At RFID Journal, we’ve written extensively about how radio frequency identification and other Internet of Things technologies offer vast applications in retail, manufacturing, healthcare, supply chain, logistics, transportation, aerospace, energy and many other sectors, including nuclear safety, mining, construction, undersea activities, animal tracking and more. There is no end to the uses for which RFID can be applied.
Every now and then, some unique and unexpected scenarios come along, and reporter Claire Swedberg alerted me to a recent article at the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail news site (click here to read it), in which writer Jonathan Chadwick discussed some novel uses of connected technologies, including RFID. These range from a woman with a car key in her arm to a man tattooed with his store loyalty card to an implant for making penises vibrate (a phrase I never expected to utter in an RFID Journal editorial).
According to the article, Dean Mayhew, a London biohacker—a term referring to those who make life easier for themselves by altering their bodies via technology—grew tired of missing out on Tesco bargains due to his tendency to forget his card, and so he paid to have his wrist permanently inked with the card’s QR code. Mayhew was not the first biohacker, however, and he’s certainly not the last. Chadwick presented several other individuals who have had similar procedures performed as well, including:
- Kevin Warwick, a Coventry University professor known as “Captain Cyborg,” who had an RFID chip implanted into his arm so he could activate lights and open doors by waving his arm
- Amie D.D., a software engineer and biohacking YouTuber, who had the RFID chip from her Tesla Model 3 car key implanted into her arm, enabling her to start the vehicle by placing her arm within an inch of the console
- Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma Meow-Meow (yes, that’s really his name), who had the chip from his travel card placed inside his hand so he could access Sydney’s transport system simply by holding his hand to a card reader
- Peter Scott-Morgan, a robotics expert and self-described “human cyborg” who had multiple technologies inserted into his body to overcome motor neurone disease, including an eye-tracking computer-control system, a voice box to replace his larynx, an internal feeding tube, a digital avatar for emotional expression and more
- Neil Harbisson, a self-styled “cyborg artist” with extreme color blindness, who became the first person to have an antenna implanted in his skull, which hangs in front of his face, allowing him to “hear” colors as musical frequencies
- Moon Ribas, an artist with seismic sensors implanted under her feet skin to vibrate in the event of an earthquake
- Amal Graafstra, the founder of biohacking retailer Dangerous Things, which sells implantable half-inch biomagnets allowing users to lift paperclips or other metal objects with a fingertip, as well as manipulate magnetic sensors and hold small metal parts against their body
- Serge Faguet, an Internet entrepreneur and biohacker, who had a monitor implanted under his belly fat to continuously measure his glucose levels
- And finally, Rich Lee, the so-called “Elon Musk of sex-tech,” who is working on a device for implantation under a pubic bone that would make a man’s penis vibrate, for the purpose of enhancing sexual pleasure
These are but a sampling of the applications for which innovative minds (and other body parts) can employ technology-based solutions to improve the quality of daily life. Feel free to let us know if you have also biohacked yourself with RFID or other IoT technologies, or if you know of someone who has done so. What other unique and out-of-the-box uses are waiting to be discovered? For those in the RFID space, the possibilities are fascinatingly endless—and for journalists, they’re endlessly fascinating.
Rich Handley has been the managing editor of RFID Journal since 2005. Outside the RFID world, Rich has authored, edited or contributed to numerous books about pop culture. You can contact Rich via email.