VeriChip's "Hugs" Infant Protection System
by Donald Melanson 
posted Jul 20th 2005 at 1:50PM
Information Week reports that VeriChip's
RFID-based "Hugs" Infant Protection System
sounded an alarm last week when the parents of an infant tried to take their baby out of the hostipal without
authorization—security officials were then able to stop the parents before they were able to leave the hostipal with
the baby. It's not clear if this is the first time the system was succesfully used or not, but it's currently deployed
in some 900 hostipals in the U.S. In addition to preventing abductions, it's also designed to prevent accidental
mismatchings. Man, they're totally wrecking on the premises for future Disney kids films, dude—the switched at birth
plot device is like, classic.
[Via The Wireless Weblog]
Filed under: Wireless
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sikes @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
They should implant these chips on promiscuous, White American girls who take vacations in Aruba so there DUTCH boyfriends can't kill them, dispose of their bodies and blame the islanders for her dissapearance.
GamerLA @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
H E L L O Big Brother/1984/Gattaca/Metropolis err...any of those desolute sci-fi films. This is how it starts - WOW the technology is fine and dandy, making our lives easier and more secure but eventually it'll be watching your every move. Stores will know what you eat, the govt will know how much cash is in your pocket (they are talking about RFIDING paper money)
yadda yadda...all I can say is the future is gonna suck.
Lectoid @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
I've worked in four different hospitals and they all have these systems. Most sound an alarm as soon as the infant leaves the wing/floor, either silent or audible. Usually at any given time they can tell where the infant is down to the room. Once they found a mother and child down in the cafeteria eating, guess no one told her.
Sikes @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
If the governments of major countries implants RFID chips on humans:
#1 Kidnappings would stop
#2 alibis could be confirmed/debunked for speedier court trials
#3 child molesters and sex predators could be tracked
#4 people would stop going missing so this way I wouldn't have to watch those heart wrenching picture galleries on public access tv about missing children set to new-age classical music.
#5 People couldn't skip bail and flee the country
#6 soldiers couldn't go AWOL
#7 people could be located from satellites even if they were in the ass-end of the earth.
#8 people without chips would be discriminated against forcing them to accept the chip or be exiled
#9 your chip could be linked to ONSTAR to give you gps instructions in case you wish to take really long walks.
#10 if your parents worry about you because you've been gone a while they could tap into the internet and just find you and then call the phone nearest your position.
THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO ARE AGAINST CHIPS AND PAPERLESS CURRENCY ARE PEOPLE WITH CRIMINAL MENTALITIES AND THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO CRACK DOWN ON THEM. FORGET ABOUT CIVIL LIBERTIES, TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP END CRIME BUT THE CRIMINALS RESIST IT.
marika @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
RFID is very short range unfortunately I don't think it can do most of the stuff you listed Sikes. I am not disagreeing. I just think RFID may not be the way.
Sikes @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
I understand what you mean, considering the RFID chip is merely a low frequency radio transmitter, HOWEVER, if you think about it, cellular phone antennae and other very common transmitters like wireless LAN routers could possibly be either upgraded or tweaked to randomly communicate with RFID chips.
RFID chips don't have their own power sources. A radio wave transmitted to them causes them to re-emit a signal. That means that even dead bodies, 500 years old with an RFID could be identified long down the road.
Imagine how that would help in identification?
Fatsvernon @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
Sikes....that is such a ridiculous statement. "THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO ARE AGAINST CHIPS AND PAPERLESS CURRENCY ARE PEOPLE WITH CRIMINAL MENTALITIES..."
I am totally against it, am I a criminal? I've never purpotrated a crime other than some hooch smoking in my youth. I'm 34 now, and I hate the idea of no right to privacy. "Forget about civil liberties??".....your kiddin, right?
Yes, it would surely take crime down a peg, but at what cost?
Freedom is all we got left...and now that is getting snuffed. Whatever, I'll see you on the front line in a decade or so. I may die.....but I'll die free.
Simon @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
If RFID chips could be tracked by satellites people without a brain could finaly be all happy.
Until then they should STFU.
It's realy good to know that parents in the great USA need authorization to take their own kids for a walk. Who needs Freedom and Liberty? Law and Order is much better.
Next: RFID chips combined with subvocal audio players: Obey, obey, obey.
