‘Self-Sustaining’ Chip Is Implanted In Your Arm To Be A Portable COVID Passport

In the past year, most of us have gotten used to toting around our vaccination information, be it in the form of index cards or a digital copy on our smartphones. If that’s been too much of a hassle, this Swedish firm has the answer: a microchip you can implant in your arm.

“I have my COVID passport on the chip, and the reason is that I always want to have it accessible,” explained Hannes Sjoblad, Managing Director of Dsruptive Subdermals, in an AFP News video.

The organization brands itself as a “deep tech company” specializing in implantable micro-electronics, including human implants involving technology, business, service design, communications, and medical aspects.

Though all of that may sound rather futuristic, the truth of the implant isn’t as wow-worthy. According to Input, once the chip has been placed in your arm, you’ll be able to swipe a smartphone above it to open your vaccine passport. Here’s the kicker: it just opens up a PDF file, which seems relatively underwhelming.

As for the hardware, the microchip itself measures 12 mm (0.4 inches) long and 2 mm (0.08 inches) wide. Its custom board and NFC antenna are encapsulated in proprietary material called ‘bioglass’.

Fortunately, there won’t be any need to charge the chip once it’s in the body. The firm markets the implant as “self-sustaining,” meaning it won’t require any power source other than when the brief NFC transactions occur. Despite it having a low memory space of just 2KB, Dsruptive is confident it’ll keep working for 50 years.

Going forward, the company hopes it’ll be able to use the same technology for other uses, such as to store credit card information on a person or measure the body’s temperature without a thermometer. 

For anyone thinking of actually getting their vaccine passports in the form of a microchip, one of the implants will cost €100 (US$113), though you’ll have to wait, because they aren’t for sale just yet.

Check out how the microchip works in the videos below.

A Swedish company has come up with a microchip that can be inserted under the skin so that users can carry their Covid passports in their arm. pic.twitter.com/Vkl82q7dGR

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) December 21, 2021

Beep boop beep: Your vaccination record has been verified 🤖 pic.twitter.com/dpAkSCudxf

— South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) December 17, 2021

[via Input, images via Dsruptive Subdermals]