VeriChip's VeriTrace Platform Sees Sales Boost

Each deceased individual is injected with a VeriTrace RFID tag. In cases of dismemberment, severed body parts are tagged individually. The system is designed for disaster recovery, but Poulshock says it could also be employed for general morgue purposes, as a replacement for the manual, toe-tag tracking system widely used at present.

Once attached, a handheld interrogator is used to read the 16-digit unique ID number encoded to the tag. The reader then transmits this ID, via a wireless Bluetooth communications link, to the Ricoh digital camera. The interrogator emits an audio alert—a short beep—upon receiving a tag read, and the camera also emits a beep once it receives the ID. Recovery personnel can then use the camera to photograph the remains or evidence, and the ID will be associated with each subsequent image stored in the camera's memory, along with the GPS coordinates of the camera, which incorporates an onboard GPS receiver.

A Ricoh digital camera is used to photograph remains or evidence.

Once the reader collects the next tag ID and transmits it to the camera, the previous ID is overwritten, the camera's operating system associates the new ID with all subsequent images. After the scene is completely surveyed, the camera can be linked to a computer via a USB port, and all images and associated tag and GPS data can be saved to a VeriTrace database, or to the user's own data-collection system.

Rodney Wall, special agent in charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's office in Greenville, Ga., was responsible for purchasing the VeriTrace system used at that location. According to Wall, the system performed well during an exercise the agency performed last spring, in which it mocked up a disaster with more than 50 fatalities. "We had a problem with one of the cameras," he says. "The GPS unit did not function properly, but we have since replaced that. Otherwise, it seemed to work very well."

In addition, Wall's team was able to use the GPS data gather to document the recovery sites on the Web-based Google Maps application. He says the agency's VeriTrace deployment—consisting of 500 tags, five interrogators, five cameras and VeriTrace software—cost roughly $13,500.