Oyster because they are convenient. Merchants like them because they are quick," said Birch.

He added that smart cards such as Oyster can be used for low-value payments other than train journeys, such as buying a coffee or paying for car parking.

However, companies would generally use RFID chips and smart cards to prove employees' identity rather than making payments, said Birch.

"An employee's mobile phone might have an RFID interface, which they could hold up to an RFID reader at the company entrance to be let in," he said.

Another trend in the payments market is the introduction of smart card slots in TV set-top boxes. For instance, satellite broadcaster BSkyB has announced plans to launch a credit card in partnership with Barclaycard. The card will be inserted into a slot in Sky's digital set-top boxes to enable users to make purchases from their TV.

"The technology opens up a wealth of opportunities and is sure to make banks, retailers and broadcasters sit up and pay attention," said Birch.

Electronic purses have also made a comeback, despite the failure of Mondex, a pre-pay scheme trailed in Swindon in the 1990s.

Visa USA has estimated that the market for pre-paid cards, which are topped-up by the card-holder, is worth about £1tn, said Birch. The market spans gift cards, coffee shop cards and government benefit cards.

Posted  March 21, 2005 ----------------------------------

THE END TIMES - THE LAST DAYS - ARE UPON THE EARTH!

If you are reading these END TIMES reports and Jesus Christ is not the Lord and Saviour of your soul CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation! - please email us after you pray...therev

                                                  ------------------------------

Hong Kong's pioneering smart card

In Hong Kong, millions of transactions are made every day on the trailblazing Octopus smartcard. Of these transactions, which are worth about £4m a day, 15% by value are made at retail locations, according to recent figures.

The Octopus smart card, launched in 1997, is widely viewed as one of the most successful commercial uses of smart card technology. Introduced as a fare collection device for the city's transport systems, there are now about seven to nine million cards in circulation. In addition to the subway, the cards can be used as an alternative to cash in phone booths, vending machines and snack bars.

Travelers can load cash onto the cards at convenience stores or in stations. Cardholders under 18 years of age can choose to have their Octopus card in the form of a watch.

The Octopus mass transit smart card has spawned imitations at underground systems around the world, including the London Oyster card.

The Octopus smart card uses RFID technology to allow customers to hold their cards near card readers, rather than inserting the card. Because the Octopus system was developed in 1997 - long before any standards for RFID - it uses a proprietary form of RFID.

Stations use local area networks to pass transactions from Octopus terminals and related systems.

The type of wireless technology pioneered by the Octopus scheme is being developed by mobile operators including Motorola, Nokia and Samsung Electronics. The companies are adding "near field technology" to their phones to make payments, identify the owner or download digital files from a PC.

Posted  March 16, 2005 ----------------------------------

DHS/Department Of Home Security RFID fact sheet

Radio frequency (RFID) identification technology refers to wireless systems that allow a device to read information contained in a wireless device or “tag” – from a distance without making any physical contact or requiring a line of sight between the two. It provides a method to transmit and receive data from one point to another.

RFID technology has been commercially available in one form or another since the 1970s. It is now part of our daily lives and can be found in car keys, highway toll tags and security access cards, as well as in environments where bar code labeling, which requires physical contact or a line of sight, is impractical or less effective. RFID has established itself in a wide range of markets including automated vehicle identification systems because of its ability to track moving objects.

There is no one definitive “RFID technology,” but, rather, an enormous range of technical solutions that vary in their complexity and cost, depending upon the functionality, packaging, and applications for which they are used.

In its simplest form in common use today, a “passive” RFID system works as follows: an RFID reader transmits via its antenna an electromagnetic radio frequency signal to a passive RFID tag. The reader receives information back from the tag and sends it to a computer that controls the reader and processes the information that has been retrieved from the tag. Passive tags do not have batteries and operate using the energy they receive from signals sent by a reader.

Application of RFID Technology to US VISIT

US VISIT is exploring the use of RFID technology as a tool that will better enable the program to fulfill its goals, which are to enhance the security of our citizens and visitors, facilitate legitimate travel and trade to and from the United States, ensure the integrity of our immigration system and protect the privacy of our visitors. RFID technology can improve the ability to match entries to exits without impacting processing time at the land borders and record arrivals and departures of a visitor in pedestrian and vehicle lanes – rapidly, accurately and reliably. It will also allow US VISIT to detect a visitor’s tag and provide the primary inspection process with information and a mechanism for establishing an accurate and timely record of exits without slowing a traveler through the process. Finally, RFID can also provide solutions that are not invasive and that protect the privacy of visitors.

Overview

As US VISIT moves toward improving the automated entry-exit system at the nation’s land border ports of entry, RFID technology offers a potential solution for an entry-exit operation that better facilitates legitimate travel and trade.

