Powerful new radio chip unveiled

Powerful new radio chip unveiled
Faster with bigger capacity than controversial RFID

Hewlett-Packard is introducing new technology to allow the storage of large amounts of information on small chips that can be attached to various objects.

The mobile chips, called Memory Spots, have an adhesive back enabling them to be placed on objects such as paintings, photographs, passports and medical-alert bracelets, the New York Times reports.

Stored information on the tiny, mobile chip could include sound, text or video.

Memory Spots have a distinct advantage over the controversial Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, tags, with the ability to store more than 250 times as much data and transmit 20 times faster.

The information can be accessed by touching the chip with an inexpensive handheld electronic reader, the Times said.

RFID tags, which have raised privacy concerns, can be read from many feet away while Memory Spots can be read only up close.

Promoters of Memory Spots also insist privacy is of little worry because the information can be encrypted.

If produced in volume, the Memory Spots could cost as little as 10 cents each. However, questions remain about the practicality of the technology for everyday use. Also unanswered is what happens to the data should the tiny device become detached from an object.

As WorldNetDaily has reported, privacy advocates have been especially concerned about implantation of RFID chips in humans.

Last month, the maker of the chip suggested implanting the device in immigrants and guest workers.

Scott Silverman, chairman of the board of VeriChip Corp., was responding to the Bush administration's call to know "who is in our country and why they are here."

The VeriChip tag, about the size of a large grain of rice, can be injected directly into the body. Its special coating allows it to bond with living tissue.

A company in Cincinnati required any employee who worked in its secure data center to be implanted with an RFID tag.

When former Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson joined the VeriChip Corp. board of directors, he pledged to get chipped and encouraged Americans to do the same so their electronic medical records would be available in emergencies.

But VeriChip spokesman John Procter said Thompson had been "too busy" to undergo the procedure, adding that he had no clear plans to do so.