Man Attempts Keyless Life with Microchip Implant

Man Attempts Keyless Life with Microchip Implant

Joe Wooller, technical manager at the Western Australian Internet Association, decided to get the RFID chip implanted into his hand on Wednesday, 16 June, 2010. His decision to do so follows former Linux Australia president Jonathan Oxer who did it in 2008. - Ben Grubb, RFID implant opens doors for IT pro, ZDNet Australia, June 29, 2010



December 17, 2010

Sydney Morning Herald - 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.

The chip going in. Photo: Supplied

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.