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Exchange Email Addresses With A Handshake

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."

54 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. I can just see the first court case... by Bimkins · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Honest, your honor. I wasn't grabbing her. I was just giving her my telephone number!"

    --



    If you smoke after sex, you're doing it too fast.
    1. Re:I can just see the first court case... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The penetration which followed was simply an attempt to get a better upload.

    2. Re:I can just see the first court case... by modecx · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hrm, interpersonal LAN parties... Gives "First Person Shooter" a whole 'nother meaning!
      Wonder just how far tweakers will go to get lower pings though?

      Yeah, definitely time for bed.

      --
      Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
  2. Amazing! by ActiveSX · · Score: 4, Funny

    And if we could get a long chain of people, maybe we could use them instead of ethernet cable!

    1. Re:Amazing! by blowhole · · Score: 5, Funny

      Imagine a Beowulf cluster of us!

      --
      "Ask me about Loom"
  3. We're better than mud! by jimson · · Score: 5, Funny

    At least in transfer rates........

  4. Wow by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 5, Funny

    which uses the body's conductivity to transmit data at an amazing 10 megabits per second

    Oh, god. Imagine the new possibilities for porn.

    1. Re:Wow by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 4, Funny
      pr0n?

      This brings new meaning to peer-to-peer networking in general!

    2. Re:Wow by majestynine · · Score: 5, Funny
      Sorry, I couldn't resist posting a link to this nodeshell on Everything2. Get ready to laugh your ass off:

      Penises have higher bandwidth than cable modems

    3. Re:Wow by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'd have to disagree with the result. The bandwidth of the penis is given as 78 Mb/s. However, most of our genome is exactly the same for all human beings. So all that really has to be transmitted are the base pairs that differ. This is probably on the order of less than 1%. This means that a cable modem could probably transmit the same bandwidth as a penis using good compression software.

    4. Re:Wow by Thenomain · · Score: 3, Informative

      Does that mean most of my data transfer would be logged as "localhost"?

      --
      This now concludes our broadcast day.
  5. Couldn't resist... by bjschrock · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, if a bunch of people join hands, do they become a Beowolf cluster?

  6. Napster This! by spellcheckur · · Score: 3, Funny
    ...and you'll now be able to download ripped DVDs during fornication!

    Oh, wait... hmmm... I wonder which I'll need first... a DVD player, or a girlfriend.

    1. Re:Napster This! by TellarHK · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nope, I don't think that's going to happen. Why? When's the last time you copied a DVD rip over a 10Mbit connection in the three or four minutes the average male lasts? And I think I'm being generous here. Not evem MPEG-4 will make up for the trigger-happiness of most guys.

  7. 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 mclearn · · Score: 4, Informative

      The article states that the device uses the body's natural conductivity. Hence, there should be no issues regarding those with pace-makers.

    2. Re:How about people with pace makers? by LinuxInDallas · · Score: 5, Informative

      Pacemakers and other implantables typically communicate with external devices using low power RF signals. It's quite possible that this networking could interfere with operation of the device. There are rumors of airport security x-ray machines causing havoc in some types of devices. It's the responsibility of the medical device manufacturer to make sure an implant meets certain criteria for EMI/RFI but those requirements are not all that strenuous to meet.

    3. Re:How about people with pace makers? by AvitarX · · Score: 3, Informative

      I would assume this is a high frequency electricity (10 mbits/second is a lot of info). High frequency electricity will travel over the surface without penatrating, so it should not be an issue.

      National geographic had a guy standing on a charged plat, shooting electricity that went through (over) him into the rod, it was cool.

      People with pacemakers don't die from static shocks, I find it hard to believe that people would use a technology that was more disruptive then that.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    4. 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.
  8. Two for the price of one... by jjh37997 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now you can transfer computer viruses as easy as the old fashioned biological kind.

    I can see the T-Shirts now, "Don't touch me! I'm infected with Code Red!"

  9. 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 dirvish · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hey man. We gotta save the forests man. Down with dead trees (paper) man.

  10. New cabling standards... by Cadre · · Score: 4, Funny
    download ripped DVDs during fornication

    Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, CatSex...

