
Ask HN: What do you actually use your biohack implants for? - amingilani
I have an NFC implant from dangerous things in my left hand. When I got it I was imagining unlocking doors with a wave but since most scanners are incompatible I&#x27;ve been unable to use it at my last two office buildings.<p>I plan on getting a door lock for my apartment but maybe next month when I move into a new one.<p>Nowadays the only practical use I have for it is a party trick where I convince people that their phones have had DNA recognition for years. When I hold it up to my hand, up pops the vcard in my chip leaving them amazed about the technology they never knew their phone had.<p>Sometimes they find the truth incredilous and refuse to accept that I have a chip implant when I make the reveal. I guess DNA scanning is more believable.
======
88e282102ae2e5b
This whole concept seems like a combination of a desperate wish to be living
in a better world and the need to seem interesting at parties. When there's a
compelling reason to get such devices you won't have to ask people what they
use them for, in the same way that you don't have to ask people why they have
a cell phone.

------
pimeys
Does a CGM glucose monitoring sensor count? I get the values real time to my
android watch and remote InfluxDB for later analysis.

~~~
edejong
What time-series graphing tools do you use? Grafana? R with influxdbr?

~~~
pimeys
Grafana, and wrote an extension for xDrip plus to support InfluxDB.

~~~
edejong
Interesting project. I am not bio-hacked, except for a Pebble watch with HR /
movement sensors which I send to InfluxDB. I use Grafana, but for some graphs
(especially when I want to see weekly trends), I use R + influxdbr. Here is a
screenshot of my heart-rate of the last three months (1 minute interval +
lowess smoothing to remove outliers):
[http://imgur.com/x3ERdPc](http://imgur.com/x3ERdPc)

~~~
pimeys
It has probably saved me from getting blind or losing a leg in the next 20
years. From 8.5% A1c to 6.5% and below. Together with the pump I see my
glucose all the time, it wakes me up at night if needed and I can eat and live
however I like with perfect glucose values.

Every single type 1 diabetic should have the possibility to have one of these
systems.

I'll post pictures later when I get home...

~~~
pimeys
As I promised, here's a picture how my Grafana diabetes dashboard looks like:

[http://imgur.com/1YPcOrZ](http://imgur.com/1YPcOrZ)

As you can see I dipped down the low alert while walking home, so my watch
alerted me early enough so I could eat some candy.

~~~
edejong
That's an amazing project. You probably agree that it's extremely important
that we own and control our own data and make it easy through OSS to
manipulate and enhance it.

~~~
pimeys
That's correct. Although here in Germany there are strict regulations for
storing health data, so using the commercial solutions provided by the CGM
would be feasible. The open source software is just so much better.

If any other diabetic programmers are reading this, I found the best way to
get a control from this very complex disease is to utilize same methods I use
when writing software and analyzing services.

~~~
derekja
Hi,

My BF is T1D and has an Animas Vibe with the integrated Dexcom G4. I see from
an older thread that this is the setup you are using. Can you point me toward
any hacking information on this? On the OpenAPS flowchart for the Vibe it
merely says to call Animas and advocate for the addition of temp basal
commands. If we cannot get him to a full closed loop on this pump, even an
open loop system would be an interesting place to start. Thanks for any
pointers!

------
cup
There are plenty of uses. Braces for teeth straightening. Cochlea implant for
assisted hearing. Bionic eye to improve sight. Insulin pump to regulate blood
glucose levels. Pace maker to supplement failing pacemaker cells.

Never understood why people associated "biohack implants" with sticking a
magnet or NFC chip in your finger.

~~~
rjbwork
>Never understood why people associated "biohack implants" with sticking a
magnet or NFC chip in your finger.

Gobs and gobs of stories poured out about that in the early 2010's. Seems
pretty much out of fashion now.

------
thinbeige
Maybe I am clueless but why not just stick a NFC chip on the back of your
smartphone or just get one with NFC?

I can't imagine any situation where you need an NFC chip and don't carry along
your smartphone. Ok, there's one: You are swimming in a swimming pool and need
to open the locker afterwards.

~~~
amingilani
I was going to get an NFC ring initially. But then I woke up one night and
decided that if I ever own a gun, and need it in the middle of the night
because a zombie broke into my house. I'd want a system where I can stick my
hand under the bed and pull out a gun. But this system shouldn't work for
anyone else.

That pushed me over the edge and I got an implant a few weeks later. True
story.

I still have to get around to buying a gun, let alone create an NFC reading
smart holster.

~~~
ethbro
There might be easier ways to differentiate individual hands if necrotic flesh
is your threat model. :)

------
michjedi
You could easily cut an Oyster Card chip out of the card, stick it in your
hand and use it to travel in London.

~~~
BjoernKW
Something like this has been done before, albeit in the form of objects like
rings:

[http://www.ds72.com/projects/oyster-
ring](http://www.ds72.com/projects/oyster-ring)

So while possible unfortunately tampering with Oyster cards is frowned upon by
TfL. It might not technically be illegal but it'll certainly run you into
problems when checked by traffic inspectors.

