Some beginner questions regarding implants and paying

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Hi, so I’ve been researching these RFID chips since i found them (today). And They’re suprisingly cheap on this site, so I’ve been thinking about eventually getting one. But i have quite a few questions first.

First of all, where can i get one implanted in South Dakota? And if there isn’t a body implant professional where i live, can I have a vet do it?

Another question is can I make payments with it (shopping and stuff) And how would I set it up to use my cards info…?

I’m super into the idea of trying this out and joining this major community! Please let me know about my questions and any other info you think would be valuable. Thanks!

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Welcome!

If there is no professional partner near you, I would advise following the guide to approaching a local professional. If none of the professionals in your area are interested, you can approach a vet… as long as they follow the pro guide, it should be fine.

As for payments, check this post; dngr.us/payments

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But how would I program the implant with my card info? And how do I set it do do certain things?

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@Patches33001, You can’t do payments yet you will have to wait till the VivoKey is out you can find more info here “VivoKey.com” :slight_smile: For programming the other implants that are already out you need a NFC Read/Right app on your Android Phone or a NFC reader and a program on your computer. NFC Tools looks like a really good one on Android :smile: - BioHacker101

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Just to be clear; while the Vivokey may technically be able to do payments, unless banks begin supporting it the same way as they support cards such as Mastercard or Visa (which is unlikely), you won’t be able to do payments with it, nor any other implant. (That’s all assuming we’re talking EMV payments and not something like Bitcoin, for example, which can be possible)

As to how to make the implants do “certain things”, it depends on what those are. Often the tag reader is the one actually doing what needs to be done (say, unlock a door) and not the implant itself. The tag is often just used as a “key”.
As BioHacker101 mentioned; the app “NFC Tools” can be used to write to the tag, which can make it do certain things such as popping up with your contact info when scanned (with the xNT and FlexNT).

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Okay, what are other basic popular things that people use implants for? Also whats the difference between the XNT NFC TAG and the XEM RFID TAG? And what are both of them best for? Im super interested in the implant idea but im not exactly sure what uses is has that dont require a bunch of knowledge on coding…

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The two implants contain different chips. The xNT contains the NTAG216 and the xEM contains a ATA5577 RFID chip.

The xNT uses the 13.56MHz frequency band, and is fully NFC type 2 compliant, which basically means you can read/write to it with a NFC capable smartphone (Most Android smartphones), and make smartphones do certain things when your implant is scanned (such as showing your contact info, opening a specific app, etc.). You can also buy door locks compatible with the xNT(ISO13334A standard) and unlock your door.

The xEM uses the 125kHz frequency band, and you can clone certain access cards onto it, altough that requires a seperate cloner. The xEM can’t be used with a smartphone.

Also, Amail has a FAQ up which explains the difference between the different chips in greater detail, as well as a bunch of other questions your might have.

Stuff like writing your contact info to the chip is pretty easy to do and installing a compatible door lock is just a matter of changing the lock to your door.

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I’ve also heard of people using it to control things such as phillips hue lighting, would that work…?

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Hmm, a quick Google search led me to this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.incorporateapps.huenfc.free, which seems to be able to turn on or off Philips Hue lights using NFC tags (such as the xNT, presumeably)

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Okay, thank you all for the information, but of course being the overcurious person i am, i was wondering if i were to get an iphone 6s, does that have nfc capabilities? (at least the ones that can change the implant)

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And if the iphone 6s doesnt have that kind if capabilities, is there a cheap android that wouldnt just slow down within a month that has the right nfc?

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Because ive used an old andriod i got from a friend until i got a replacement iphone 5s (what i have now) and within the first week it was suuuper slow. And usualy cheaper androids do that.

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tl;dr - Apple has recently opened up NFC for reading tags, but only for iPhone 7 and iOS 11 or better.

Apple has just announced at WWDC 2017 that iOS 11 will have support for reading NFC tags and NDEF messages. This means that all iPhone 7 and newer will be able to read NFC tags just like Android. While the iOS NFC API docs (Core NFC) are live on the Apple developer site, they appear to be at an early stage and there are still some questions. We’ll cover these questions and answers as they come in. For context, you should read up on other previous posts about Apple and NFC over the past couple years.

What new use cases will be supported?
You will see a significant increase in consumer focused uses cases. This includes out-of-home marketing, smart product labels and packaging, interactive event experiences, rich gaming, product authentication and information and so many before. This is where NFC breaks away from its RFID roots. UHF RFID and NFC before the iPhone supported NFC tags was relegated to closed loop deployments in which the device was controlled via an entity “use this phone to do your job”. Now application developers and services providers can start to count on the consumer already having a device (phone) which can read NFC tags; in the same way they expect the phone to have a camera/GPS/WiFi. What you will see is things in the physical world now have NFC tags in them to link to its digital counterpart. We call this the Connected Things segment of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Where is the NFC Core developer documentation?
It’s here. It may not be complete.