    --
    All editorial writers ever do is come down from the hill after the battle is over and shoot the wounded.
    1. Re:New cabling standards... by Edgewize · · Score: 4, Funny

      Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, CatSex...

      Jees, that's starting to look like my incomming Gnutella queries.

  11. Interesting, but... by rice_burners_suck · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This looks like an interesting technology, but what about the security implications? Suppose in ten years, everybody carries around a tiny device--the futuristic counterpart to today's cellphones--which acts as a phone, voice recorder/MP3 player, PDA, digital still/video camera, electronic wallet, and even contains the digital keys to your house, car, and whatever. All you have to do is touch the doorknob to your house and it'll read the keys from your device and unlock automatically.

    Now ask yourself this: What's to stop crackers from using a root-kit that operates through handshakes to steal information from your electronic device and then use that information to break into your stuff? Is this another one of those technologies that will become totally critical in our everyday lives, and that will also become a huge security problem?

    1. 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.
  12. So if the DNA is 760 MB by PissingInTheWind · · Score: 5, Funny

    at 10Mb/s our body could transmit it's own DNA in 1 hour and 41 minutes.

    9 months is a long time compared to that...

    --

    A message from the system administrator: 'I've upped my priority. Now up yours.'
    1. Re:So if the DNA is 760 MB by afidel · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well the actual transmition can be acomplished in as few as 5 seconds, emm errr or so I'm told.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  13. 10mbps For The Healthy by spudwiser · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, but in order to reach full 10mbps you have to have a diet rich in copper.

    --
    .cig - what you do after winning a good flame war
  14. In other news.... by Bobulusman · · Score: 4, Funny

    The DMCA has announced that skin is now illegal.

    --
    Cogito ergo sum in Slashdot.
  15. stuff by Raven42rac · · Score: 3, Funny

    damnit, thats no ethernet cable, why, its people, NTT is people I tell you, people!

    --
    I hate sigs.
  16. Some things to resolve, but amazing potential by starseeker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Problems: Stores might rig their doornobs to download your personal information as you go in the store. Privacy issue. Or someone could touch you, and have all your information stored. Think potential stalkers/criminals/etc. Scary. Of course you could always turn it off, I suppose, but if you forget it's a problem. I assume I'm not the only absent minded human around.

    However, there are some interesting possibilities:

    A credit card reader could read your body's electrical signal, as it is also scanning the card. Added consumer security. Even cooler would be if each person had a unique electrical signal their body generates, but I don't know anything about that. Either way, interesting.

    You could make long distance calls from anywhere, and have the phone read your calling card number automatically when you pick up the phone.

    Possibility of electronic "keys" for car/house stored in PDA. Not so good if PDA is lost or crashes, but if you can call the company and say "My PDA is gone - please scramble my house key codes until we can resolve the issue" it might work. Locking the house would be great - simply disable the electronic circuit from the inside and there is no lock to pick. As for someone who tries to crack it while you're out, simply have the system stop taking input for five seconds if it gets a bad signal. With billions of possibilities at five seconds a try, it wouldn't work real well trying to crack it. If you're paranoid, have it take thirty seconds. No more fumbling with keys or those little remote control keychains, either - just touch and open.

    Many issues to resolve, but some very cool possibilities as well.

    --
    "I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
  17. Now Just Wait a Second by serutan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does anybody else think this sounds just a teensy bit flaky? The article says the connection works through clothing ... "Apparel and handbags have their own conductivity, allowing an electrical connection to a PDA that can remain in one's pocket..." Huh?? 10 mbps using the cloth of my pocket as a conductor??

    I have a suspicion that news.au.com is getting one slipped to them. The closest Google result I could get with "NTT NoCoMo skin" is this article about a cell phone that conducts sound through bone and cartilage, enabling you to listen to the call by sticking your finger in your ear.

    Uhhh, okie dokie.

    1. Re:Now Just Wait a Second by blakestah · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Does anybody else think this sounds just a teensy bit flaky?

      Absolutely.

      Although, I am telling you right now, if we greased our palms with conducting paste, and gripped REALLY hard, we could get down to 100 kOhms in conductance. Then we deal with noise. Now, most of the connecting tissue is stricly low-pass (which is a bitch for high bandwidth issues), and noise is in the millivolts range. To add insult to injury, most of the signal loss will occur in the skin itself, so this application is a really tough one. I think in the lab you could probably rig it to transmit the amount of info in a business card, maybe.

