Following on from my blog post outlining an A-Z of Digital, here is “J is for Jacking”.

Jacking is a term used when you plug into something. Body Jacking is a growing area where the body is being used from generating power through movement to implanting chips to interact with the environment such as open a door or unlock a computer.

Previously the main development area for jackables has been in the medical industries with things like robotic limbs, artificial organs, pacemakers and implanted hearing aids. The market is now shifting with recent examples of this include someone who had lost their eye replacing an eye with camera to create films of what they see to employees being implanted with chips to open doors and use the vending machines. There are also Bioables which collect data on your body such as glucose levels using sensors that penetrate into the under the skin.

Whilst there are some medical and ethical questions to be looked at around the growing use of Jacking, the evolving market for non medical use (ie chips implanted under the skin) is starting to create a demand that will trigger these debates.

Being implanted with a chip under the skin may not be for everyone, this is a growing area where it may become part of an induction to a new company on your first day.

There are no clear standards at the moment and chips can use a number of technologies such as NFC or RFID to operate the surrounding environment. Consideration should be give to those that do not want to be implanted or contractors who may not want lots of chips in their bodies.

There have been a number of demonstrations around the insertion of the chips. In some instances professional tattoo artists are used to insert the chips as they have a level of training around injecting the skin. What has yet to be seen is the removal of the chip should someone leave a company or it needs replacing for some reason.