Employees at micro market firm Three Square Market (32M) will be getting an upgrade in the form of a microchip implanted in their hands. Once implanted, the chips will enable their hosts to make cashless purchases and gain access control when opening doors, logging into computers, using the copy machine and other tasks. The chip, about the size of a grain of rice, is passive, with no power supply. Injected into the host's hand below the thumb, it works in conjunction with a radio frequency identification (RFID) near-field communications (NFC) transceiver in the store, lock or control system. When the host's hand is moved to within a few inches of the transceiver, the chip's passive circuit encodes the host's identity on a signal that is then reflected back to the transceiver to verify identity. NFC technology is widely used in contactless credit cards, transportation passes and mobile payment interfaces. "We foresee the use of RFID […]