      OTOH, detecting a handshake and using that to trigger an IR linkup seems fairly easy.

    2. Re:Now Just Wait a Second by achurch · · Score: 3, Informative

      I have a suspicion that news.au.com is getting one slipped to them. The closest Google result I could get with "NTT NoCoMo skin" is this article about a cell phone that conducts sound through bone and cartilage, enabling you to listen to the call by sticking your finger in your ear.

      Maybe you could try actually reading the article? It clearly states the source of the news, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and in fact the article is right at the top of the "companies" section (link, or Fish translation).

  18. Re:*grits-teeth-in-rage* by foobar104 · · Score: 5, Funny

    2002-10-07 01:14:50 Download Porn Videos While You Kiss (articles,news) (rejected)

    Perhaps now you're starting to understand the importance of a good title.

  19. Re:In Related News... by foobar104 · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...backbone providers have announced plans to pay people minimum wage to hold hands with each other as a backup backbone.

    Sigh. The way the job markets looks right about now, I would take that job.

  20. Oh great, more spam, just lovely. by Skapare · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh great, more spam, just lovely. And they'll say I opted-in, too ... with my handshake.

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  21. 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.
  22. Spam? by udecker · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now the spammers will just run around slapping people.

    1. Re:Spam? by Maran · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Now the spammers will just run around slapping people."

      Yes, but then there'd be a wonderful reason for responding.

      No slap I slap am slap not slap interested slap but slap thanks slap anyway slap.

      Maran

  23. This was *going* to be a WIRELESS link... by Tokerat · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...but some of the test subjects' "antenna" wasn't quite long enough for decent reception.

    --
    CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
  24. Re:We should use this for the last mile. by captredballs · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, when Worldcom bites the dust we might need to organize "Hands Around the World" just to read /.

    Genetic engineering is going to become a much higher priority for geeks as soon as they need to overclock THAT bus :-)

    --

    I suppose I'm not too threatening, presently, but wait till I start Nautilus
  25. Snow Crash by richie2000 · · Score: 3, Funny
    This is sooo Snow Crash. Now, not only can you rub against someone and catch a cold, you can get viruses in your beltwares as well. Your cellphone will set up conference calls to bad payporn when you try to call your mom, your watch will continually blink 06:66 and set off the alarm at odd hours and your PDA will make an appointment for a Golden Shower in your own office by a smelly Bill Gates-lookalike in drag really, really early on Monday morning. Crap, there goes the whole week.

    Just another reason to keep wearing my rubber gloves. *snap*

    --
    Money for nothing, pix for free
  26. Some Clarifications by kepart · · Score: 5, Informative
    I've been doing my PhD work on systems like this (Intrabody Communication). It does work! However, there are a number of issues, some of which aren't clear from the article.

    First, 10 Mbps is possible, but that's getting near the theoretical limit. The datarate is limited by the bandwidth, and the bandwidth is limited by the fact that around 50MHz, the signal wavelength is about four times the size of a person, which means the person turns into an antenna, and the whole system becomes essentially a short range radio.

    Second, because these systems operate in the near field, the signal travels through a current loop, and not as plane waves in free space. This means that there has to be some kind of grounding path for current to flow back to the transmitter after going through the person. This is why it works so well to put transceivers in shoes -- the ground path can flow through earth ground (or any conductive material in the floor). For devices held in hands, the very small (femtofarad) capacitance of free space is enough, but the signal does suffer more from noise. Devices in purses, etc. also have this problem, and may have difficulty establishing the ground connection depending on the material the purse is made from and the other objects inside it.

    One issue that to my knowledge has not been addressed very well is guaranteeing that the signal is received during--and only during--physical contact. There is a large dependence of signal strength on geometry. The devices I've constructed can communicate when they're brought near (~10 cm) of each other, touching or not. There are a few solutions, such as looking at jumps in signal strength, but they tend to be confused when a person without a transceiver happens to touch the object, and a person with a transceiver is nearby. I'm currently working on this problem for my PhD dissertation, so if you have any good ideas or know of related work, I'd love to hear from you.

