By Mark John
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States and the European Union have agreed on a common signal for use by their satellite navigation systems to provide more accurate images and information, the two announced on Thursday.
The European Union hopes the deal will help its yet-to-be-launched Galileo system, struggling to plug funding gaps, establish itself in the global market for satellite-based navigation and other applications.
"This should facilitate the rapid acceptance of Galileo in global markets side by side with GPS," European Commission director general for energy and transport Matthias Ruete said in a statement.
Both sides also said the accord would protect their common security interests. While the pact covers civilian uses, the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) is military-run and Galileo has been mooted for defense uses as well.
Under the agreement, the EU and U.S. satellites will use the same radio frequency, enabling receivers to get signals from both systems and combine the data.
The United States has 30 satellites orbiting the earth, sending signals that let users pinpoint their own and others' locations with devices such as car satellite navigation systems.
The EU aims also to have 30 satellites up in space by around ...   more »

Lawmakers in Indonesia's Papua are mulling the selective use of chip implants in HIV carriers to monitor their behaviour in a bid to keep them from infecting others, a doctor said Tuesday.
John Manangsang, a doctor who is helping to prepare a new healthcare regulation bill for Papua's provincial parliament, said that unusual measures were needed to combat the virus.
"We in the government in Papua have to think hard on ways to provide protection to people from the spread of the disease," Manangsang told AFP.
"Some of the infected people experience a change of behaviour and can turn more aggressive and would not think twice of infecting others," he alleged, saying lawmakers were considering various sanctions for these people.
"Among one of the means being considered is the monitoring of those infected people who can pose a danger to others," Manangsang said.
"The use of chip implants is one of the ways to do so, but only for those few who turn aggressive and clearly continue to disregard what they know about the disease and spread the virus to others," he said.
A decision was still a long way off, he added.
The head of the Papua chapter of ...   more »

DEPCO systems has conducted a rigorous market study to determine the best suited RFID middleware to our operations and reached a common agreement within our organization that NCR with their NCR TransitionWorksTM software platform has the best positioned AIDC product to supports our efforts presently and in the future.
Radio Frequency Identification or RFID, is a revolutionary technology that will allow many industries to embed radio frequency microchips into their products enabling intelligence at the edge of the corporation. This method of operation has proven throughout recent years to be most efficient in managing any industry supply chain, increasing security, improving efficiency and reducing the company's OPEX justifying a strong Return On Investment (ROI).
DEPCO systems will launch at the end of 2007 the first RFID system developed in Saudi Arabia unique in function and customized solely for regional corporate requirements using the NCR AIDC middleware. Following an in-depth market study conducted over a period of 6 months, DEPCO systems will initially target the valuable goods & services markets by aiming at our clients in the jewellery business and the banking sector.
The Open architecture adopted by NCR AIDC engine allows DEPCO systems R&D team to fully integrate our RFID ...   more »

By Todd Lewan
CityWatcher.com, a provider of surveillance equipment, attracted little notice itself — until a year ago, when two of its employees had glass-encapsulated microchips with miniature antennas embedded in their forearms.
The “chipping” of two workers with RFIDs — radio frequency identification tags as long as two grains of rice, as thick as a toothpick — was merely a way of restricting access to vaults that held sensitive data and images for police departments, a layer of security beyond key cards and clearance codes, the company said.
“To protect high-end secure data, you use more sophisticated techniques,” Sean Darks, chief executive of the Cincinnati-based company, said. He compared chip implants to retina scans or fingerprinting. “There’s a reader outside the door; you walk up to the reader, put your arm under it, and it opens the door.”
Innocuous? Maybe.
But the news that Americans had, for the first time, been injected with electronic identifiers to perform their jobs fired up a debate over the proliferation of ever-more-precise tracking technologies and their ability to erode privacy in the digital age.
High-tech helper or Big Brother?
To some, the microchip was a wondrous invention — a high-tech helper that could ...   more »

By TODD LEWAN   
  Demonstrators prepare to march against microchip implants planned for Alzheimer's patients, in front of the Alzheimer's Community Care Headquarters in West Palm Beach, Fla., May 12, 2007. March organizer Katherine Albrecht, left, said a payer before starting the march. (AP Photo/Gary I. Rothstein)  
CityWatcher.com, a provider of surveillance equipment, attracted little notice itself - until a year ago, when two of its employees had glass-encapsulated microchips with miniature antennas embedded in their forearms.
The "chipping" of two workers with RFIDs - radio frequency identification tags as long as two grains of rice, as thick as a toothpick - was merely a way of restricting access to vaults that held sensitive data and images for police departments, a layer of security beyond key cards and clearance codes, the company said.
"To protect high-end secure data, you use more sophisticated techniques," Sean Darks, chief executive of the Cincinnati-based company, said. He compared chip implants to retina scans or fingerprinting. "There's a reader outside the door; you walk up to the reader, put your arm under it, and it opens the door."Innocuous? Maybe.
But the news that Americans had, for the first time, been injected with electronic ...   more »