Don't have a LAN connection, use your body

Forget LAN or Bluetooth here's a way to turn yourself into a walking
talking file transfer machine. Japanese company Nippon Telegraph and
Telephone Corporation (NTT) has developed technology that uses the human
body as a high-speed network. What's more, it also forms a communications
link between people and electronic devices.


A RedTacton transmitter couples with extremely weak electric fields on the
surface of the body. The weak electric fields pass through the body to a
RedTacton receiver, where the weak electric fields affects the optical
properties of an electro-optic crystal.


The extent to which the optical properties are changed is detected by laser
light which is then converted to an electrical signal by a detector
circuit.



The HAN or Human Area Networks is scheduled to go on sale next year.


NTT says that the technology can be developed as an alternative to
Bluetooth or WLAN technologies for very short range, high-speed
communications.


The transceivers use an optical sensor to interpret fluctuations in the
electric field of the human body through the use of a miniature laser and a
crystal mounted in the transceivers.




The weak electric fields that exist around many kinds of objects -
including metals, many plastics, glass, ceramics and liquids - make
communication between transceivers possible, NTT said. The system is able
to work through socks, shoes and gloves, and on both dry and oily skin.


A person equipped with a sensor can exchange data with another person
carrying a sensor by shaking hands, and between a person and a device by
touching it, walking on it, or by sitting on it, the company said.


The transceivers, which require a PCMCIA card to connect with an electronic
device, use several hundred milliwatts of power and are insulated to avoid
electric shocks.