We can soon forget what it means to open the door with a key. Jowan Oesterlund is a modern-day cyborg. He has a NFC (Near Field Communications) chip embedded in his hand. Oesterlund uses his NFC chip as a key to get into his tattoo studio. He’s a tattoo artist and he also does implants on the side. The grain-sized Near Field Communications chips are not complicated. They have 880 bytes of memory.
Jowan Oesterlund implanted a chip into his hand about two years ago. Dialing the security codes to deactivate the alarm of his store became a thing of the past for Oesterlund.
Another cyborg who is currently employed by Kaspersky, an internet security firm, said that he felt weird for a couple of weeks. Later, he realized he had forgotten what it is to carry a badge to work, and what it means to open a door with a key.
According to a research, there are 10,000 humans with implanted digital chips. The technology of the NFC is wery simple. NFC is based on wireless communication that allows the flow of information between two devices. The chip operates as a part of a wireless link. When it’s activated by another chip, small amounts of data between the two devices can be transferred. The devices are held only a few centimeters from each other. The technology is much more power-efficient than other wireless communication types as the chips run on very low amounts of power.
The wireless technology allows users to make payments by tapping the smartphone on a reader at a checkout counter, is coming to the car. During the last years, automakers have been trying to pair a smartphone by tapping it against the dashboard, rather than navigating menus on two separate displays. Now companies are rushing to supply the technology to the auto industry.
Within a few years the NFC is expected to become a standard feature in our cars, homes and offices. The power of the technology lies in the fast, seamless, secure way. Just with a simple gesture people connect their chip with electronic devices to initiate all kinds of interactions.
Why not starting the engine of your car just by waving your hand?