150 microchipped employees in Sweden can unlock doors, buy smoothies with just a wave of a hand

By Krisana Estaura, | April 06, 2017

Epicenter holds monthly events to get the procedure done for employees who agreed to get an NFC chip embedded in their skin

Swedish startup company, EpiCenter injects employees with ID microchips system the size of grains of rice to function as swipe cards.



According to the Daily Mail, the implant has become so popular that parties are being held for workers who agreed to get microchipped.




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'The biggest benefit I think is convenience,' said Patrick Mesterton, co-founder and CEO of Epicenter while adding that 'It basically replaces a lot of things you have, other communication devices, whether it be credit cards or keys.'



Epicenter is a co-working space that houses more than 100 companies and about 2,000 workers. It started its microchip implant service in January 2015. To-date, about 150 workers have subscribed to the ID microchip system using a near field communications (NFC) technology. It's the same technology being used in contactless credit cards or mobile payments.



The Daily Mail reported that the technology itself is not new as some companies have already been using it to track deliveries and pet owners using them as virtual collar plates for their pets. It's just the first time that the technology was used for a large-scale ID microchip system for humans.



According to Hexus, employees with the implanted microchip can wave a hand to open doors, operate printers, faxes, and copiers, or even purchase drinks from smoothie machine.



Epicenter holds monthly events to get the procedure done for employees who agreed to get an NFC chip embedded in their skin. Hexus reported that 'body hacker' Jowan Osterlund from Biox Sweden visits the hub and brings pre-loaded syringes to implant NFC capsules into the fleshy area between volunteer thumbs and forefingers.



Furthermore, a company based in Belgium is also offering its employees such ID microchip system and there are a various isolated cases of tech enthusiasts are trying out the technology in previous years.

