Posted: 22nd Mar, 2005 By: MarkJ
No it's not April Fools day just yet, but the Japanese have still managed to invent a way of using the human body as a computer network that runs at broadband speeds (shaking hands = a 10Mbps network):
Called RedTacton, the system uses the natural electrical field that a living body automatically generates. A device the size of a PC card generates electrical signals that can alter this field, which are then picked up by an electro-optic crystal and converted into data.
"Using a RedTacton electro-optic sensor, two-way communication is supported between any two points on the body at a throughput of up to 10Mbps," said Hideki Sakamoto from NTT's R&D strategy department.
"Communication is not just confined to the surface of the body, but can travel through the user's clothing to a device in a pocket or through shoes to communicate with a RedTacton device embedded in the floor."We had to check the date on
VNUNet's news item a second time just to make sure that we hadn't gone completely mad.