Slashdot Mirror
Bones Could Become Conduits For Data Swaps
Billosaur writes "New Scientist Tech has an intriguing article about researchers at Rice University in Houston, TX who are looking at ways to use the human skeleton to transmit data. The idea is to use bones to conduct sound waves, with 0's and 1's being represented by different frequencies. Preliminary results, shared with a conference on body networks in Florence, Italy, this week, show that bones can conduct even low-power vibrations with few errors. The idea is that the conduction of sound along bone would be more secure than that via radio waves, leading to the possibility of swapping data with someone by shaking their hand."
I knew they got it wrong. Tinfoil does not stop the transmissions to my teeth!
And passing spam -- o eeewwww yuck!
Infuriate left and right
Should this ever be implemented, I await with much interest the inevitable methods developed for eavesdropping.
Lends new meaning to the term "broken pipe."
'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
An implanted vibrator that would allow me to securely send data from my phone to someone elses phone. Really, how often does bluetooth actually fail to beam a business card?
Also I'd expect that the vibrations would exit through your feet and allow for snooping from ground based devices.
I can see the potential in the medical device field.
I need to find out who funded this research. With the chance for practical usage ever at about 0.001%, it's clear that someone just has money to piss away if this is the research they're doing. That being said, I need USD$5 million to research a rocket car.
Just what we need... an excuse for the MAFIAA to subpoena our bodies for network traffic analysis.
Insert Sig Here
Arrrrrr! Shiver me timbers!
Please stop stalking me, bro.
The vast majority of people I meet can barely transmit their own data through their brains.
tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
People could even swap information between devices via a firm handshake, Zhong suggests.
So, all of us slashdotters are finally going to have to develop firm handshakes. The horror! Will it also require looking people in the eye and smiling?
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
Conducting data by sending vibrations on my bones? This technology is making me tingle with anticipation.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
So, human bones can be used to transmit data? Now, not only does my necromantic fortress of doom's decor scare the crap out of my enemies, I can save a fortune on cat-5 and fiber cabling.
Incoming Squirt!
Cancel or Allow?
Please stop stalking me, bro.
Man, You thought airport security was intrusive before! Wait until they have to crack all your bones to find out what you're hiding.
I think I'll walk from now on.
IOU one (1) signature
Like curiosity this good, but the copper is more cheap.
http://wxopencommander.com/ GPL File Explorer
Now, instead of watching someone fiddle with their palm's bluetooth settings for 5 minutes to send me an E-business card, I have to hold their clammy hand until the devices sync up.
(vi Powered)
So now I can get virus and VIRUS by shaking hands with people? I think I will bow from now on.
I've never heard of that at all...
Admittedly, I did not read TFA, so maybe they said something about this, but it should be no surprise at all that one can use bones to transmit sound, as well as other frequencies. A high school (maybe even jr. high) level biology book will tell you that the mechanisms in ears that are responsible for interpreting sound waves into what we actually hear consist largely of several bones in the inner ear. Plus, wasn't Docomo working on a phone that strapped to your wrist and let you use your thumb for a speaker, and your pinky for the mic? It's not a big jump to go from audio information to raw data.
Mess not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor not a data conduit!
A storm's a-coming, I can feel it in ma bones.
Yeah yeah gramps, we all can. It's just the hourly SkyNet Subcutaneous Weather update.
Galdarn kids these days, no respect.
I anticipate a lot of uncomfortable conversations about "boning."
"I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability."-Oscar Wilde
Demonstrates a much more fun way of swapping data. But this discussion probably should stay family-friendly. Yes, the last thing you want to think about there is children.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
leading to the possibility of swapping data with someone by shaking their hand.
Except in a handshake, there would be two layers of fat, muscle, and skin separating your bones, which I would think would interfere with data transmission. Perhaps a good hard bite could be used to make a good connection?
We're using to "beaming" ecards to one another. The zune lets you "squirt" things.
Logically we'd have to say "Let me bone you my business card", and i'm not sure i like that.
Insert jokes about downloading pr0n via one's bone here:
Have gnu, will travel.
I guess they never heard of the 'bone phone' from DAK back in the 80's.
Cant anyone do something original anymore? Or are we doomed to bad sequels and re-inventing the wheel for the rest of our existence on this planet?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
....boner (get it, get it?) in your pocket or are you just wanting to swap data with me?
I believe it was made illegal in the 50's-60's in Canada because it was though to cause bone (cartilage) degridation, and arthritis.
Transmitting 1's an 0's is new, as these were originally made to hear music throughout your entire body. If someone has a link, I don't, but I heard about this from my grandparents when I was younger.
Sure beats swapping spit and taking a blood oath.
