Highlights
Owns a 55% share in Digital Angel Corp., which makes chips that are implanted in animals and humans to track their location.
The company’s ThermoLife technology harnesses body heat to power such things as attachable medical devices, electronic watches, self-powered heat sensors, and mobile electronics.
Founded in 1988 as Applied Cellular Technology, a computer sales business, the company quickly turned toward wireless communications technologies and used acquisitions to position itself as a one-stop provider of integrated communications packages. Applied Digital now focuses on serving markets for early warning alert systems, miniaturized power sources, and security monitoring systems. Through its Advanced Wireless unit, the company provides security-related data collection, data intelligence, and complex data delivery systems. It’s best known now for its VeriChip subsidiary, which makes radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips placed under the skin. Since the FDA approved them for human use in 2004, Applied Digital has marketed them for a variety of uses. Hospitals, for instance, can use these to keep track of vulnerable people like infants, the elderly, or the mentally impaired, and to monitor their medical status.