GPS-Microchip Shooting Rifle

Here's a neat little number to add to police inventories.

This ID Sniper from Empire North is used to implant a GPS-microchip in the body of a human being, using a high powered sniper rifle as the long distance injector. The microchip will enter the body and stay there, causing no internal damage, and only a very small amount of physical pain to the target. It will feel like a mosquito-bite lasting a fraction of a second. At the same time a digital camcorder with a zoom-lense fitted within the scope will take a high-resolution picture of the target. This picture will be stored on a memory card for later image-analysis.

So what is the use of ID Sniper? As the urban battlefield grows more complex and intense, new ways of managing and controlling crowds are needed. The attention of the media changes the rules of the game. Sometimes it is difficult to engage the enemy in the streets without causing damage to the all important image of the state. Instead Empire North suggests to mark and identify a suspicious subject on a safe distance, enabling the national law enforcement agency to keep track on the target through a satellite in the weeks to come.

The ID Sniper rifle was presented by Empire North in Beijing at the China Police 2002 exhibition.

Amazing. Not the technology, the impulse. And the obvious questions: Who's buying them? What's the nature of the market? I can't decide which is more sinister, this or roving bugs.