Walkers swallow RFID pills for science

It seems like some researchers from Radbound University in The Netherlands took advantage of the recent Four Days Marches of Nijmegen walking race for a little experiment earlier this month, where they convinced ten volunteers to swallow an RFID pill as part of a study to monitor body temperature. Apparently, the pills recorded and transmitted the walkers' core temperature to a receiver in their backpack every ten seconds, which in turn sent the data via Bluetooth to a GPS-enabled phone that then relayed it to the operations center at Radbound. With all that info at their disposal, the researchers were able to monitor each walker and alert them if their temperature was reaching a dangerous level, or even alert others nearby if they weren't responding (which apparently wasn't necessary). As you might have guessed, the researchers are already hard at work planning an even larger test for next year's event, which they hope could eventually lead to the system being used at marathons and other sports events.

[Via picturephoning.com]

[phanbouy @ Jul 29th 2008 6:48PM]

she poisoned me with science?

[Flashpoint @ Jul 29th 2008 6:50PM]

they should RFID tag prisoners

[phanbouy @ Jul 29th 2008 6:53PM]

so i guess you'll be an early volunteer when you finally act out on one of your publicly advertised pedo fantasies, flashpoint?

[Travis @ Jul 29th 2008 7:45PM]

prisioners are people too and if it starts with the prisioners the government will say, hey! let's put these things in every american from birth, then they can track us all the time
Dumb ass

[Mustaine @ Jul 29th 2008 10:29PM]

This would be called "testing the water" for future plans to 'chip' everyone.
check zeitgeistmovie

[wodheila @ Jul 30th 2008 7:43AM]

Are you sure they don't now?

[Josh @ Jul 30th 2008 11:56AM]

This idea has existed for a while now and it has been implemented for other purposes. As this article mentions http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=526&doc_id=156444&f_src=flffour it was used in Ghana to measure pollution (while it was attached to taxis)

Check out the article for more information.

[OneLove @ Jul 30th 2008 12:18PM]

Sorry you've all been tagged already. (you just don't know it yet)

[ishism @ Jul 30th 2008 3:03PM]

I guess the first to be numbered are the Mexicans and Mexican immigrants are they are already tagging them in Mexico. Americans are being setup to be next. Soon, these chips will have the ability to control peoples behavior, through stimulation to certain nerves.
Beware, this is nothing to be taken lightly. IBM produced the punch card system used by the NAZIS to keep track of Jews in there Murder camps and it seems IBM is up to there old tricks once again. Check out IBM the holocaust and Verichip.
Who is IBM doing this for anyway? Not you and me, baby...not you and me.

[Biofeak @ Jul 29th 2008 6:53PM]

They should head to the Olympics.

[Evan @ Jul 29th 2008 6:57PM]

Phan,

Do you do anything else to do in life besides commenting on every Engadget post?

I'm honestly curious...

[phanbouy @ Jul 29th 2008 6:59PM]

Evan,

Nope.

Love, Me.

[rishi @ Jul 29th 2008 7:50PM]

I just clicked on phanbouy's profile thingy and it says 2797 engadget comments. Wow. Seriously, I'm impressed.

[jason @ Jul 29th 2008 8:14PM]

wow.. i thought that was a typo until i looked at his profile :o

[JTM @ Jul 29th 2008 6:58PM]

I saw this on a mountain climbing show several months ago. They monitored people's core temperatures. Interesting stuff.

[JTM @ Jul 29th 2008 7:05PM]

Quote from their website:

"Proven by more than 15 years of use in the field, the CorTemp™ Physiological Monitoring System features an ingestible thermometer pill..."

Been around a while.

[JoePerri @ Jul 29th 2008 7:06PM]

Wouldn't you "pass" the pill every 24 hours or so? If this was a four day event you'd have to take a new pill everyday and hope that you'd already passed the other one. TFA doesn't really say.

[chef @ Jul 30th 2008 6:10AM]

Depends on how many Powerbars you eat.

[brad @ Jul 29th 2008 7:08PM]

Let's see how your data reads after I chase it with 10 bean burritos...

[JR @ Jul 29th 2008 7:09PM]

I for one, welcome the forced RFID tagging by our robot overlords.

[Johan S @ Jul 29th 2008 7:16PM]

This would be good as a helpline .. if you're a kid being kidnapped (or a person being mugged), if it can detect your sudden elevated pulse rate (to differentiate it from sprinting) and other fear stress signs it can auto notify authorities etc. .. prolly will have a few false positives before the tech is perfected though.

