-Caveat Lector-
>From Yahoo! Asia News,
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/technology/newsbytes/article.html?
s=asia/headlines/010801/technology/newsbytes/Truly_Embedded_Chips.html
-
Wednesday, August 1 1:58 AM SGT
Truly Embedded Chips
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 2001 JULY 31 (NB) -- By Gary Arlen, Washington
Techway.
What if the body piercing and tattoo explosion of the past decade was
actually orchestrated by the media-medical-industrial complex? Their grand
long-term plan, let's say, is to implant subcutaneous microprocessors for a
variety of health, entertainment and communications purposes.
By acclimating a generation of prospective customers to such skin-altering
conditions, the companies are seeding the market for their future offerings.
This is the stuff of science fiction, but serious medical researchers are
now developing chips with tiny doses of medication that can be dispensed
automatically - without the patient having to measure a dose or remember to
take it at a specific time. Talk about embedded software!
The recent attention to bioinformatics rekindles the imagination about where
such a blend of bioscience and info-technology may take us. On the other
hand, last month's alliance between The Adrenaline Group of Washington and
The BioMedical Sciences Group of Baltimore is a reminder of what an early
stage that process is now navigating. Adrenaline and BMSG will provide a due
diligence service for investors and biotech companies, offering independent
analysis of ventures into bioinformatics, which they define as "the art and
science of using computational tools to find answers to biological
questions."
In other words, they're looking at near-term projects, such as genome and
molecular biology research as well as "individualized medicine." Their
collaborative effort will help scientists and IT professionals use data
mining, knowledge management and process management to investigate
biological frontiers.
Vital stepping stones, but not as wondrous (or delirious) as the future
potential applications of bio-info-tech. Looking further ahead, when the
implanted chips are programmed with elecommunications capability, they could
open new connectivity and entertainment options.
Presuming that the first chips are merely "receive-only," they would become
the ultimate pagers: delivering a notification or internal "ping" directly
to human neurons. Eventually, entertainment providers will begin to exploit
this capability, sending music or visceral experiences directly into the
body through chips. Some programming may be tied to video shows, giving you
the mosh-pit experience while watching MTV or feeling the polar freeze
during a Discovery documentary about Antarctica.
More probably, porn merchants will be the first to capitalize on such
in-body experiences, so that watching a Playboy Channel show could also
trigger the appropriate internal response among chip-equipped viewers.
Later, the implanted microprocessors will be upgraded to two-way capacity,
transmitting internal data back into the appropriate network through a
wireless feed. The medical monitoring opportunities are immense, but so are
the tracking capabilities. It's the ultimate loss of personal privacy when
your body is sending signals about where you are and what you're doing.
Several other routes toward this bio-info-tech connection are already being
followed. Predictive Networks of Cambridge, Mass., is developing biometric
systems, used to identify ways in which individuals interact with computers
and media devices. Predictive Networks is monitoring personal usage patterns
(how an individual uses specific keys and buttons, including the speed and
pressure of finger contact) to identify and categorize customers.
Although it's a major leap from such tracking of external behaviors to
inserting a microprocessor under the skin, the eventual outcome could be the
same: data gathering and response based on physical connection and response.
Bio-info-tech appears to be a promising sector for the region - possibly
even a cross-river opportunity that would combine the bio-medical resources
in Maryland with the infotech strengths of Virginia.
Gary Arlen is president of Arlen Communications in Bethesda.
Reported by Washington Techway, http://www.washtech.com/washtechway
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