The answer to this StackExchange question gives an in-depth explanation of the
Oyster card's cryptographic architecture, which shows that the card being as
tamper-proof as possible is very much by design:

[https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/78013/can-i-...](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/78013/can-
i-use-a-nfc-ring-as-an-oyster-card)

~~~
mseebach
I would suspect that your troubles go beyond "frowns". A ticket inspector
wants to see a valid oyster card, not a party trick, and whether it scans or
not, I don't think it's a high bar to argue that a tampered with card isn't
valid, period.

(Officially, at least. I've seen them happily scan the outsides of people's
wallets.)

~~~
DanBC
Not sure why you got downvoted. English rail laws are pretty clear about
tickets.

[http://content.tfl.gov.uk/tfl-conditions-of-
carriage.pdf](http://content.tfl.gov.uk/tfl-conditions-of-carriage.pdf)

> 5.1 All photocards and Oyster photocards remain our property and must not be
> intentionally damaged, altered or tampered with in any way. We may withdraw
> or cancel your photocard or Oyster photocard at any time

The railway bylaws say this:

[https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/4202/railway-
byelaws.pdf)

> 20\. Altering tickets and use of altered tickets

> (1) No person shall alter any ticket in any way with the intent that an
> Operator shall be defrauded or prejudiced.

> (2) No person shall knowingly use any ticket which has been altered in any
> way in breach of Byelaw 20(1).

Which makes it sound like this tampering would be okay, but they also say
this:

> (1) In any area not designated as a compulsory ticket area, no person shall
> enter any train for the purpose of travelling on the railway unless he has
> with him a valid ticket entitling him to travel.

> (2) A person shall hand over his ticket for inspection and verification of
> validity when asked to do so by an authorised person.

...and it's likely TfL won't see these as valid tickets.

~~~
Tharkun
Why isn't anyone protesting those TOS? Them having the apparently unqualified
right to cancel the card you paid for is unacceptable.

~~~
kryptiskt
You're buying the service, not the card.

~~~
mseebach
And it being a public service, they generally can't deny you the use of it (at
least not 'unqualified', I'm sure there could be some sort of police or court
order taken out against people) - but they can specify _exactly_ how you're
going to pay for the service.

Also, I'm pretty sure "cancelling" means "forced reissue", not forfeiture of a
legitimate ticket or balance.

------
falcolas
I _want_ to do this - to expand my senses and mind (what else is technology
good for) - but I really don't want something that will wear out and which
can't be easily replaced. I respect the pioneers in this field, and look
forward to the tech becoming more advanced and mainstream.

To those who believe it will never become mainstream - the same could have
been said for tattoos and piercings a mere few decades ago. I remember a time
when visible tattoos were a sign of a counter culture, not a normal part of
life.

Heck, Google Glass was shunned for its camera, but the Snapchat Spectacles are
actively embraced only a few years later.

~~~
namlem
Tattoos and piercings have been mainstream on and off for thousands of years
in cultures all over he world.

------
marklyon
I use a modified digestive tract to minimize the amount of personal space I
require. Thus far, it's working well.

~~~
Roritharr
I kinda went the opposite way, in an non-invasive mostly organic fashion.
Can't recommend.

------
lordnacho
Could you possibly use it as a train ticket? A number of modern commuter
systems now have swipe system that are NFC chips. Is it programmable?

~~~
wfriesen
Somebody has done it in Australia, although it seems it was frowned upon by
the body that issues the cards.

[http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-27/sydney-bio-
hacker-h...](http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-27/sydney-bio-hacker-has-
opal-travel-card-implanted-into-hand/8656174)

~~~
larssg
It's allowed in Sweden: [http://nordic.businessinsider.com/swedish-rail-
company-scans...](http://nordic.businessinsider.com/swedish-rail-company-
scans-microchip-tickets-17-6?r=US&IR=T)

------
jackhwds
Can you not use it to pay for things? thats the whole reason I want to get one
like an upgrade from apple pay

~~~
amingilani
Unfortunately no, this is a passive tag that can only let you read data that's
on the chip. The chip also had a unique ID.

Android or Apple Pay use your phone's NFC antenna to communicate. But they
don't give out the same information every time.

~~~
edejong
That makes it pretty useless. You can't sign or decrypt an AES key, no
display. I'm even more convinced that the bio-hacking is nothing but a badly
thought out fad.

~~~
falcolas
A slightly more advanced implant like those in passively powered RFID
smartcard could do exactly this: provide a mechanism by which to
cryptographically authenticate a transaction via a stored private key.

There are yubikeys which do this exactly already, just via a usb-key shaped
device.

It would suffer from some of the same problems as biometrics - in that once
set, it couldn't practically be revoked. And any failures would involve minor
surgery to correct. But at least you wouldn't be leaving the secret key on
every surface you touched.

------
CodeWriter23
That's a hilarious parlor trick.

