Biochips

Most of us won’t like the idea of implanting a biochip in our body that identifies us uniquely and can be used to track our location. That would be a major loss of privacy. But there is a flip side to this! Such biochips could help agencies to locate lost children, downed soldiers and wandering Alzheimer’s patients. The human body is the next big target of chipmakers. It won’t be long before biochip implants will come to the rescue of sick, or those who are handicapped in someway. Large amount of money and research has already gone into this area of technology. Anyway, such implants have already experimented with. A few US companies are selling both chips and their detectors. The chips are of size of an uncooked grain of rice, small enough to be injected under the skin using a syringe needle. They respond to a signal from the detector, held just a few feet away, by transmitting an identification number. This number is then compared with the database listings of register pets. Daniel Man, a plastic surgeon in private practice in Florida, holds the patent on a more powerful device: a chip that would enable lost humans to be tracked by satellite. A biochip is a collection of miniaturized test sites (micro arrays) arranged on a solid substrate that permits many tests to be performed at the same time in order to get higher throughput and speed. Typically, a biochip’s surface area is not longer than a fingernail. Like a computer chip that can perform millions of mathematical operation in one second, a biochip can perform thousands of biological operations, such as decoding genes, in a few seconds. A genetic biochip is designed to “freeze” into place the structures of many short strands of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), the basic chemical instruction that determines the characteristics of an organism. Effectively, it is used as a kind of “test tube” for real chemical samples. A specifically designed microscope can determine where the sample hybridized with DNA strands in the biochip. Biochips helped to dramatically increase the speed of the identification of the estimated 80,000 genes in human DNA, in the world wide research collaboration known as the Human Genome Project. The microchip is described as a sort of “word search” function that can quickly sequence DNA. In addition to genetic applications, the biochip is being used in toxicological, protein, and biochemical research. Biochips can also be used to rapidly detect chemical agents used in biological warfare so that defensive measures can be taken. Motorola, Hitachi, IBM, Texas Instruments have entered into the biochip business. The biochip implants system consists of two components: a transponder and a reader or scanner. The transponder is the actual biochip implant. The biochip system is radio frequency identification (RFID) system, using low-frequency radio signals to communicate between the biochip and reader. The reading range or activation range, between reader and biochip is small, normally between 2 and 12 inches. The transponder The transponder is the actual biochip implant. It is a passive transponder, meaning it contains no battery or energy of its own. In comparison, an active transponder would provide its own energy source, normally a small battery. Because the passive contains no battery, or nothing to wear out, it has a very long life up to 99 years, and no maintenance. Being passive, it is inactive until the reader activates it by sending it a low-power electrical charge. The reader reads or scans the implanted biochip and receives back data (in this case an identification number) from the biochips. The communication between biochip and reader is via low-frequency radio waves. Since the communication is via very low frequency radio waves it is nit at all harmful to the human body. The biochip-transponder consists of four parts; computer microchip, antenna coil, capacitor and the glass capsule. Computer microchips The microchip stores a unique identification number from 10 to 15 digits long. The storage capacity of the current microchips is limited, capable of storing only a single ID number. AVID (American Veterinary Identification Devices), claims their chips, using a nnn-nnn-nnn format, has the capability of over 70 trillion unique numbers. The unique ID number is “etched” or encoded via a laser onto the surface of the microchip before assembly. Once the number is encoded it is impossible to alter. The microchip also contains the electronic circuitry necessary to transmit the ID number to the “reader”. Antenna Coil This is normally a simple, coil of copper wire around a ferrite or iron core. This tiny, primitive, radio antenna receives and sends signals from the reader or scanner. Tuning Capacitor The capacitor stores the small electrical charge (less than 1/1000 of a watt) sent by the reader or scanner, which activates the transponder. This “activation” allows the transponder to send back the ID number encoded in the computer chip. Because “radio waves” are utilized to communicate between the transponder and reader, the capacitor is tuned to the same frequency as the reader. Glass Capsule The glass capsule “houses” the microchip, antenna coil and capacitor. It is a small capsule, the smallest measuring 11 mm in length and 2 mm in diameter, about the size of an uncooked grain of rice. The capsule is made of biocompatible material such as soda lime glass. After assembly, the capsule is hermetically (air-tight) sealed, so no bodily fluids can touch the electronics inside. Because the glass is very smooth and susceptible to movement, a material such as a polypropylene polymer sheath is attached to one end of the