Silly AC, your music hasn't been stolen: You have been copyright violated or RIAAPEd.
Belch at the wrong time any you one-click purchased a lot 1000 beanie babys on e-bay. Farts cause a seg fault.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
So there really *is* a hell. Who knew?
http://xkcd.com/386/
What about health issues? And how does it work out with diseases (or disfunctions) like Osteoporosis and Arthritis?
Think what happens when the device is operating. The vibrations it generates will propagate as sound waves not only into the adjacent bone but also into the air surrounding the device. With the right microphones and signal processing techniques it will certainly be possible to intercept the airborne sound waves at significant distances from the device (depending on ambient noise level, sound pressure level, internal body noise as a function of motions of body parts and clothing, etc).
Claiming that the device provides secure communication is wrong and potentially very misleading e.g. to any investors who read this article. I doubt the quote attributed to Liebschner is accurate given that this is only an article in that disappointingly woolly thinking New Scientist magazine.
Now "Reach out and touch someone" has some actual meaning to it.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
quoted from the write-up: "... The idea is that the conduction of sound along bone would be more secure that via radio waves, leading to the possibility of swapping data with someone by shaking their hand." :) Not sure how that compares to this, but both manage the same trick
This general idea was also tackled by Thomas Zimmerman doing research for IBM. His idea did the same thing using signals carried on the skin (which didn't need the FIRM handshake to work
Here's a link : PAN Fact Sheet
AB HOC POSSUM VIDERE DOMUM TUUM
"I can feel it in my bones"
and "I know it in my gut."
etc.
... from billboards in the future could be just what you fear.
Depending on which medical uses people have for this "new" acoustic network, the results can be more serious than funny. If I had disabilities, M$ is the last company I'd want helping me out.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Behind the nauggahide door, the implications are sinking in, "Get that Vinnie, breaking duhr legs might really get em to pay up. Uhh, har har har." Vinnie does not get it, but laughs anyway.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Jolly old pirate, thegnu, says
Arrrrrr! Shiver me timbers!
And so the DVD shook him all night long, again and again.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Now when the RIAA sues you for "an arm and a leg," they won't be kidding!
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
Come on, everybody! Group Hug! :)
Rumor has it that bones can hold 80 gigabytes of info, 160 if you use a doubler.
That has got to be the stupidest fucking idea I have heard since I've been her at Slashdot.
You just haven't been here long enough. Just wait.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
Not entirely sure if this is a pisstake or not, but one possible application could be bluetooth headsets.
The current generation are, well, crap basically. They don't stay in your ear very well and the mic is either on a long boom and ridiculous or doesn't pick up too well with background noise (driving).
How about a device (patches) that sends and receives signals by bone and relays to the phone by bluetooth. The ear relies on sound waves already, and I'm sure there is enough bone vibration from your voice to send a usable signal.
Voice controlled computer apps could use this tech too, and the sound levels could be kept low enough to be private (sub-vocalisation). Tempest my ass (ok no bones in there, but you know what I mean).
I would like to know if XXX would work as well, download me a boner.
this doesn't make any sense. If you have the ability to phisically touch the recipient of the data, why not just use a cable? Or standardize a sort of "clip" usb port where you just have to touch the other phone to transmit data if you are paranoid about someone intercepting your data transfer and don't want to use a clunky cable?
"Words of wisdom: drop that zero and get with the hero" -- Vanilla Ice
I remember that there were a gadget, worn like a watch which could exchange business cards communicating with current on top of the skin.
It never went anywhere.
considering that the human body transmit sound data via bone already (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossicles), they may have problems patenting this.
Anyone noticed in the article the research is sponsored by TI and Microsoft? http://images.slashdot.org/topics/topicms.gif Here comes Bill Gates of Borg!
I do remember reading about some headset microphones that actually pick up sound from the vibration of your skull instead of from the vibration of the air.
The skeletons on Looney Toons were doing this 20 years ago.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
So the next social networking game will be 'six shakes of Kevin Bacon'?
If J.K.R wrote Windows: Puteulanus fenestra mortalis!
"Dammit Jim, I'm a Doctor, not a conduit."
~ Bones
Fun. I can't wait. Bone Cancer.
This reminds me of the DNA research mentioned in Jeremy Narby's "The Cosmic Serpent", where they supposedly discovered that DNA strands seem to have superconductive properties, and could be used as millions of antennae or to conduct electrical information.
I'm just sayin.
IM IN UR BONE, STEALIN UR CALCIUM.
I, for one, salute our new skeletal data overlords
Oh for a Bonewulf Cluster of these!
Say, I wonder if BoneNet has been trademarked yet?
hack someone by working in a restaurant and implanting a transmitter in their fork?