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Final: Medical ID bracelet (or wearable)

Current medical i.d. bracelets (tag, jewelry) are not so attractive.

In the past few years, there's been a boom in wearables that call attention to and support various diseases. Advertisiing your support of a medical condition/disease is something completely different than advertising/identifying yourself as a patient of that disease.

Different Connotations (of a physical apperance). These images, and how these women view their baldness are completely different. Far right: woman who's undergone chemo. 2nd, chemo patient tattoos her head. 3rd, Sinead O'Connor. Far right, Natalie Portman, who shaved her head for a movie role, for which she got paid millions.

Identification Tags - different situations, differnt connotations.
1) company i.d. tags 2) i.d. tags on Final Home's clothing -- the tag is their so the person can be identified (e.g. the jacket meant for the homeless. In case the wearer dies, they can i.d. the body) 3) "Carrie" name necklace made popular by "Sex and the City" 4) Star of David jewelry 4) Star of David patch Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis

Identification Tags: the iconic dog tag

Some "modern" jewelry. Since I do not have metalsmithing skills are access to the facilities, I'm looking at other materials, aside from silver, gold, etc.

Some "modern" jewelry that carries some "data": 1) DNA necklace, 2) level 3) some engraving 4) ruler 5) watch, w/ non-traditional info visualiaztion of time

Wearables that carry digital data:
1) Dingrin - lens w/ microfilm 2) mbracelet by of 5050ltd 3) digital locket (USB stick) by Emily Conrad 4) another USB stick by Michael Leung 5) iBelieve - turn your nano into a Crucifix

1) clip on watch 2) midi adaptor keychain 3) medical RFID bracelet 4) RFID bracelet

Some links to articles on use of RFID bracelets for patients in hospitals, inmates in jail, and kids in amusement parks, etc.:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/emergingtech/0,39020357,39203624,00.htm
http://networks.silicon.com/mobile/0,39024665,39131163,00.htm
http://www.hoise.com/vmw/05/articles/vmw/LV-VM-03-05-10.html
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/003607.php
http://torque.oncloud8.com/archives/000469.html
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/1601/1/1/
http://news.com.com/Human+chips+more+than+skin-deep/2009-1008_3-5318076.html

Some links to articles on digital medical records, patient identity/privacy issues, etc.:
http://www.nursingworld.org/ojin/topic27/tpc27lnx.htm
http://www.williamyasnoff.com/