Protecting Privacy and Health Considerations

US VISIT will assure that our visitors’ information is always protected. The RFID technology used by US-VISIT will safeguard sensitive information. The tags will not include visitors’ biographic or biometric information. Rather, they will contain only a serial code that links to a visitors’ information securely stored in databases used by US VISIT. It will also be tamper-proof and difficult to counterfeit. There are many other layers of defense to prevent information being used incorrectly including:

No personal information will be included on the tag

Information on the tag cannot be changed

The tag will only be activated once officially issued

Personal information is only processed over secure communication paths

These factors will render ineffective so-called “skimming,” the use of unauthorized reading devices to capture information from such tags. A serial code would be meaningless to any third party trying to collect that information.

Also, it will be impossible to “track” the whereabouts of someone holding such a passive tag without a corresponding reading device. Concerns about such tracking using passive RFID are perhaps confused with Global Positioning Satellite devices, which rely on a completely different technology from that used by RFID and will not be used by US VISIT.

Radio frequencies emanating from RFID tags are far below the levels that could cause any harm to human health and below the typical ambient radio frequencies most people are exposed to in the United States on a daily basis from devices such as TVs and radios. Like these other devices, RFID tags and readers are regulated and their safety is certified by the Federal Communications Commission.

US-VISIT continues to test technologies that will help it better achieve its mission to enhance security of our citizens and visitors while facilitating legitimate travel and trade across our borders.

Posted  March 15

NOTE: THE CHIP REPORTS HAVE BEEN QUIET FOR AWHILE - and it makes me wonder what they are up to???...therev

                                                  ------------------------------

What the FDA Won’t Tell You about the VeriChip

A little electronic capsule, smaller than a dime, could be one of the biggest technological advances in how we share and store private medical records. It may also be one of the most controversial.

Known as the VeriChip, it is a microchip that is implanted under a person's skin, and then scanned with a special reader device to reveal important medical data about that person.

Applied Digital, the Florida-based company that makes the VeriChip, hopes the implant will revolutionize how doctors obtain medical information, particularly in emergency situations. Theoretically, if a person can't speak, medics could scan that person and quickly be linked to a database that would provide crucial information like the patient's identity, blood type and drug allergies.

Dr. Csaba Magassi, a plastic surgeon in Northern Virginia, is among a nationwide network of doctors who are ready and waiting to implant the VeriChip into willing patients. His office receives calls daily from people inquiring about the chip.

Dr. Magassi said, "If you are in an auto accident, [and] you are unconscious, they could scan you, know exactly who you are; your medical history can easily be printed out onto the hospital record."

Dr. Magassi demonstrated the procedure on an apple. Once the microchip was inserted, the hand-held scanner read the number on the chip using radio frequency waves. Think of it as a human barcode.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the VeriChip implant for medical use in humans in October, a huge victory for Applied Digital.

In an effort to jumpstart interest, the company launched the "Get Chipped" campaign. It is offering a discount to the first few hundred people who get the implant, and also plans to donate hundreds of scanners to the nation's trauma units to promote use of the VeriChip.

But in a letter obtained by CBN News from the FDA to the VeriChip makers, the microchip is not completely safe. In fact, the letter lists a whole host of health risks associated with the device, including "adverse tissue reaction," "electrical hazards" and "MRI incompatibility."

Posted  March 11, 2005 ----------------------------------

If you are reading these END TIMES reports and Jesus Christ is not the Lord and Saviour of your soul CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation! - please email us after you pray...therev

                                                  ------------------------------

RFID Invades the Capital

In May, Homeland Security employees will begin using an RFID-equipped ID card. 

Some say the device will create thousands of new opportunities for hackers and snoops.

Posted  March 1, 2005 ----------------------------------

NOTE: THE CHIP REPORTS HAVE BEEN QUIET FOR AWHILE - and it makes me wonder what they are up to???...therev

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

                            ------------------------------------------

U.S. Driver's license bill concerns groups

A proposal to stop potential terrorists from getting a U.S. driver's license may turn the licenses into a national ID card or help the government track gun purchases, opponents fear.

...the measure, passed by a 261-161 vote last month and supported by the White House, even could make it possible for the government to monitor people's movements in the country through a chip in a license.

MATTHEW 24:21 "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." --- CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation!

                            ------------------------------------------

If you are reading these END TIMES reports and Jesus Christ is not the Lord and Saviour of your soul CLICK HERE to see what it will be like for the unsaved and for a prayer of salvation! - please email us after you pray...therev

The reports you read here are Bible Prophecy and the book of Revelation being fulfilled!... Luke 21:36>> "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man"... CLICK HERE FOR A SALVATION PRAYER! - please email us after you pray...therev