Around 700 employees from the Epicenter hi tech office block in Stockholm may eventually have the chips implanted into the back of their hands.

 

The chips use radio-frequency identification (RFID) and are about the same size as a grain of rice.

 

They store personal security information which can be transmitted over short distances to special receivers.

 

RFID chips can already be found in contactless cards - including the Oyster² system which is used by more than 10 million people to pay for public transport in London.

 

They are also similar to the chips implanted in pets.

 

Hannes Sjoblad, the chief disruption officer at the Swedish bio-hacking group BioNyfiken, which implanted the chips into the Epicenter workers, told The Times: 'We already interact with with technology all the time.

 

'Today it's a bit messy - we need pin codes and passwords - wouldn't it be easy to just touch with your hand?

 

'We want to be able to understand this technology before big corporates and big government come to us and say everyone should get chipped - the tax authority chip, the Google or Facebook chip.'

 

He says we will then be able to question the way the technology is implemented³ from a position of much greater knowledge.

 

He added that they believe they have only just started discovering all of the things having a microchip could allow us to do.

 

 

In 1999 Professor Kevin Warwick, of Reading University, had a chip implanted into his nervous system and was able to control a robot arm - developed by his colleague Dr Peter Kyberd - using thought power.

 

It was hoped the technology could radically⁴ change the lives of amputees and victims of paralysis⁵.

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