Installation locations for xNT other than hand. Extreme cold, and maunal labor are concerns

From what I can gather there are no reported shattering of installed tags.

I would prefer not to be the guinea pig on that one, and I do work with my hands quite regularly. A bigger worry I have is that I enjoy being outside, in remote and harsh environments. I’m worried that I could get frost bite worse in cold temps. -40C is A something I have been in and will be in, and B not enjoyable. 0 to -20C is more common. At these sort of temps you can get frost bite on exposed skin in a matter of minutes or less. I’m worried the process will be sped up in the isolated area of the tag. You are wearing gloves at those temps, but I’d prefer not to make it riskier. I need to be able to manipulate ropes and such, and this may require lighter gloves, with a transition back to mittens. The time period with the lighter gloves is my bigger worry.

I’d like to use it for data storage, and don’t need to regularly access it. As such I’m not as worried about accessibility.

Conversely, do severe hot temperatures have a noticeable effect?

It is my experience that many people don’t spend a lot of time in these temperatures/conditions, and it seems not a lot of people are injecting these under their skin. From what I can gather the overlap is currently minimal.

Could I install it in my arm like where birth control implants are placed? What about thigh? I figure those places are well enough insulated that this little piece of metal won’t make a difference, where as hands are not as well protected.

Example of birth control: http://www.toledoblade.com/image/2012/10/01/800x_b1_cCM_z_cBL/An-implant-in-the-arm.jpg

I found this thread for the temperature monitor: What is the ideal place for the xBTi?
Could that same area be used?

We’ve tossed a few xNT into liquid nitrogen and they came right out and read just fine, so there is no risk to the tags themselves. The risk to getting frostbite around the implant site is untested and unknown, but my hunch is that if you are getting frostbite at the install location in your hand, you’re fingertips are probably already dead.

Yes you can place an xNT into the arm, but usability will be extremely difficult. The hand is ideal so you can easily manipulate the location of the tag (position it up next to fixed readers, door locks, etc.)

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I’d use it to store pgp key/s, which is why access wouldn’t need to be often. Is the usability you mean that the skin blocks the signal? If all I needed to do was bring a reader up to my arm occasionally to recover a private key that would be okay with me as long as the broadcasting is similar.

It is an incredibly small piece of metal so I imagine your assumption on the fingers would be correct. Piercings get painfully cold, and do gain heat in the extreme hot. I’ll sit on it for a bit, and most likely get one injected, and if I do I’ll make sure to report back with my experiences in harsh climates.

By usability I just mean the ability to place it near a reader if it’s in your upper arm… so if you will ever only use it with an NFC smartphone or reader you can pick up and place in the correct spot, there should be no problem.

The small difference with piercings is that they have exposed metal that acts as a perfect conduit for heat transfer in and out of the surrounding tissue. Just a mm or two of tissue overtop of an x-series implant means there is no conduit.

There is a lot less metal in these than I originally thought, will reach out to a local professional soon and will report back probably next winter when I field test it.

Looking forward to your report!

A little late here but I just wanted to tell you that your implant will be fine in the traditional thumb web place. I am a merchant marine working in the ne atlantic and I made it through last winter without a single issue. I see temps well below what you stated and I work in machine spaces that get around 48c in the summer so fear not. I’m basically a mechanic, and I’ve knocked my hand on all sorts of stuff without breaking it yet. Sometimes I feel a slight pinch if I drag it on something hard. Hope my experience helps.

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