[extropy-chat] Hype or tripe?

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 20, 2005 at 09:52:37AM -0700, Adrian Tymes wrote:
> > Hype.  Yes, data can be transmitted along the body - but that only
> > extends to the limits of the body.  For long downloads (for
> information
> 
> It's a feature, not a bug! You can actually limit the scope of your
> datasphere
> to direct touch. Unlike RFID, electrostatic coupling can't be picked
> up
> by a phased array antenna from a distance.

This is true.  This is also not the use that the article was
specifically talking about.

"Downloading" almost always refers to obtaining data from some remote
source.  Moving data between different points on your body is akin to
routing it along the cables and circuits inside a single computer - a
performance concern, and definitely something worth addressing, but to
the end user the data is all locally present before the activity.

> The smartphone increasingly crystallizes as the personal
> communicator.
> The wearable is dead, long live the wearable. Bluetooth headsets are
> already
> widespread, and video headsets have been sighted as prototypes.

Aye.  There might be a dedicated bluetooth component to handle
transmission to and from the body - but as far as the user's concerned,
that component itself is what is doing the downloading.

What might be more interesting, is to have body-monitoring sensors
distributed through one's clothes, and rather than wearing wires woven
into the clothes, using the body itself to transmit data.  That way,
the sensors would merely occupy internally-facing pockets; clothes with
said pockets would be quite modular with respect to the exact gadgets
one uses.  Indeed, cargo pants and a vest might even qualify, if the
sensors can do their duties and transmit through the layer of fabric
lining the pockets.

Or possibly: bigger antenna = possibly more reliable/higher bandwidth
signal, ya?  Would an antenna riding in the depression on the back made
by one's spinal column be able to work that close to the human body,
especially if a unit at its base then used the body to communicate with
any devices wanting to use said antenna?  (In most cases, this would
probably not create any noticable bulge if the antenna was thin enough,
immediately eliminating the "obvious geek" factor that has impeded
widespread use of these systems.)