Let loose the dogs of war—and the rats and the cockroaches. Military scientists are developing computer technology that could, in the future, be implanted into animals’ brains, turning them into electronically controlled "soldiers." Chips connected directly into the animals’ brains would allow their controllers to manipulate their movement via radio links, while cameras and other devices mounted on their bodies would allow them to send information back to base.

A team at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington has succeeded in growing brain cells onto microchips which would be used to create devices that can detect nerve gases. The technology’s potential for creating electronically controlled animals was revealed by a recently retired associate director of the laboratory who spoke at a defense science conference in America.

Pat Cooper, a defense expert who attended the meeting, said the director had announced: "Once this technology [connecting neurons to microchips] is proved, you could control a living species." He refused to discuss details when Cooper approached him afterwards.

Other scientists in Europe and America have also connected neurons to microchip circuitry and a team in Japan has been able to stimulate the muscles in a cockroach leg with electrical signals so that its movements can be controlled.

There could be big advantages for the military. Rats could be used to check damage at bombed enemy factory sites, where their presence would be unlikely to raise suspicion. Dogs could be used to search for casualties on battlefields and cockroaches could be used to place surveillance devices in military installations.

On the desk in front of me is a needle the same size as those used for blood transfusions. I have just tipped out of it a tiny glass container, no bigger than a grain of rice. Inside is an injectable computer: a chip, power generator, transmitter and receiver. It is a complete mobile communication system. My wife bought it for £25.

Several million of these injectable computers were made in 1998 by companies such as Datamars in Switzerland. In the future, these devices will hold bank account details, cash, passport, national insurance numbers and medical records.

The first versions were used in Swatch watches, to pay for things such as ski lifts or buses. You paid money to have credit loaded on to the watch which became a travel pass.

At a recent World Economic Forum meeting at Davos, we were all given these watches to access our secure personal message system. These latest injectable devices have taken things a step further. What next?

I approach my car, which knows who I am. The door swings open and the driver seat and steering wheel adjust to my usual settings, the radio starts to play my favorite station and a speech unit offers to navigate me to Heathrow.

As I board the plane, a sensor in the aircraft door activates the chip which tells the on-board flight system who I am. "Welcome, Dr. Dixon. Seat 4a is ready for you. This flight is worth 450 air-miles."

I arrive in New York and hire a car, which also recognizes me and adjusts accordingly. The hotel room unlocks and bills me as I enter. Room service arrives to stock the fridge with favorite minibar items plus the extras I usually order.

None of this is science fiction. All of this is possible using today's tools. It is just a question of connecting them together, and 1999 will be the year of new connections.

These hi-tech injectable body-chips need no battery and last forever. They are powered by radio waves from devices such as scanners, and once activated they begin transmitting and receiving data.

Today these chips are being injected into animals. If the [British] Government has its way, every pet would be carrying these "pet passports," giving owner details and vaccination history.

Brain implants are viewed with unnecessary suspicion, says Peter Cochrane, BT  Head of Research.

"Twenty years ago the first pocket calculators were arriving, and I remember being admonished by a mathematician for using a slide rule instead of logarithm tables. Once electronic calculators arrived, it was all over--logarithms and slide rules went the same way as the mechanical typewriter. What had lasted 350 years was wiped out in three.

"It is only about 10 years since the first mobile phones arrived. These were about the same size and weight as a house brick and very expensive. At the time, the critics could not see why these devices should enjoy any more than limited use by a very few people. Today, mobiles are smaller than a chocolate bar and we can all afford them.

"Just three years ago I put forward the notion that chip implants inside humans would become commonplace and as desirable as mobile phones. I also postulated that they would require telecommunication facilities. Well, the latest pacemakers now have a short-hop radio link, and in the past month there have been reports of paraplegics with silicon brain implants able to control computers, and artificial retinas restoring sufficient sight for someone totally blind to recognise letters of the alphabet. Most likely the next five years will see people with chip implants as commonplace."

A silicon chip which releases pulses of different drugs on demand is in prospect thanks to a new microelectronic device. The MIT team believe bio-sensors on their chip could release drugs. The chip would be swallowed or implanted. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)have successfully tested a tiny chip which contained 34 pinprick-sized reservoirs. Each can hold 25 nanolitres of material. Zapping a particular reservoir with a small voltage made its thin gold cover dissolve and released the chemical inside.

The prototype chip is 17mm square but the researchers said they could reduce the size of the chip to only two millimetres. There is also the potential for more than 1,000 reservoirs if the reservoirs are smaller. The chip is cheap - Langer and his team are making them in a research lab for about $20 each. But he predicts larger-scale production would drop the cost to a few dollars.

A microchip in televisions could someday release different scents when different advertisements or scenes are viewed. The chip would be triggered by remote control by a signal sent over the airwaves. The MIT research was published in Nature.

Sometimes gun-toting bodyguards, armored limousines and clever disguises just aren't enough. Now the rich and famous of the world are being offered a new kind of protection to keep them from the greedy clutches of ransom-seeking kidnappers: A microchip that will be implanted under their skin.

The device is being marketed to the world's richest families as protection against the booming worldwide business in abductions, which has risen by 60 percent in the last eight years, especially in impoverished and corrupt countries like Mexico, Chechnya and the Philippines.

The new technology, reported by the Times of London, is a low-power chip that sucks electrical energy from the body itself and--according to the Gen-Etics corporation that makes the things--can be detected by Global Positioning System satellites circling the globe.

Designed first by the Israeli spy-masters of the Mossad, Gen-Etics is launching the new "Sky-Eye" chips in Milan, Italy. The company told the Times that it has already stitched the $7,500 gadget into 45 of the world's richest people.

Once a person "wearing" a Sky-Eye chip is abducted, cops and security teams will track his or her location using the satellites and--presumably--send in a commando squad to rescue them. The Sky-Eye is said to have a margin of error of just 150 yards.

But what if the kidnappers decide to tear the thing out themselves? Gen-Etics doesn't have a perfect answer for that question, although they're trying. First, the actual surgery to insert the tiny chip is done under an anesthetic that makes it impossible for the kidnap victim to even remember where it was put in. Second, the thing is so small--just 4 mm by 4 mm, and running on just a few milliamperes of the body's own natural electricity--that it doesn't show up on x-rays.

Take out your wallet and count the number of cards you carry, not to mention all the Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) that you have to memorize for every possible transaction.

Then there is your passport, driver's license, insurance documents, not to mention details like home and work addresses, phone and fax numbers.

All that information, says BT Laboratories' Peter Cochrane, can be put into a single silicon chip on a smart card. Everything from employment and medical records to financial status can be written into the chip. Add a short-range wireless transmitter-receiver, implant the whole thing under your skin, and you have a personal transponder, just like those in airplanes.

A chip like that can give you total freedom, according to Professor Cochrane. You walk into an airport and clear Customs and Immigrations in minutes because all your personal information will be processed by computers instead of humans. Since all your financial information is also in the chip, you can simply walk up to an ATM machine in any country and withdraw money as and when you need it.

Even grocery-shopping could be easier. Just walk into a store and pick up whatever you want to buy. No more queues at the cashier's counter.

All this could be reality in a few years time.