Pause Festival 2018 launches in Melbourne, features “injectable” NFC chips

Pause Festival held a event at Melbourne’s Federation Square this morning for the launch of its 2018 program. The technology and innovation festival, now in its eighth year, brings together some of the best and brightest from across the tech world for a multi-day event in the heart of Melbourne. None of that was particularly weird for a media event. It didn’t get weird until they started injecting people with microchips.

Alright, fine, I got you a little bit with that thing about the microchips. They did inject people with them though. They’re called “injectibles,” small microchips about the size of a grain of rice that are designed to be injected just under the skin. The chips can then be programmed for use with a theoretically huge number of systems using NFC or Near Field Communication technology.

You know, the tech Nintendo uses in their amiibo figures? Yeah, that, but its in your arm and you can use it to get into your house if you forget your keys. Or as a business card. Eventually you’ll be able to use it with things like Pay Pass systems or Myki.

A member of the media gets their injectable chip at this morning’s event. Image Credit: Jesper Hede

A total of ten people were injected with the small chips, which the event had preloaded with VIP passes to the show as an incentive.

The Pause Festival’s 2018 program will bring 150 of the most innovative minds in tech to Melbourne from February 7-11, 2018. Seminars and workshops will take place throughout the Federation Square complex, including ACMI and Deakin Edge.

You can find out more about Pause Festival, and purchase tickets, at PauseFest.com.au. You should get a wriggle on though — it’s a pretty intimate event and there’s only 1000 tickets available.





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David Smith

David Smith is the former games and technology editor at The AU Review. He has previously written for PC World Australia. You can find him on Twitter at @RhunWords.