And everybody lived happily ever after ...
Mr.Dildonics @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
Yes, because it's good too live in a police state with no privacy. I mean, the government would NEVER misuse or abuse that information, right?
#1) kidnappings would not stop. they'd just mutilate the chip right out of their victims.
#2) though it might lend to a body of evidence in trial, I highly doubt it'd be any speedier
#3) they shouldn't be let out of jail to begin with
#4) if I killed you and buried you under concrete in my basement, they wouldn't find you and they'd still put your picture on TV
#5) why, do we suddenly have sensors and tracking along the 8,000 miles of borders in the US or in any other developed nation?
#6) yes they will, see #5
#7) umm, last I checked RFID doesn't have that kind of range, and what are you doing there anyway? you deserve to be lost.
#8) that sounds like a great idea because discrimination is a great idea.
#9) see #7. how much per month would I pay?
#10) that sounds like a great idea because I know I'd love for my parents to call me when I'm making out with my girlfriend at her house.
It's not people who have criminal mentalities that don't like the idea of being tracked (like branded animals) it's people who would like to preserve what little privacy we have left and who don't trust the system not to be grossly abused. Otherwise, let's all goose step together and completely destroy one's ability to be LEFT ALONE once in a while.
Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
These aren't implants, at least not in the hospital where my daughter was born. It's a bracelt they put on the baby. If it leaves the designated part of the building an alarm sounds and if it's cut or removed from the baby an alarm sounds as well.
jb @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
Our babies all wore bracelets on their feet. Silly plastic ones that appeared to easily come off. Call me crazy but that baby didn't leave my sight from birth till we left the hospital. I'd suggest placing this RFID thing in the baby's tummy. It won't poop it out till you leave the hospital anyway. That would work great!
Andrew @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
#2: the government is NOT talking about putting RFID chips in money. That is just a product of hysterical conspiracy theorists.
The civil liberties debate is void if people choose to be chipped. The babies' parents choose to go to a hospital and expect some measure of safety; RFID gives them that safety. Just about all current implementations require consent.
Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
It's not that we have criminal mentalities, it's that governments tend to evolve into "criminal" organizations. It's inevitable. Even with all the checks and balances built into our(U.S.) government, it's been subverted to an astonishing degree. Eventually (or now for some), the governments definition of "criminal" behaviour will be unacceptable.
SIKES @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
MR DILDONICS
#1 How long would a kidnapper have to mutilate the chip out the body between the mutiation and the last transmission of location?
The kidnapper would have a chip in them also. I suggest placing it inside the body in a critical area to prevent removal by all but the most skilled surgeons.
32 It WOULD allow the prosecution to know right away based on computer logs whether or not the person was in the immediate vicinity of the crime. This way 10 -15 people wouldn't get arrested as soon as a crime goes down based on a list of suspects merely.
#3 child molesters and sex predators should be EXECUTED. I'll let them out of jail...right into the goddamn furnace !
#4 If I killed YOU and buried you, they would be able to triangulate the area where both my chip and your chip's signal reported they were ! That means they would find your headless body quicker !
#5 - you were supposed to make a statement.
#6 - again, you were suppossed to make a statement.
#7 - See my reply to marika in (6)
#8 - some people would resist being chipped. i would make it MANDATORY to be chipped for work, schooling, shopping and generally living in the US. when we finally get sick of the seperatists, we will hunt them down, HOLD THEM DOWN and shove a chip up their rectum.
YOU CAN't FIGHT THE SYSTEM !
#9 see my responce in (6)
#10 I'm sure Scott Peterson would AGREE !
-----------FATSVERNON
Its morons like you in the ACLU who impede the progress law enforcement is trying to make. Thats why cops have to kill more criminals than they arrest - so the scum don't get set free by a sympathetic judge and sue the police department.
think about all the freedom we have thanks to CENSORSHIP !
its perfectly permissible to broadcast Tom green on MTV sucking a cow's udder, BUT, it would be illegal to show him sucking a Bull's penis.
FREEDOM is an ILLUSION.
SC @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
There are also a slew of other realistic problems with giving everyone a "tracking beacon." First off, metal screeners (airports anyone) would take a whole lot longer since everyone would now trip the huge walk-through metal detectors. Don't need to go and make getting on an airplane any longer....
