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Exchange Email Addresses With A Handshake

Posted by timothy on from the networks-aren't-just-for-mud-anymore dept.

Eye of the Frog writes "Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and its subsidiary NTT DoCoMo Inc. have developed a device that attaches to your PDA which uses the body's conductivity to transmit data at an amazing 10 megabits per second."

15 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. How about people with pace makers? by LowAmmoWarning · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How about the people with pace makers? Are they going to have a warning label on the product or even try testing the product with them? Also, how about any other medical conditions that might present themselves due to this technology?

    --
    We could all benefit from my education.
    1. Re:How about people with pace makers? by red5 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is an urban myth. Pacemakers are generally unaffected by cellphones, microwaves, etc.

      Another common misconception about pacemakers this the notion that if they go out of commission the person would have an immediate heart attack. Not true. A pacemaker on kicks in when the subjects heartrate falls out the healthy range. It spends most of it's time watching the heart and waiting.

      I know this because my cousin has one.

      --
      I know I'm going to hell, I'm just trying to get good seats.
  2. Here's what I don't get... by BTWR · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you're close enough to TOUCH the person... why not just give a business card or TALK to the person???

    1. Re:Here's what I don't get... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      The guy in the old Micro Machines commercials speaks pretty fast, but I don't think he can speak anywhere close to 10Mbps.

      Say you're at a conference. You meet 30 people. Do you want 30 business cards that you'll have to scan into your addrbook later or would you rather just greet people saying "Hi" while shaking hands (hearing a beep from your PDA telling you that it downloaded their contact info).

    2. Re:Here's what I don't get... by LowAmmoWarning · · Score: 2, Interesting

      How about you use it for electonic business cards. People tend to lose real business cards and an electronic business card would cut down on cost. What if by bumping into somebody you gave them your business card? Or how about even using it as a personal identification system in which when you go to your company it verifies its informatoin w/ the information that you are carying w/ you. I'm sure a security card such as this transmitted by just touch could become useful in numerous applications...

      --
      We could all benefit from my education.
    3. Re:Here's what I don't get... by BTWR · · Score: 2, Interesting
      SO then why not just use the PDA's infrared beam?

      Ok... so you go up to a complete stranger at a convention. Instead of a quick paper card or a beam from a pda, you have to hold the strangers hand, then with the other hand, press SEND, then wait maybe 10 VERY AWKWARD seconds while holding this man/woman's hand. Only if she were sexy would this be anything but really weird...

    4. Re:Here's what I don't get... by Binome · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They'll probably do that anyway. In Japan, giving a business card to another person is almost ceremonial, so I doubt that it'll give way to electronic data transfer. Besides, knowing how marketing exaggerates things, you probably have to grab hold of the other person's hand, open your networking program, wait for a connection to be verified, do the hokey-pokey, then have the file sent. Interesting, but perhaps a ways away from practical use.

      --
      In Soviet Russia, Beowulf cluster imagines you!
  3. We should use this for the last mile. by Hershmire · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It gives a whole new meaning to "hands around the world". Now where to find volunteers...

    --
    if(!toilet_paper) roll.replace(new roll); //Stupid roommates.
  4. Shades of "The Belonging Kind" by Perianwyr+Stormcrow · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Dark club, a whisper in your ear.

    "I know what you like".

    A fleeting touch verifies it- she sure does.

    So, she settles down next to you, and rests her hand on your leg. It can't be the data-transmission that's making you shiver, you've done this before.

    A few breathless minutes later, she smiles, and kisses you lightly on the forehead.

    "Keep the faith."

    You know you will. After all, a quick glance at your PDA shows that you've benefitted twice tonight.

    --

    What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey

    1. Re:Shades of "The Belonging Kind" by bovril · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That was a great story, but it should've been called something like "Alcoholic Mutants Find Love". ;)

      Since we're going down the sci-fi path... This article reminded me more of the IR palm implants in Greg Egan's "Quarantine". Great book for the neural mods and other tech gadgets.

      But exchanging email addresses with a handshake sounds more like someone's trying to create an evil, networking, Tony Robbins fueled, cyborg-spammer from hell. Like Skynet, but with free university degrees and penis enlarging creams...

      --

      ---
      Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
  5. From Japan? by zwoelfk · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Doesn't anyone else find it odd that this was developed in Japan of all places? Living there, I don't know when the last time I shook hands with someone was. At least this could be handy for exchanging information with women... because I don't when when the last time I had (physical) contact with a man.

  6. Theft by body-as-conductive-path proxy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Something that can go through clothing might not have too much trouble using me as the conductive path needed to borrow the credit card of the person standing next to me.

  7. Sounds familiar, but with more applications... by Ian+Peon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A friend of mine had told me (a few years ago) about how his company was working on ways to use body conductivity and the electical fields surrounding our bodies to pass data. This article sounds very familiar.

    Passing data from one person to another was one of the uses, but the other I found much more interesting.

    Imagine a personal device "cloud" where your PDA, watch, and cell phone all pass data back and forth. Your watch acts as a small display for your cell and/or your PDA and receives time updates via the cell. Your PDA uses the cell for data calls. Your cell uses your PDA to look up names and numbers. All (theoretically ;) seamlessly.

    Take it a step further, and create small modules that plug into this personal network. Maybe a keychain of functions all accessable through your watch or PDA. Maybe carry a Quake quarter in your pocket.

    Nokia make a lot of press with putting a camera in a cell phone. I haven't looked at the spec, but I'd imagine that like many multi-function devices, it doesn't do either well. Imagine your (dedicated to task) camera taking pics, and storing them on another device (is that smart card in your wallet or are you just happy to see me?), previewing the pics on your phone and sending them from there. You could easily give them to someone else with a handshake.

    Quite a lot of possibility. I had often thought that the business card exchange application was the least exciting...

    --
    Never never never smoke crack before geometry class!
  8. Obligatory Sir Arthur C. Clarke ref by Quila · · Score: 3, Interesting

    3001 -- exchanging personal information by touch of the palm.

    Has he thought of everything?

  9. Re:Interesting, but... by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ``What's to stop crackers...''
    Don't use the technology. Same thing with all those password managers today. If you are concerned about their security, just say no.

    ---
    It is impossible to travel faster than light, and certainly not
    desirable, as one's hat keeps blowing off.
    -- Woody Allen

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.