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Microsoft Patents The Body Bus
Mz6 writes "Microsoft has been awarded a patent for using
human skin as a power conduit and data bus. Patent No.
6,754,472, which was published Tuesday, describes a method for transmitting power and data to devices worn on the body and for communication of data between those devices. In its filing, Microsoft cites the proliferation of wearable electronic devices, such as wristwatches, pagers, PDAs (worn on people's belts) and small displays that can now be mounted on headgear. "As a result of carrying multiple portable electronic devices, there is often a significant amount of redundancy in terms of input/output devices included in the portable devices used by a single person," says the filing. "For example, a watch, pager, PDA and radio may all include a speaker." To reduce the redundancy of input/output devices, Microsoft's patent proposes a personal area network that allows a single data input or output device to be used by multiple portable devices." (What about DoCoMo's research in this area?)
..... Micrsoft to sue all future survivors of lightning strikes.
I'm an EE, and I don't want my wife to inherit a lawsuit for patent infringement. ;)
+5:offtopic,but anti-American
This is a physical device and if there is no prior art then I think this is a very valid patent.
Somehow, the topic icon of Bill as a Borg seems more appropriate than ever.
A beowulf.
No, really!
When any of your portable devices detect that the DRM has been violated for their IP, they would like the wearer of the device to recieve a powerful electric shock, capable of causing paralysis.
...Microsoft have announced they are patenting the use of the human body as a energy source for computers.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
The Microsoft Slashdot icon has never been more accurate that it is with this article. Where are they getting the human skin to test this on? Interns? Seriously, though... just stick your finger into these electrodes, please.
Now that we can all be Borg, so I just want to know how long before we have Borg incubation chambers? Anyone with kids will back me on this... we need them. I would think the skin bus might cause cancer, wouldn't you? No FUD about it... this could be some scary shit when you consider Microsoft's security record, as well.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
They are also patenting the human built-in telescopic antenna array. Unfortunately, it will only be available to approximately 50% of the population.
DoCoMo's research is to transfer data via the body, which IBM also has done research (and most likely has some patents on). The MS patent is to power non-powered devices by having a power supply somewhere else that transmits the current through the skin. Similar, but different.
So I guess this might ultimately allow the transfer of data literally through a handshake ...
When I was 5 I discovered electricity for myself by sticking a fork in an outlet. Thereby proving Benjamin Franklin right and developing prior art to use against Microsoft. Ah, the follies of youth.
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
...a relatively small, cheap speaker, each device will instead have a relatively large, expensive widget to use our nerves as cat-5 (human-5?) so we only have to shlep around one little speaker?
They are kidding, right?
-JDF
I beta tested the stuff, and now my butt won't stop rebooting...
A personal area network (PAN) is a technology that could enable wearable computer devices to communicate with other nearby computers and exchange digital information using the electrical conductivity of the human body as a data network. For example, two people each wearing business card-size transmitters and receivers conceivably could exchange information by shaking hands. The transference of data through intra-body contact, such as handshakes, is known as linkup. The human body's natural salinity makes it a good conductor of electricity. An electric field passes tiny currents, known as Pico amps, through the body when the two people shake hands. The handshake completes an electric circuit and each person's data, such as e-mail addresses and phone numbers, are transferred to the other person's laptop computer or a similar device. A person's clothing also could act as a mechanism for transferring this data.
The concept of a PAN first was developed by Thomas Zimmerman and other researchers at M.I.T.'s Media Lab and later supported by IBM's Almaden research lab.
sorry but MIT and IBM is way ahead of Microsoft in this with prior art.
hell I made a example prototype from the information I recieved from mister Zimmerman back in 1997 for playing around with PAN's when i was heavy into the wearable computing research.
Microsoft, what Idea can we steal today?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Resistence is futile... errr... patented.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, consult.
I guess Kevin Warwick will enjoy the prospect of the Personal Area Network as described above, though. Now if only we could find a way to embed these devices directly into the skin and/or find a way to connect the input jacks directly into our brains...
(For those who don't know, Kevin Warwick is Professor of Cybernetics at Reading University, and performed an experiment on himself by implanting a tracking device into his arm, which allowed computers to determine which room he was in, and make judgements based on his position).
Brandon Glass's personal site.
Borg coments aside, I'd love to see this work. Turning the human skin into a data path has wonderful medical applications. Imagine being able to monitor pacemakers, hearing aids, and other prosthetic devices non-invasively.
Furthermore, this could open up the prospect of "implants" to help humans with different things. If Microsoft can really get data and power running through the human body, it could really usher in a new age of computing.
Found it.
It was an IBM researcher by the name of Tom Zimmerman who created a "Personal Area Network", back in 1996: Personal Area Networks (PAN): A Technology Demonstration by IBM Research.
Looks and sounds a lot like what MSFT just patented.
'ARRGH! Pirate Designers of the Internet, we be!'
There's some prior art for data transmission:/ pan/pan.html
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/user
Where MS patent is different is they claim to do _power_ transmission as well.
I wonder about a Mr Tesla...
That said, I'm personally not comfortable with the idea of transmitting significant amounts of electrical power through my body- even low level power. Not sure what the side effects would be.
Already there are some studies that indicate that electromagnetic fields do affect the body AND brain.
RTFA, the DoCoMo technology said they can exchange data between people at up to 10 meg. The DoCoMo tech lets users exchange email address and "buisness card" data with a handshake. Cool stuff.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
If ever there was justifiable reason to use the Borg icon instead of patent pending, I think this was it ...
: )
Microsoft filed their patent (which is titled a "Method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body") on April 27, 2000.
Yet at this web site, http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/user/pan/pan.html, there is a white paper (dated November 18-19, 1996) where IBM demonstrates their "new Personal Area Network technology that uses the natural electrical conductivity of the human body to transmit electronic data".
So, IBM demonstrated similar techniques back in 1996 that used the natural electrical conductivity to transmit data.
However, Microsoft's claims focus on power, and frequency adjustments, this is basis for their ability to send data.
One of Microsoft's claims states "modulating an information signal transmitted" using this signal; yet, in the IBM white paper it states that "The natural salinity of the human body makes it an excellent conductor of electrical current. PAN technology takes advantage of this conductivity by creating an external electric field that passes an incredibly tiny current through the body, over which data is carried."
My gut says that many of MS's claims are voided by prior art -- but one would need to study the MS claims in detail, and compare it to DoCoMo's and IBM's research on the subject, to make a truly educated rebuttal.
Body Bus = Skin Cancer?
It will certainly be a while before the long term effects of data or power over skin will be available. The lower levels of the epidermis constantly divide and push older dying cells outward to protect the body (info). Many things can cause improper division and lead to cancer. UV radiation everyone should already know about but so can excessive amounts from other radiant energy sources; such as electromagnetic or microwave. I don't believe short term exposure to low levels of energy have any chance of causeing problems in a healthy adult; but years of exposure over the same areas may be another story. There is no way in hell I want devices sending messages or power across my skin until there is significant data to say its safe.
"Capital punishment makes the state into a murderer. Imprisonment makes the state into a gay dungeon-master"
It'd bring a whole new meaning to having "worms"...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
My brain is prior art.
It gets it's energy from my body, and uses it as a data bus to send messages to my various other parts.
Various forms of hearing aids have used this idea for several years. For people with hearing in one ear, you can 'transmit' the sound from the deaf ear to the working ear.
--bryan
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/user/pan/pan. html
My Blog Sucks.
In this case, it looks like this one was 2002 (the other option is an unlikely 1996), which is 2 years after MS filed their patent.
I'm lazy.. I hate having to use cal(1) to figure this out.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.