Human Body Network Gets Fast

Unknown · October 2003

We have already heard about MIT's thoughts on using the human body to generate power but what about wireless networking???...

[blockquote]The human body is capable of many things, including acting as an information conduit—quite literally.

Researchers from NTT Docomo Multimedia Labs and NTT Microsystem Integration Labs have demonstrated a 10-megabits-per-second indoor network that uses human bodies as portable ethernet cables.

The network, dubbed ElectAura-Net, is wireless, but instead of using radio waves, infrared light, or microwaves to transmit information it uses a combination of the electric field that emanates from humans and a similar field emanating from special floor tiles.

The network is faster than commercially available personal area networks like the 1-megabit-per-second Bluetooth radio wave system, and tops the 4-megabits-per-second infrared standard set by the Infrared Data Association (IrDA).

The system could eventually provide high-speed wireless communications indoors among portable electronic devices whose positions constantly change.

The researchers' transceiver transmits data by oscillating the electric field surrounding the device. When the electric field that naturally emanates from a person intersects the electric field of the nearest tile transceiver, oscillations in one field are transmitted to the other.

The researchers presented the work at the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group Graphics (Siggraph) 2003 conference in San Diego, July 27 to 31. The research was funded by NTT DoCoMo and NTT.[/blockquote]

Source: <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/rnb_101703.asp" target="_new">Technology Review</a>

Submitted by Trinity

panzerkw · October 2003

So you're going to turn me into a wireless networking antenna? Uhh...I dunno.

primesuspect · October 2003

this is weird.

Jolyon33 · October 2003

Hey, why not? In the old days of broadcast TV you used to have to grab the ol' rabbit ears to try to get decent reception. That and lots of tinfoil.

Freakin' scary isn't it!

primesuspect · October 2003

With all of this wireless information flying around, it's no wonder so many people are getting cancer.

It's unavoidable - radio towers, satellites, WiFi, cellular towers, nextel, you name it.. We have so much radiation plowing through our bodies....

Eat more broccoli and blueberries, folks!

leishi85 · October 2003

i love broccoli, i guess that help me to aviod cancer??

primesuspect · October 2003

Yeah, veggies rich in antioxidants are one of the best ways to avoid cancer later in life. I tend to eat a ton of blueberries and broccoli, and tomatoes.

I've heard that spinach is also very rich in antioxidants.

Leonardo · October 2003

All right, before this turns into nature food news, let's get back to topic.

This doesn't at all seem farfetched to me. There are people, with just the right (or wrong) fillings in their teeth, who under the right circumstances can receive radio transmissions. They can hear the music or talking as radio waves are converted to sound waves by the metal in the fillings, the sound waves radiating through through their jaw into the inner ear structures.

TV, radio. Haven't all of us at one time improved the reception on a cheap radio or TV by holding the antennae?

BUT, as far being permanently part of an electromagnetically communicating network...hmm, er..... I'd have to know a lot more about the science behind it. Let some else be the guinea pig, thank you.