[extropy-chat] Hype or tripe?

[Damien Broderick]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,15933078,00.html

Let your body do the downloading
Leo Lewis
15jul05

IF you spend hours downloading songs to your iPod, the days of fiddling 
around with wires are coming to an end.

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.

The Times