Many labs (I can think of a few at my old University) use a whole lot of magnets and other things that are not so nice to other things made of metal.
And that's just two problems I came up with in the past 10 seconds. But realistic phsycial problems with the idea pale in comparision to the moral issues.
Why would we want this to be mandatory? "Land of the Free?" Wouldn't be anymore. Good thing we faught a very bloody war to win the ability to choose our own rights, liberties, and pursuits for happeniness.
Well, atleast we'd still have the hapiness part, I guess.... Some people might, anyways.
I feel like getting some cases of tea and going to Boston....
Ryan R @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
Uh, I am pretty sure that sikes, mr. comment #4, was kidding. Seriously, has anyone here read 1984?
JK @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
SIKES: trust me-- there is nowhere in your body that a surgeon of ANY degree of skill could place an object that me and a good hacksaw couldn't get to.
Your condition afterwards remains the only question.
Mr.Dildonics @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that your some kind of introverted, neurotic teenage tool and therefore it's really not worth my time to further respond to your inane and supremely asinine comments.
SIKES @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
DILDONICS
Actually, I'm an adult, Republican/ Revisionary, male with a severe, homicidal hatred for crime, criminals, drugs, the show "Friends", Seinfeld, Islam, and North Korea.
Jayson Elliot @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
I'm doing my best to avoid picking on comments for atrocious spelling, but in the original post, it's fair game.
Seriously, how many times are you going to write the word HOSTIPAL before you notice?
Wow.
Mr.Dildonics @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
yikes, sikes. you sound like a very enlightened individual. I think this thread is done. bye
Jerry Kindall @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
I don't understand this story at all. Exactly what "authorization" does one need to take ONE'S OWN CHILD anywhere one wants to take them, including out of a hospital?
Reverend Gadget Boy @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
I would also guess that Mr. Sikes here is a superchristian (a.k.a religous right). Some people just don't like the idea of someone watching them all the time.
raccoon @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
I am very thankful that people who think like you do are in the minority. Perhaps one day you will have the opportunity to be gang raped in jail while awaiting a hearing because some public school graduate police officer arrested you solely based on what his computer terminal told him to do. You may be completely innocent of any crime, but your rectum will still bleed the same, all because of a computer glitch
Remember that Nazi Germany used IBM punch-cards to keep track of EVERYBODY. At one point in history over there, being Jewish became a crime, and because law enforcement already knew where EVERYBODY was, selecting Jews and other undesirables out of the populace became easy.
I want police agencies to have a hard time enforcing the laws, that way they can focus their limited resources on crimes that matter. If you make it to easy, well all be in jail, because of the convolution of local, state, and federal laws, we never really know if we are committing a crime or not
Shayne @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
jb, snip that ankle bracelet and see what happens. In our hospital, if the bracelet is cut or tampered with in anyway, the alarm is set off and the unit gets automatically locked down with magnetic locks. What would be nice is if the staff could figure out a way to not accidentally trip the HUGS alarm 20 times a day.
jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
I believe this applies to Sikes or any one else with that frame of mind. Remember when nanotechnology began to emerge? Everyone was talking about it like it was the second coming of Christ (For the record, I don't believe in that faith). People were saying nanotechnology will end world hunger, neutralize global warming, cure cancer, and so on. Your outlook is the same. This is not an uncommon practice. This happens all the time in technology. RFID is not the end all solution. Just like other technologies, it has its flaws. Perhaps your points have some merit, where, in theory, they can be realized. As we all know, in practice, things are not always as they seem.
Cuba @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
"I don't understand this story at all. Exactly what "authorization" does one need to take ONE'S OWN CHILD anywhere one wants to take them, including out of a hospital?"
I didn't understand that either, the hospital can force the parents to keep their kid in hospital? When did that law pass?
"RFID chips don't have their own power sources. A radio wave transmitted to them causes them to re-emit a signal."
Actually, it requires an electromagnetic field for them to even power up, that is why they are only very short range. If you wanted the range to be twice as far you would need four times the power, it's an exponential relation, so think about how much power you would need to cover the whole country. Not to mention the interference, physiological effects, and the size of the antenna on the chip to get it to transmit back to the receiver.