[sinjinn @ Jul 29th 2008 7:55PM]

kinda ridiculous to swallow a rfid for the remote chance you might be kidnapped ... unless you are one of those rich kids in mexico .
"geev us 1 meeelion dollars if you want to see your keeed again"

[deyanimay @ Jul 29th 2008 8:04PM]

What if your friend just scared the crap out of you.

[sredlums @ Jul 29th 2008 7:51PM]

FYI,
two years ago a few people died during this event.
This shocked the nation, as it was known as a big family-event that attracted mostly people who prepared well for this long distance multi-day walk.
That year was extremely hot (for Dutch standards, that is), and lot's of people experienced health-problems because of that.

This is directly connected to those incidents, as part of lots of efforts to try to avoid those kind of problems in the future.

[Wwhat @ Jul 29th 2008 9:14PM]

Shocked the nation? pfft

[joe blow @ Jul 29th 2008 7:55PM]

Would this qualify as an oral or rectal thermometer? Damn, I left my pen in somebodies....

[Boynamedsue @ Jul 29th 2008 8:30PM]

"I can't possibly swallow that!"

"Well then good news! It's a suppository."

[dubbbya @ Jul 29th 2008 8:49PM]

Right, I'm sure it was an expirement based on body temperature, and not triangulating a position via RFID and cellphones.

Practicing how effective the RFID tech is so they can be ready when they insist on chipping everyone. Are you gonna let it happen to you?

[Boynamedsue @ Jul 29th 2008 8:56PM]

well sure. I've got a tinfoil buttplug.

[danishh @ Jul 29th 2008 9:00PM]

its radboud university, FYI. no 'n'.

[Dash-2 @ Jul 29th 2008 9:04PM]

Then they poop um out?

[un_peacekeeper @ Jul 29th 2008 9:06PM]

This reminds me of nanomachines a la Metal Gear Solid...pretty soon, we'll all be monitored.

[sinjinn @ Jul 29th 2008 9:36PM]

yes , we will be watching your every move . even now , as you look at this screen we are watching you watch the screen . mwahahaha , we are diabolical like dat

[tbone @ Jul 29th 2008 9:16PM]

conspiracy? i think not

[Tohe @ Jul 29th 2008 9:27PM]

This is lame, carrying around a backpack during a marathon would be a burden all by itself ...whoever is behind this "experiment/technology" is certainly clueless of the natural feel participants seek out of these type of events.

[majortom @ Jul 29th 2008 10:07PM]

kind of related to this subject is a pill like camera that patients swallow so that it can record it's passage through the intestine. And yes you "poop" it out. A very good look at both the small and large intestine.

[Jon Doe. @ Jul 29th 2008 10:13PM]

Damn walkers *shakes fist* You'll get your comeuppance for killing the Segway! Mark my words! comeupppppppppance *bends over out of breath*

;-P

[Dave @ Jul 29th 2008 10:36PM]

They swallowed RFID pills? Figures. The government will soon be tracking our shit.

[bradwjensen @ Jul 29th 2008 11:10PM]

This will be extremely dangerous to peoples FREEDOMS in the near future.

We already have 'REAL ID' cards with soon to have RFID chips in them on our door steps here in the US. Check YouTube.

The final steps are to get us using these chip-filled cards to not only have an identity, but to use them for buying things (like credit cards); then they can be turned off remotely when we do something the 'controllers' (govt) don't approve of. Simple as that. This is all just more testing for the future of a New World Order / One World Govt.

[Kwai Noi @ Jul 30th 2008 1:19AM]

The Father Land Security would not do something like that! What do you think America is? Some Fascist State that would listen in on its citizens without judicial approval in violation of our constitution, or that would imprison people for years without charge or even torture prisioners?

Oh yeah...right...GWB has approved doing all those things.

Sieg Hei!

[Robbolo @ Jul 30th 2008 6:02AM]

it is actually the Radboud university, not Radbound

[Christian @ Jul 30th 2008 1:17PM]

This so reminds me of what MGS4 is all about, I guess we are headed to that direction very soon...

[ShadowKain @ Jul 30th 2008 3:56PM]

What color was it? Blue or Red? omg the machines are taking over... X.X

[StephUK @ Jul 31st 2008 4:45AM]

So they manage to measure inner body temperature increase when exposed to RFID, Bluetooth and GSM/3G radiation simultaneously... great!