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For Future Wearable Devices, the Network Could Be You

Posted by samzenpus on from the reboot-yourself dept.

angry tapir writes: Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, have found a way for wearable devices to communicate through a person's body instead of the air around it. Their work could lead to devices that last longer on smaller batteries and don't give away secrets as easily as today's systems do. From the Computerworld story: "A team led by Professor Patrick Mercier of the university's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has discovered a way to use the body itself as the medium for data transmission. It uses magnetic fields and shows path loss that's 10 million times lower than what happens with Bluetooth. This could make the magnetic networks much more efficient, so devices don't have to work as hard to communicate and can have smaller batteries -- or get longer useful lives with the same size batteries. The team hasn't actually tested the system's energy use yet. They envision the technology being used for networks of health sensors that monitor many parts of the body."

23 comments

  1. Love the old news by Crashmarik · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://courses.cs.washington.e...

    Personal area networks using you as the cable. 1996 pretty sure this wasn't even the first.

    1. Re:Love the old news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.google.com/patents/US6754472

      Looks like Microsoft acquired this patent back in 2000...

      so look for this technology in the next windowsCE based wearable devices and watch it then be discontinued..

    2. Re:Love the old news by smallfries · · Score: 1

      Thank you kind sir. Think how low this place would slip without your fine efforts.

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    3. Re:Love the old news by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

      I have no need to speculate, for I have observed it's fall.

    4. Re:Love the old news by bscott · · Score: 1

      Yeah, it's not even a new rerun - http://www.theguardian.com/sci...

      But that's the way it is with patents; they're like survey questions, it's all in how they're phrased. Maybe this time someone will actually produce something with the idea?

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      Perfectly Normal Industries
  2. Snake? SNAKE? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Personal area network card

    A personal area network card utilizes a computer network for communication with other devices, in proximity to an individual's body.

    In the 2000s, PAN cards were used in the facilities of both Shadow Moses and the Big Shell, also serving as ID cards for base personnel. The card system transferred data by passing minute electric currents using the salt in the user's body as a transmission medium. PAN cards could be carried anywhere on one's person and unlock doors automatically. During the Big Shell Incident, Otacon was supposed to get PAN cards for the SEAL Team 10's Bravo Team, while undercover as a chief architect of the facility's security systems, but failed to do so.

  3. Dont tell by invictusvoyd · · Score: 1

    Howard Hughes .

  4. can't wear a watch by megalomaniacs4u · · Score: 2

    What about all of us who can't wear watches because they just go bonkers/wrong?

    1. Re:can't wear a watch by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      You go bonkers/wrong if you wear a watch? Therapy, I'd say.

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      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    2. Re:can't wear a watch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You'll be quarantined in a remote area in North Dakota along with the Amish where you'll be allowed live out your lives without interfering with the development of new technology.

    3. Re:can't wear a watch by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      What about all of us who can't wear watches because they just go bonkers/wrong?

      Maybe you'd care to enlighten all of us who have no clue WTF you're talking about?

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    4. Re:can't wear a watch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some people claim to interfere with electromagnetics. I had a friend who swore she could not use a watch as they would stop functioning after being on her body for a small amount of time. She also kept a cheap flip phone and said she went through those about once a year. I don't know and never got her near test equipment to see.

    5. Re:can't wear a watch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not sure if this is related but a friend of mine used to constantly set off metal detectors and store alarms when he was a teenager, even though he wouldn't be carrying any metal objects or security tags. We used to find it funny, but it was annoying for him. The effect eventually disappeared after a few years, and we never got to the bottom of it.

  5. Efficiency ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    [i] ...could make the magnetic networks much more efficient, so devices don't have to work as hard to communicate and can have smaller batteries -- or get longer useful lives with the same size batteries[/i]

    4 equivalent statements in 1 scentence.

  6. Re: The harmful effects of wifi. by Buck+Feta · · Score: 1

    Prove it.

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    I am Audience.
  7. Re:The harmful effects of wifi. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Holy Fuck dude....that site reeks of bullshit. I mean completely reeks!

    Through a proprietary process, 'information' in the form of subtle energy patterns is stored in a hologram which serves as a primary 'carrier' material. This hologram is structurally modified on a subatomic, quantum or subtle energy level when the product is encoded or programmed.

    So it changes WiFi frequency from a harmful band into a harmless one...using quantum mechanics and holograms. Dipshit! Do you even Science? What, this turns your immediate area into a big Gravitational Lens? You're gonna tell me having a miniature black hole in your home, if it were even possible, is SAFE? Get this troll out of my fucking face!

  8. They are HERE! by Bruinwar · · Score: 1

    Gargoyles!

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    SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT
  9. In soviet Russia... by Zaatxe · · Score: 1

    ... computers communicate through you!

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    So say we all
    1. Re:In soviet Russia... by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 1

      My thoughts exactly upon reading the headline.

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      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
  10. Great pickup line by aNonnyMouseCowered · · Score: 1

    Miss, I have valuable information I need to communicate to you directly. (Yes it's been done to death in spy movies.)

  11. New how? by BillX · · Score: 1

    Through-the-body communication chips have been around a while; you can click-n-buy them right on Digikey.
    http://www.microchip.com/pageh...

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    Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
  12. I for one want to welcome our new overlords by capsfan100 · · Score: 1

    Given that AI will continue to advance. Add the convenience of cell phone implants - "You'll never waste another minute searching for your phone." Then ask yourself - How will we stop The Singularity?