A Japanese company has discovered that the best cables may be your arms and legs.
According to NTT Laboratories, your whole body is the perfect conductor for electronic data, meaning that information such as music and films could be downloaded in seconds via your elbow.
NTT, and the team of scientists that invented the "Red Tacton" system, envisage a future in which the human body acts as a non-stop conduit for information.
Wireless networks and devices, often hampered by intermittent service, will eventually be replaced, NTT says, by "human area networks".
The developers are convinced the new technology will be "highly disruptive" - undermining existing wireless industries.
Field tests are under way, and the first commercial appearance of Red Tacton is expected next year.
The Red Tacton chips will be embedded in machines and contain a transmitter and receiver built to send and accept data stored in a digital format.
The chip then takes any type of file, such as an MP3 music file or email, and converts it into a format that takes the form of digital pulses that can be passed and read through a human being's electric field. The chip in the receiving device reads these tiny changes and converts the file back into its original form.
With Red Tacton sensors miniaturised and built into every type of device and product, the list of potential uses is endless, said Hideki Sakamoto of NTT.
By simply touching an advertising poster, for example, product information and an order form could be sent to your laptop.
Shake hands with a new contact, and every detail that would normally appear on a business card will leap across your arms and download itself to your mobile phone.
Because the data transfer between Red Tacton machines involves no dial-up or logging-in, the transfer of information is virtually instantaneous.
linky
