Live a keyless life with (RFID) implant

[drummer]

Joe Wooller's attempt at a keyless life with implant
Ben Grubb
December 16, 2010

Fed up with carrying his keys around, Joe Wooller, 28, decided it was time for an implant.

This year, the father of two from Perth had a microchip, which uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, implanted in his right hand.

His passive RFID chip does not require batteries, can last for many years and communicates with receivers attached to doors, for instance, via a magnetic field.

"The goal was really just to get rid of keys and to try to minimise the amount of clutter one would have in their pockets," he said.

Since the surgery in June, performed while he was still awake and posted on his website, Mr Wooller has endeavoured to uncover as many ways to use the chip as possible.

"RFID, apart from it being technical, it was an interesting sort of project. So I had a look around; there were a number of people out there who had already put implants in their hands and I haven't seen any real side effects yet," he said.



One of those people was former head of the Linux Australia community group Jonathon Oxer.

So far, Mr Wooller can open two doors to his house, start his motorbike and open his car's doors - all with just a swipe of his hand. The only problem is that he still needs a key to take the fuel cap off his motorbike.

"But just being able to jump on it and go for a ride [without keys] is pretty good," he said.

As for his house, he still relies on an alarm to keep the place secure.

"I've only really allowed it to open the door and you still have to enter a code to disarm the alarm. So until I've actually nutted out the encryption side of things or the sort of [authentication] side of things, I'm trying to keep it separate," he said.

The process of getting the chip implanted was fairly simple once he had the equipment required, Mr Wooller said.

"I was lucky enough for my doctor to do it who gave me a local [anaesthetic] - so it was fine; it didn't hurt at all. It was rather interesting watching," he said. "There’s a little bit of a scar there and the chip has moved a little bit since I got it implanted and it moves around a little bit from time to time but it's not really noticeable."

He said it could be seen if he flexed his hand a certain way but if you were not looking for it you would not know it was there.

Asked about the difference between having physical keys and an RFID implant, Mr Wooller said he had received a bit of criticism.

"People said: 'When someone's stolen your keys you know about it and you can change locks [and] if someone reads your RFID tag they can then get in [and you don't know about it].'"

He said the "tech is out there" for people to read his hand and steal the code embedded in the chip, "but not a lot of people would carry it around with them and the range is [so small] that it would be quite obvious if someone came up and tried to read it". This was one of the reasons, Mr Wooller said, that he was cautious not to scan his hand on RFID readers on the outside of buildings, as they could read his code.

Since he had the chip implanted, Mr Wooller said that it had lost its novelty.

"People aren't very interested in it any more. It's done now. It's more just an easability [sic] thing. You go up, you swipe, you open. Essentially when I take the dog for a walk I don't have to take the keys with me."

Asked if life had become easier with the chip implanted, he said there had been no "major impact", "but it's definitely something that, you know, you go out, say you water the garden, your door slams behind you or whatever and it's locked. You can't lock yourself out now. You've achieved something in that respect, albeit very little but it's still kind of cool. It's saved me from locking myself outside a couple of times. So that's been good."

Although keen at first to emulate him, many of his colleagues are yet to follow in his footsteps.

"They're still pretty keen but a lot of my friends rent still so they kind of can't really do much to their houses," he said. "A lot of them are looking at them for projects with the car and what not but I don't think they've really delved in as much as I have ... yet."

As for what he's wiring up next, he said he was getting into home brewing and was in the process of designing a fully automated rig for that.

"Perhaps I could use my RFID to turn that on and start a brewing process or something. You don't really need it but it's just another wanky little thing to do I guess."

Asked if any of his family members had yet come around to the idea of getting themselves an implant, he said: "What? Implanted? God no. No, definitely not. My daughter still wants to do it, she thinks it's pretty cool but yeah, no, not until she's older."

On the topic of health risks, he said he was not aware of any side effects.

According to the RFID Journal, exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) below the limits recommended in internationally adopted guidelines "has not revealed any known negative health effects".

If he needed to have the chip removed, he could do so as it was not permanent, he said.

"You can rip it out if you want."

And if he ever decided to move house he would just need to take the RFID readers to his new home.

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digit....html#poll

[yeti]

It's a lie that you have to be close to the chip to steal its contents - you can be many feet away with the proper setup.

[Deathaniel]

yeah but lets be truthful and lose the paranoia, the tech to read at a distance is not cheep or pocket sized, if the guy with the massive back pack or trolley behind him and a reader was reading your chip you'd know, and the same could be said bout key locks any professional lock smith can get into your home with out keys as every lock manufacturer makes a master key set....

I've had my chip for well over a decade, and though i can't afford a scanner for my home door or car (last i checked they were in the 1000's$ if i could i would. Now that the feds have moved on to iris tech, the chip is truly a personal device of security.

[rsol]

one thing you miss.

with most credit card crime....its the person "serving" you......

You say these things cant be read from distance without heavy equipment....who even needs it?
Having chip scanners installed in a shopping centre or even on the street makes for collection of data easy.
If its just you and its now....fair enough there isnt really anything out there to track you adequately.

The issue arrives when its you and everyone else. when readers are widespread for "security" or customer tracking, that information will be available to almost any grunt deciding to do mall security. forget guys digging in the trash for credit card slips. this is a whole different ball game. its like carrying your passport around with you and someone being able to copy it EXACTLY. will all know the failure of copy protection. bad IT.