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There’s a new way of carrying around Covid vaccine status that does not involve any paper or digital files stored on your phone.
Epicenter, a Stockholm-based startup, has created a rice-sized microchip that can be inserted under your skin to store Covid vaccination information. The company went viral earlier this year when its employees got their own keys implanted to their arms.
The implant can be detected and read by any device using the near-field communication (NFC) protocol, the technology that is used now for most payments and keyless entry systems.
Hannes Sjöblad, chief distribution officer of Epicentre, shared a demonstration video to show how the technology. With the microchip in his arm, he simply waved a smartphone over it to pull up the vaccination status on the screen.
The microchip fits under the skin of a person. It can be implanted between the thumb, forefinger, or arm.
“Implants are very versatile technology that can be used for many different things, and right now it is very convenient to have COVID passport always accessible on your implant,” he said in a statement.
“In case your phone runs out of battery, it’s always accessible to you. So of course, that’s how we use this technology today, next year we are going to use it for something else,” he added.
Sjöblad added the implant need not be permanent in a person’s body because the process is ‘completely reversible’. It also does not require a special app and is ‘kind of similar to a QR code’.
“The implant is readable by any smartphone that has NFC function. So I can go to a restaurant or a movie theatre, I just show them my arm and swipe me with the smartphone, and then that pops up the Covid passport that I have on my chip,” he added.
The tech will make it easy for people to produce their Covid vaccination status in public places.