What models of the iPhone will be able to use NFC?
According to the docs, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. We assume that the upcoming iPhone 8 will also be able to. Technically the iPhone 6+ has an NFC controller in it to support Apple Pay. Those models are on the list to receive iOS 11. The iPhone 7 did change some of the NFC hardware, so it’s possible that Apple thought this upgraded hardware a requirement for the best NFC tag reading experience.

How many iPhones will now be able to read NFC tags?
By the end of 2017, I’d guess 250M+. Many consumers have been waiting for the upcoming iPhone 8 to upgrade. Think about this; it’s unprecedented in technology. Never before has a market increased by so much is such a little time. This is because Apple has been selling this hardware capability for over a year now, and it’s just a software update to enable.

What NFC functions are available?
It look like only reading NFC tags, not writing NFC tags or card emulation. This is either by design, or just that the docs haven’t updated yet. Wouldn’t surprise us if it was just reading NFC tags. From looking closer at the NFC headers in iOS, there does appear to be support for other functions such as card emulation.

Is an app required or is there native support for handling of specific NDEF records?
Right now it seems that an app is required, although this is an area of active research. Android for example has native functionality in the operating system that when it encounters certain types NDEF records, it will perform their natural action on the phone. For example, a website record will open the url in the browser. This doesn’t seem to be the case for the iPhone. Apple could add support for this, and/or they could release their own tag reading app.

Does it support NDEF?
Yes, but not completely. There is base level support for NDEF messages and records, but no typed classes for Text Records, Uri Records, Mime Type Records… This is again either by design, or the docs haven’t been updated yet. It’s easy to write those record subclasses so this isn’t concerning.

Why just support reading NFC tags and not writing?
This is an interesting choice, and there are a couple options. It could be that the docs are wrong and/or it will be added as we get closer to the release date. However in our experience, regular consumers just don’t encode NFC tags.

Which NFC chip types are supported?
According to the docs, Type 1 – 5 which is all of them. Surely this will include Mifare Ultralight, the NXP NTAG series and the longer range SLI series. If you aren’t sure which to use for your project, contact us and we can help.

Is it possible to read the NFC chip’s UID?
Its not clear at this time; the docs don’t explicitly show it, but in the code it may be available via the tag’s description. This is again either by design, or the docs haven’t been updated yet. This has some serious implications as the UID is used for functionality such as product authentication, anti-cloning and counterfeiting.

How does this affect ApplePay?
It shouldn’t have any affect at all. While NFC is used as the mode of communication for Apple Pay, VAS (Passbook) and now reading NFC tags; the secure element used for ApplePay and VAS is not used when reading and writing NFC tags.

Will the Apple Watch also support reading NFC tags?
Yes, it does seem that Apple Watch will also be able to read NDEF records from NFC tags. We expected it to as it would make for an interesting user experience. Apple has already been driving their customers to use NFC on the Apple Watch for payments via Apple Pay, so this is a natural extension to that.

Will macOS support NFC?
There was no mention of this so far.

_source: https://gototags.com/blog/apple-ios-11-supports-reading-nfc-tags-iphone-7-iphone-8-core-nfc/_

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Could someone possibly find me a cheap android (i use a iphone 5s right now) phone that would last awhile until either apple gets full compatibility or i can get a better android? I had my friends old android for awhile (its broken now) but that slowed down within a week (LG G3 i think…?) So im looking for something that will last a bit longer. xD My carrier is sprint so try to find something compatible with that, and id rather not go above $200 for the phone. Thanks to all those who are helping!

(i found a refurbished samsung s6 on ebay, would that be good?)

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Just remember that Apple may not necessarily ever get full NFC support (currently no sign of them adding the ability to write), and even if they do it will take some time for a good selection of NFC enabled apps to come.

Phones don’t just get slow because they get old. Phones most often get slow because a bunch of apps are installed, or because they are running low on storage space. If you want a phone just for NFC, and not pictures and other apps, I’d say just get whatever is available to you.

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Don’t forget the forced update obsolesces conspiracy. Removing optimizations for older hardware in newer OS updates (typically seen done by US carriers) to force people to update to the latest phone (and get a new contract - again something terrible here in the USA).

Just have to ring the gong of how terrible telecommunications is here in the USA each and every chance I get.

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Haha, yeah. I hate that too. xD

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Ha, that’s a valid point. I’m not from the USA though, so I only have to deal with the junk the manufacturer adds :wink:
My Galaxy s7 still runs like when I got it, so it does seem like it has gotten better the latest years. But I do remember how my Galaxy S3 turned out after some years…

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