Saturday, February 26, 2005

RedTacton: An innovative Human Area Networking technology that uses the surface of the human body as a transmission path

"Using a RedTacton electro-optic sensor, two-way communication is supported between any two points on the body at a throughput of up to 10 Mbps. Communication is not just confined to the surface of the body, but can travel through the user's clothing to a RedTacton device in a pocket or through shoes to communicate with a RedTacton device embedded in the floor. Unlike wireless technologies, the transmission speed does not deteriorate even in the presence of large crowds of people all communicating at the same time in meeting rooms, auditoriums or stores. Because the body surface is the transmission path, increasing the number of connected users directly increases the available number of individual communication channels."

Viva ubicomp!

4 comments:

W.M. Bear said...

Internet hoax? (But if not -- ahem and other throat-clearing sounds --I blush to think of the possibilities!)
--WMB

Mac said...

"Hoax" occurred to me as well. We'll see how this pans out.

arkde said...

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) is pursuing research and development of an innovative Human Area Networking technology called RedTacton (*1) that safely turns the surface of the human body into a data transmission path at speeds up to 10 Mbps between any two points on the body. Using a novel electro-optic sensor (*2), NTT has already developed a small PCMCIA card-sized prototype RedTacton transceiver. RedTacton enables the first practical Human Area Network between body-centered electronic devices and PCs or other network devices embedded in the environment via a new generation of user interface based on totally natural human actions such as touching, holding, sitting, walking, or stepping on a particular spot.

W.M. Bear said...

And in related news:

"At the end of March 2005 Samsung will release a mobile phone with a difference. Not only will it be able to send images and streaming video, but the phone can vibrate in such a way that you can add the sensation of a playful tickle to your text message, or make the person on the other end of the phone feel as if their handset has slapped them across the face. Welcome to the world of haptics - the technology of recreating touch and texture through artificial stimuli."

(New Scientist http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7049)

--WMB