capsule. This sheath provides a compatible surface which the boldly tissue fibers bond or interconnect, resulting in a permanent placement of the biochip. The biochip is inserted into the subject with a hypodermic syringe. Injection is safe and simple, comparable to common vaccines. Anesthesia is not required nor recommended. In dogs and cats, the biochip is usually injected behind the neck between the shoulder blades. The reader The reader consists of an “exciter coil” which creates an electromagnetic field that, via radio signals, provides the necessary energy (less than 1/1000 of a watt) to “excite” or “activate” the implanted biochip. The reader also carries a receiving coil that receives the transmitted code or ID number sent back from the “activated” implanted biochip. This all takes place very fast, in milliseconds. The reader also contains the software and components to decode the received code and display the result in an LCD display. The reader can include a RS-232 port to attach a computer. How it works The reader generates a low-power, electromagnetic field, in this case via radio signals, which “activates” the implanted biochip. This “activation” enables the biochip to send the ID code back to the reader via radio signals. The reader amplifies the received code, converts it to digital format, decodes and displays the ID number on the reader’s LCD display. The reader must normally be between 2 and 12 inches near the biochip to communicate. The reader and biochip can communicate through most materials, except metal. Intelligent Software Agents Definition Computers are as ubiquitous as automobiles and toasters, but exploiting their capabilities still seems to require the training of a supersonic test pilot. VCR displays blinking a constant 12 noon around the world testify to this conundrum. As interactive television, palmtop diaries and "smart" credit cards proliferate, the gap between millions of untrained users and an equal number of sophisticated microprocessors will become even more sharply apparent. With people spending a growing proportion of their lives in front of computer screens--informing and entertaining one another, exchanging correspondence, working, shopping and falling in love--some accommodation must be found between limited human attention spans and increasingly complex collections of software and data. Computers currently respond only to what interface designers call direct manipulation. Nothing happens unless a person gives commands from a keyboard, mouse or touch screen. The computer is merely a passive entity waiting to execute specific, highly detailed instructions; it provides little help for complex tasks or for carrying out actions (such as searches for information) that may take an indefinite time. If untrained consumers are to employ future computers and networks effectively, direct manipulation will have to give way to some form of delegation. Researchers and software companies have set high hopes on so called software agents, which "know" users' interests and can act autonomously on their behalf. Instead of exercising complete control (and taking responsibility for every move the computer makes), people will be engaged in a cooperative process in which both human and computer agents initiate communication, monitor events and perform tasks to meet a user's goals. The average person will have many alter egos in effect, digital proxies-- operating simultaneously in different places. Some of these proxies will simply make the digital world less overwhelming by hiding technical details of tasks, guiding users through complex on-line spaces or even teaching them about certain subjects. Others will actively search for information their owners may be interested in or monitor specified topics for critical changes. Yet other agents may have the authority to perform transactions (such as on-line shopping) or to represent people in their absence. As the proliferation of paper and electronic pocket diaries has already foreshadowed, software agents will have a particularly helpful role to play as personal secretaries--extended memories that remind their bearers where they have put things, whom they have talked to, what tasks they have already accomplished and which remain to be finished. Agent programs differ from regular software mainly by what can best be described as a sense of themselves as independent entities. An ideal agent knows what its goal is and will strive to achieve it. An agent should also be robust and adaptive, capable of learning from experience and responding to unforeseen situations with a repertoire of different methods. Finally, it should be autonomous so that it can sense the current state of its environment and act independently to make progress toward its goal. Definition of intelligent software agents: Intelligent Software Agents are a popular research object these days. Because of the fact that currently the term "agent" is used by many parties in many different ways, it has become difficult for users to make a good estimation of what the possibilities of the agent technology are.Moreover these agents may have a wide range of applications which may significantly effect its definition,hence it is not easy to craft a rock-solid definition which could be generalized for all.However a informal definition of an Intelligent software agent may be given as: "A piece of software which performs a given task using information gleaned from its environment to act in a suitable manner so as to complete the task successfully. The software should be able to adapt itself based on changes occurring in its environment, so that a change in circumstances will still yield the intended result."