A Florida-based company aims to be the first to sell microchip implants for humans, and claims that now is the time for man and computer to become one.

Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) currently makes over $165m a year selling chips to help farmers keep tabs on their cattle, and GPS monitoring bracelets so that families can keep an eye on confused elderly relations.

Now it has applied to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to implant chips in humans with the medical market in mind. P>He added that, while the idea has been denounced by those who fear that chip technology could result in its use in a totalitarian state, the "spectre of terrorism" is changing attitudes. "The direct union of man and computer is no longer dismissed out of hand," said Bolton.

Other uses could be to replace keys and ATM cards with implanted chips, making it possible for a single implant to unlock your house, start your car and give you money from a cash point.

ADS expects to get FDA approval in the middle of next year and will start marketing the chips straight away.

Initially the chips will not be tracking devices because they have no internal power supply and can be read only by a scanner at close range. Bolton said that the next generation of body chips, which can send a signal at a distance, were too big to be inserted at this stage.