    If you'd like to read more, the first (and most detailed) publication I know about on this idea was Thomas Zimmerman's Masters Thesis at the MIT AI Lab. You find it here: http://www.media.mit.edu/physics/publications/thes es/95.09.zimmerman.pdf

    ------
    Kurt Partridge
    Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
    University of Washington
    Seattle, WA 98195

  27. ACK! I've been hacked! by Ainu · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does this mean latex is now a firewall?

  28. old applications of new technology by kyletinsley · · Score: 4, Funny

    Seriously, I think this new technology could be used in some interesting ways. I'm waiting for someone to work it into the electric chairs used on death row, for a particularly fitting punishment for certain individuals...

    "Jerry Bruckheimer, for your crimes against humanity, this court orders you to be put to death via electric chair. 100 million copies of Armageddon will be digitally sent through your body each second until you are sufficiently fried. And may God have mercy on your crap-movie making ass..."

  29. 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...

  30. 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?

  31. Re:hehe, nippon by orthogonal · · Score: 4, Informative

    whats is the origin of the word 'nip' in racial text to asians [and "wog" and "nigger"]?

    "Nip" is short for "Nippon", the Japanese name for their country, or short for "Nipponese", the Japanese name for the people of Japan.

    "Nigger" derives from words various European languages use for the adjective "black"; various etymologists speculate in originated in the French, the Spanish, or the Portugese words for "black".

    "Wog", a disparaging British slang term for non-European "native" peoples, or in some constructs ("the wogs start at Calais") anyone not British, probably derives from Golliwog, a rag doll with African features in a children's storybook, though some probably apocryphal folk etymologies claim it's an abbreviation -- sarcasticly-applied -- of "Worthy Oriental Gentleman". Apparently the term is also applied, derisively, by mmebers of the Church of Scientology to non-Scientologists (?).

    In any case, all these terms are considered disparaging and offensive, especially when used by persons of whom they are not descriptive. (Although "nigger" finds a use, within the black American population when applied to others of the same ethnicity, similar in meaning to "(that black) person".)

  32. Biological bandwidth. by Perdo · · Score: 3, Informative

    In a healthy male:

    30-60 million sperm per cc of semen.

    2-5 cc's of semen.

    Up to 228 gigabytes of data in about 5 seconds.

    or about 365 gigabits per second.

    Men like computers because they are impotent compared to us.

    The monthly estrus cycle equates to about 2.5 kb/s

    Even a phone modem is faster than a woman.

    --

    If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.

  33. Found New Hardware by i+chose+quality · · Score: 3, Funny


    Suzy [Build 07/19/75]
    Status: horny

    Installing...

    --
    the computer is online
    i am not at it
    what a waste of ressources
  34. Re:RIAA requires everybody to wear full body condo by Beliskner · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I wonder if it means that the MPAA/RIAA would be buying senators to add DRM (digital restrictions mechanisms) to our bodies now
    Oh for God's sake the IT industry dwarfs the media industry. Hollywood buys Senators, and then in their movies they call Senators assholes and then Arnold Schwarzennegger kills them.

    Senators like the IT industry more than the media industry, and the IT industry can buy double the number of Senators that the movie industry has, but IT people in general (apart from usless MBA types) are shy and think they can just email the Democrats back into power.

    Never before in history has such an important part of the economy been run by geeks that are too afraid to lobby the Senate and too afraid to protest and have virtually no union (I think). The DMCA was supposed to help the IT industry, but the geeks were so shy to say anything that the legislature had to guess at what the IT industry wanted. As a result we have the DMCA we have today

    Bill Gates or Linus can pick up his phone right now and call Bush, then Bush will say, "Hello Mr Gates/Torvalds nice to hear from you, I will see you at your convenience, sir. Is there anything you would like from the US Government? We are your humble servants.". But the geeks that run the IT industry can't even understand the power they have. Funny.

    --
    A caveman dreams of being us, the incalculable power and riches. We dream of being Q, then what?
  35. The next step by abe+ferlman · · Score: 3, Funny

    The next step is obviously the world's first sexually transmitted computer virus.

    --
    microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...