Chris @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
"I would also guess that Mr. Sikes here is a superchristian (a.k.a religous right). Some people just don't like the idea of someone watching them all the time."
Yeah. Like those uber-religious, neocon ACLU people, right?
AH @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
Now if this were to be implemented on a large scale, and we put signal towers or whatever along freeways, I can see my local government checking how fast I go through their streets.
One day I check my mail and discover 25 speeding tickets, 3 court summons, and a police officer with an arrest warrant--all for going 5 over on my way to work
theblunderbuss @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
"Actually, I'm an adult, Republican/ Revisionary, male with a severe, homicidal hatred for crime"
Homicidal? Sounds criminal to me.
This is the kind of thing Huxley and Orwell warned against.
Sad.
But you have a point about fighting the system. I'm against it, but I believe entropy has a firm hold in politics.
kidcnote @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
One word..Spellcheck
jordan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
interesting.......................
colbert @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
"hostipal "
seems to be some typo mistakes on this post.
PosiCat @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
Actually, I'm an adult, Republican/ Revisionary, male with a severe, homicidal hatred for crime, criminals, drugs, the show "Friends", Seinfeld, Islam, and North Korea.
Excellent, then when you get RFID'd the government will know where to go to remove you when they want to improve relations with North Korea. Oh, and you admitted homicidal hatred, that's sure to go in a database somewhere to future tag you as dangerous.
Ross @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
I read the article in the local paper in Charlotte about this - it is indeed a bracelet the baby was wearing, but more importantly, THE SYSTEM DID NOT STOP THE PARENTS FROM TAKING THE BABY OUT OF THE HOSPITAL.
Police apprehended the father with the baby a few blocks away from the hospital, and the mother just outside the building. It seems the kid was going to be taken away by child services so the parents schemed to have mom give the baby to the dad (with prior warrants for arrest). The baby was recovered sleeping inside a duffle bag.
No doubt the system helped alert authorities before the parents could completely escape with the baby. But they really need to retool their system to match others around the country where doors/elevators/stairwells all lock down whenever the alarm goes off so you can keep the kid and the kidnapper in the building.
GamerLA @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
"#2: the government is NOT talking about putting RFID chips in money. That is just a product of hysterical conspiracy theorists."
Right if they aren't talking about it - I guess the UK Register is just posting BS
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/05/23/ec_moots_trackable_cyber_euro/
"The European Central Bank (ECB) is considering embedding tiny radio tags into euro notes in a bid to combat counterfeiters and money launderers, a report today notes..."
CalKnight @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
Sikes, If you are a Republican, I fear for the party.
Those who support chipping ALL people are the same people who support all the hairbrained ideas behind the United Nations. Sure it sounds good, until you have to have the chip in order to buy or sell ANYTHING, and in order to have or keep using the chip, you'll be forced to sign or make a statement saying you support the system, which it already sounds like you do! It'll be like the grocery store loyalty cards that traack your buying habits. Your friendly neighborhood government will be able to see you're buying too much starchy foods and "suggest" you cut some carbs or your medical premiums will be raised again!
Governments want power, men want power. Our founding fathers realized that when they drafted the Constitution.
There is also another consideration. What does God think about all this "security"? Instead of men relying on themselves or God, they put their safety and security in the hands of men, a third party who isn't always looking out for "their best interests"!
In the book of Revelations it says there will be a mark IN the right hand or forehead. This mark will be used to buy and sell, and anyone who gets it will be damned to the Lake of Fire. On Earth they will get greivous sores and boils.
It sounds to me Sikes that you are willing to put up with the sores and boils all for the sake of Earthly security, at the price of eternal security.
Brent @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM
People who criticize the idea of revelations, have never read it. The Bible's biggest critics, are people who usually havent read a stitch of it. Without even reading a page, they compare it to fairy tales and fantasy. I feel sorry for them.
Its reached the point where no one can write off revelations, and how everything it said is unfolding before our eyes. 20 years ago, sure. But not anymore. It is becoming so accurate that I'm a little worried. I recommend that everyone read a current analysis of revelations and how it applies to our current world.
By the way, my boss, myself and a few others, developed the current smart card (RFID) manufacturing process. We are by far the fastest in the world. Owned by a persian (my boss), and our phone number started with 666. What the hell am I still doing here?