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NTT's Cool - Human Area Networking Technology
kvsnut writes "I4U is reporting about NTT's research project
called RedTacton - It 'safely
turns the surface of the human body into a data transmission path at speeds up
to 10 Mbps between any two points on the body.' There is a pretty interesting site (uses flash) setup to showcase the technology.
If you want to jump to a non-flash overview, try here. It be cool if I could sync my Treo (I'm
saving for) by just touching a cradle (or heck the PC)."
Damn. I've always wanted to copy and paste between computers. This could be a dream come true for people that have to work on a large number of computers for a short amount of time...
I see immediate applications for this technology -- we need to bring back Hands Across America to create the information superhighway of the 21st century!
- - - - - Fear not the reaper, but my shiny white teeth.
What's the point beyond the coolness factor? Palm devices can already sync via 802.11b or Bluetooth. Wireless technologies can already go faster than 10 mbps, and are cheap and well-tested. If we can transmit data through the air, why do we need to transmit it through our bodies?
Incidentally NTT requests that the press refer to the technology's dermatological side effects as "a healthy tan!" rather than "cooking"
"No honey, you're not fat, you just have lots of bandwidth!"
Soylent Green is peoplicious!
What do you call a Human Area Network that's by itself? HAN SOLO!
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
... we're putting together a local area network!
http://domino.research.ibm.com/Comm/bios.nsf/pages /pan.html
From 1997 at IBM
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
-Use 220V power sources only!
-System WILL NOT function properly if flyback transformer output is BELOW 500 KV.
-If bleeding from the ears or urinary tract occurs during use, consult medical assistance immediately.
-DO NOT use in bathtub, shower, or rain.
-Conditions of high humidity should be avoided as electrical arcing may occur between peripheral devices on user.
-People with braces or a pacemaker should refrain from use of this product.
-ubuntu others as you would have others ubuntu you.
If I have a phone with a contact you want on it, I'll just let you hold my phone while you hold yours and then you give it right back. It'd take less then a second for us to sync contacts without plugging in a single thing. This could be done while walking down the street, and another aspect of it is that its more secure then using blue tooth or other wireless transmission that tends to not be encrypted. The potential for this is pretty amazing. Another one I can think of off the top of my head is if you wear something like a watch or chain that sends a constantly shifting key through your body (similar to the rsa little devices), then simply by touching something you could verify you were the holder of a credit card or other miscellaneous forms of authorization. It'd be like a digital fingerprint. If your groceries are tagged with rfid, have a scanner find the cost of everything in your cart, then you simply touch a little piece of metal or something to pay for it. The whole process could take less then a second. Another possible use is to place sensors on steering wheels... This could reshape how we interact with the world. Now if only they can find a way for the body to retain that information for short (or long) periods of time. We'd be walking harddrives, so much for a 40 gb ipod...just touch the headphones to your skin somewhere.
Regards,
Steve
The real drive behind this is the usage for mobile phones. Here in Japan, mobile phones have become the dominant data handling device. Phones here have the full rolodex, appointment calendar, mp3 player, as well as Final Fantasy/Tetris/CowboyNeal game-of-choice. There are adapters coming online now that will let people browse MSWord and Excel files via their mobile.
But the drive here is a great social need: when groups go out to dinner, friends, co-workers, business partners, etc. there is always this 10-minute ritual where everyone has to call everyone else in the group, in order to capture their phone number and contact information. If NTT can issue phones where everyone trades this information by touching hands, then they have an edge over the others.
Japanese protect their privacy vehemently, but are also information hoarders much greater than their US or EU equivalents. Phone rolodexes are huge-- people have every contact they met in the last 4 years (which is in the thousands if you work in Tokyo).
davejenkins.com |
pr0n. After 10,000 years of leading technological innovation, they finally have a way to deliver it directly where it matters....
I have to wonder if these patents will have a chilling effect on their ability to compete in the marketplace.
Once, smoking cigarettes was considered 'safe'. Putting radio waves thru the human body is never a great idea.
How many people take 5 minutes to swap out one usb cable for another? I mean, what's the breakdown here?
.25 Minutes - Where the **** am I?
.75 Minutes - Oh yeah right, Earth.
.25 Minutes - Pull out USB cable.
.25 Minutes - Plug in digital camera into USB port.
.25 Minutes - Continue plugging and unplugging because the icon didn't appear right away.
.25 Minutes - Phone ringing, give up, buddy needs assistance setting up his new WinXP box. Lucky he has an expert like me around.
1 Minute - Do I really need to unplug my USB flashlight to download my digital camera pix?
1 Minute - Where the **** is my digital camera?
1 Minute - Where the **** is my laptop?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The biggest market I see for this (other than the obvious marketing/spy novel stuff) is user authentication. People like myself fear bioauthentication because, well if someone steals your identity, you are pretty much boned.
With this system, you can have a separate heavily encrypted key for each device you touch, and it can be changed if the need arises.
Death to all passwords!
You could know who entered each and every keystroke!
Sigs? We don't need no stinking sigs!
So how long until I can purchase a Human Area Networking Device?
Bring on the sex jokes now...
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
You might be wondering what this technology would have over bluetooth. Well have you ever used bluetooth? You inevitably have to fiddle with it for minutes to find the menu option that lists the devices that you have already registered with and then fiddle more to map the name that is on the menu with the device
Sounds like you are just complaining about some flaws in the implementation of bluetooth rather than actually suggesting an advantage of the HAN approach. How does HAN really solve these problems? You still have to deal with the problem of disambiguation. You still have to have some kind of authorization mechanism so that every device you touch doesn't have instant access to every other device you touch. (Can you imagine a computer virus that literally spreads by touch?)
There are ways that the UI for bluetooth can be improved - to an extent. Security is always inconvenient. That's how Microsoft can stay ahead. Just ignore security and make your UIs better.
-a
about my fat pipe?
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Was I the only one who misread that as:
There is a pretty interesting site (uses flesh)
Not for its given bandwidth at its given range, however.
Contact across the skin implies a range of ~1 meter; at that range the required emitted power for a clear wifi signal is on the order of microwatts.