When Patrick McMullan—president of Three Square Market, a technology company in River Falls, Wisconsin—wants a Diet Dr. Pepper at work, he pays with a wave of his hand. McMullan has a microchip—about the size of a very large grain of rice—implanted between his thumb and forefinger. The vending machine immediately deducts money from his account. At his office, he’s one of dozens of employees who volunteered to have a chip injected into their hand.
The microchip idea came about in 2017, when McMullan was on a business trip to Sweden—a country where some people are getting subcutaneous microchips to enter secure buildings, book train tickets, get into the office and log onto computers. A year into the experiment, about 80 of Three Square's 250 employees have become walking, talking cyborgs.
RFID chips are passive—without batteries, getting power from an RFID reader requesting data. The company is also exploring ways to use microchips outside the body—bracelets incorporating a chip that can turn on a sink, for example. Tests are currently running at 2 hospitals that will verify when doctors and nurses wash their hands.
The microchip idea came about in 2017, when McMullan was on a business trip to Sweden—a country where some people are getting subcutaneous microchips to enter secure buildings, book train tickets, get into the office and log onto computers. A year into the experiment, about 80 of Three Square's 250 employees have become walking, talking cyborgs.
RFID chips are passive—without batteries, getting power from an RFID reader requesting data. The company is also exploring ways to use microchips outside the body—bracelets incorporating a chip that can turn on a sink, for example. Tests are currently running at 2 hospitals that will verify when doctors and nurses wash their hands.
