SOUTHWEST FLORIDA - We've microchipped our pets for years for fear of them getting lost, but right now a project is underway in Florida to microchip people.

The FDA-approved microchip is about the size of a grain of rice. So far, the microchip project is geared toward patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The idea is that the chip, using a radio frequency, is trackable if the person goes missing, but some fear the microchip is "big brother" -- inserted right under your skin.

George Orwell's "1984" instilled images of "big brother," the idea that someone, somewhere is always watching us. Fast forward nearly a quarter century and some fear the pervasive, invasive surveillance that is "big brother" has become reality. Microchips, usually put in our pets, are now being used in people.

"Sixty percent of all Alzheimer's patients will leave or will wander sometime during the illness," Mary Barnes, Alzheimer's Care Facility president and CEO, says.

Now more than 100 patients at the Alzheimer's Care Facility in West Palm Beach are microchipped and can be found if they wander away.

"All of a sudden they're not connected to where they are, and they just get up and just walk out the door," Barnes says.

Just like a vaccine, a needle injects a tiny computer into a person's arm. Then, through a computer database, the information can be changed. It carries a radio frequency. It does not use GPS, so no one is watching all the time. But if a patient goes missing, the individually-issued radio frequency can be tracked to a specific location -- so long as it's within about a mile.

"This is not an aggressive type of technology where someone can actually find you anytime they want," Barnes says.

The same radio frequency tracking technology already exists in Florida. Sheriff's offices’ Project Lifesaver carries the radio chip inside a bracelet worn outside the body.

"It's not that anyone's monitoring that frequency, but when a caregiver discovers a loved one has wandered off, they call us, we look up their frequency number, and we can start searching based on that number," Stacey Payne, Lee County Sheriff's Office Community Relations Manager, says.

"We don't really like to broadcast our illnesses to the public, so that's why the VeriChip technology is very protected and very dignified," Barnes says. "It's the wave of the future, I think."

"As health care gets more complicated and people live longer, having all of the information you need at the time you need it becomes more and more important," Dr. Michael Raab, Lee Memorial Health Systems geriatrician, says.

The chip works a lot like what people do to their pets to protect them from getting lost or stolen, but some opponents to microchipping say people should not be tracked like dogs. They say that while the chip might be used only for medical purposes now, they fear it could be reprogrammed in the future.

"I get a little nervous when you talk about injecting something -- some foreign material into my skin, into anybody," Payne says.

"It's an invasion of one's privacy," Chris Stuart, Fort Myers resident, says. "I certainly wouldn't want it done to me."

The chip is removable.

Right now the VeriChip microchip really only works in Palm Beach County where hospitals are equipped with scanners to detect the tiny computers. It costs about $300 for the chip plus about $10 a month for the actual service.