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| Rice-Sized Microchip Stores COVID Vaccine Passport |
Swedish Startup Unveils Rice-Sized Microchip Implant That Stores Your COVID Vaccine Passport
Epicenter, a Stockholm-based startup, unveiled a new way of carrying around a COVID vaccine passport - in a microchip implanted under your skin.
The implant can be read by any device using the near-field communication protocol - technology used for contactless payments and keyless entry systems.
In a video shared by Epicenter, Hannes Sjöblad, chief distribution officer, has the chip in his arm and simply waves a smartphone over it to pull up his vaccination status.
'Implants are very versatile technology that can be used for many different things, and right now it is very convenient to have a COVID passport always accessible on your implant, he said in a statement.
The world now has access to vaccines, which eases symptoms of the deadly virus, and information of vaccine status is provided in paper or digital form known as a COVID passport.
That's how we use this technology today, next year we are going to use it for something else,' said Sjoblad. The microchip sits directly beneath the skin, either in the arm or between the thumb and forefinger.
Epicenter's implanted microchip is not a new innovation, as the company has been using it for years - and with its own employees.
In 2015, the company announced it had implanted the microchip in more than 100 of its employees, which allows them to open doors, operate printers, or buy smoothies with a wave of the hand.
The chip is implanted with a simple injection of a syringe and with a click, a microchip is injected into the employee's hand.
Although the microchip passports are not yet ready for market, it is safe to assume that is how they will be implanted.
