From: Chuck Kuecker (ckuecker@ckent.org)
Date: Sun Apr 21 2002 - 06:45:55 MDT
At 03:25 AM 4/21/02 -0700, you wrote:
>From: "Lee Daniel Crocker" <lee@piclab.com>
>
> > You looking for human testers? I'd love to put a "Where's Lee?"
> > page on my web site with my location constantly updated from a GPS
> > chip embedded in me (or perhaps worn if that's not feasible yet).
>
>Launch date for the embedded option is May 1, 2002:
>
>http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020409/92406_1.html
I hope no one is confusing "GVS Registry Service" with the Global
Positioning System...
At present, embedded chips will not even be able to acquire GPS signals in
the open, due to limited antenna size and skin attenuation. As far as
"satellite tracking" goes, the best that can be expected is for a
successful GPS equipped chip to download it's recent record of movement to
the next reader that interrogates it. It takes a LARGE amount of RF power
to send a signal to a satellite - way more than an embedded chip will have
available.
Anyone who knows where in the body the chip is can defeat the GPS and
reporting functions with an aluminum foil band-aid. Of course, if readers
become ubiquitous, the simple fact that a person does not handshake with
the reader could raise an alarm. If the person simply removed the shielding
before passing a reader, the worst that could be inferred would be being
out of touch with the GPS system because of location or atmospheric conditions.
I am not too worried about real-time tracking until someone gets a
landbased system of scanners in place that can relay GPS signals inot the
chips at close range. Say, one relay station every meter over the entire
planet surface.
Much ado about nothing at this stage of the game, I think - but I sure will
NOT allow myself to be chipped without MY express request.
Chuck Kuecker
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