Fom IEEE SPECTRUM March 2007 Issue Wanted Power systems engineer with experience in high power 5 00 kW motor �controller design Must be U S citizen and have valid ISO1443 compatible access control RFID implant Sound farfetched Today yes A decade from now maybe not With the proliferation of radio frequency identification technology and the recent but increasing use of implantable RFID chips in humans we may already be on a path that would make such an ad commonplace in a 2017 issue of IEEE Spectrum The benefits would be undeniable n implantable RFID chip which is durable and about the size of a grain of rice can hold or link to information about the identity physiological characteristics health nationality and security clearances of the person it s embedded in The proximity of your hand could start your car or unlock your front door or let an emergency room physician know you are a diabetic even if you are unconscious Once implanted the chip and the information it contains are always with you ou d never lose your keys again But there is a darker side namely the erosion of our privacy and our right to bodily integrity After all do you really want to be required to have a foreign object implanted in your arm just to get or keep a job And once you have it do you really want your employer to know whenever you leave the office And do you want every RFID reader quipped supermarket checkout counter to note your presence and your purchases Until a couple of years ago chipping humans was largely the domain of cybernetics provocateurs like Kevin Warwick or hobbyists like Amal Graafstra see Graafstra s accompanying article Hands On Then in 2004 the U S Food and Drug Administration which regulates medical devices in the United States approved an RFID tag for implantation in humans as a means of accessing a person s health records This tag called VeriChip is a short range transponder that relies on the signal from a reader unit for its power supply see photo Anatomy of an RFID

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Kids StuffWe get asked over and over don t you think the movie s not going to work somewhere I say it s not Americana so much as it s about kids In India in Japan in Argentina theyare looking and saying this is what I m going through Rich Ross president of Disney Channel Worldwide on High School Musical which has been a huge international success BURBANK Calif IN a sunny corner office at Disney Channel headquarters here two junior executives were charting the course by which High School Musical has been commandeering the television sets of the world s teenagers A feel good story that sets West Side Storyish themes to catchy tunes that recall Grease the movie has already been seen by an estimated 40 million Americans most of them in high school or middle school themselves It s won another 7 5 million fans in Europe 10 7 million in Latin America and no one knows precisely how many in Asia The next horizon is Africa And so the question at hand was Should a South African drum corps record a new promotional version of one of the anthemic songs As the young executives debated the question they carefully watched for the response of their audience who not coincidentally was their boss Rich Ross the president of Disney Channel Worldwide which created the film and gave it its premiere on its main domestic cable network But his mind was starting to drift to something they had laid on the coffee table before him Oh my God he said picking up the prototype of the latest High School Musical toy It s a Magic 8 Ball He tore off the packaging and began to shake it furiously like a child at his eighth birthday party Mr Ross was looking for the answer to a silent question which he later somewhat sheepishly articulated as How much more How much indeed As the head of 62 Disney channels and their offshoots Mr Ross probably has more influence than anyone else on the television that young children and adolescents are watching these days not just in this country but also in many of the

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