Wealthy Mexicans, terrified of soaring kidnapping rates, are spending thousands of dollars to implant tiny transmitters under their skin so satellites can help find them tied up in a safe house or stuffed in the trunk of a car.
Kidnapping jumped almost 40 percent between 2004 and 2007 in Mexico according to official statistics. Mexico ranks with conflict zones like Iraq and Colombia as among the worst countries for abductions.
The Xega company injects the crystal-encased chip, the size and shape of a grain of rice, into clients’ bodies with a syringe. A transmitter then sends signals via satellite to pinpoint the location of a person in distress.
The chips cost $4,000 plus an annual fee of $2,200…
Xega sees kidnapping as a growth industry and is planning to expand its services next year to Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.
We’ve discussed chipping before as likely under more and more repressive governments in the U.S. and elsewhere. This offers an entirely different scenario.
I can see people getting chipped as a status symbol. In fact, there will eventually be people who just stab themselves in the arm with an icepick to make a wee scar that they can say was the result of chipping.
Continuing with #20, skeptic. Why not just use a cell phone with GPS?
Apparently RonD got it right and the external device is the actual transmitter. But if that is the case, a simple cell phone would work just as well.
The inductive coupling is necessary because higher frequencies don’t transmit through flesh. That limits them to transmission in inches, as others mentioned. Typically the range is more like a singular inch, especially if you implant it deeper than just under the skin.
#12…those long distances are the UHF versions, not the implantables.
#5 Ron – “Customers who fear they are being kidnapped press a panic button on an external device to alert Xega which then calls the police.”
But what if the POLICE ***ARE THE KIDNAPPERS*** AS IN MEXICO ???
And of course, getting “Chipped” ANNOUNCES TO THE POLICE THAT YOU ARE RICH ENOUGH TO FEAR KIDNAPPERS, THUS MAKING YOU A TARGET !!!
#23 JimD – in that case they are totally screwed, unless they happen to know someone like the character Denzel Washington played in “Man on Fire” who can come to their rescue.
I had a similar idea for an updated version of Tv’s “Search” series (1971). Where the agents would have implant devices, that would communicate via a booster device they carried, to cellphone towers. A much more realistic idea than before, when a coin sized camera worked thru satellite links. No Way!
Wow, it’s only been written about 2K years ago.. but still nobody will listen.
Baaaa sheep, Baaaaa.
Once it’s “forced” (yeah, it will be) will you do it?
:/
“Continuing with #20, skeptic. Why not just use a cell phone with GPS?”
looks like they are charging big bux for a cell phone with the company phone number preprogrammed in it.
the bad guys throw away the cell phone at point of abduction, and the person is still screwed