Technology is moving quickly; it seems like only yesterday we were using T9 to text as we listened to CDs on a Walkman. But that was a good few years ago, and now Panasonic is taking things to the next level with a new data transmission system.
If you’re wanting to send someone some data, then you could do so just by shaking their hand. Yes, it seems that the stuff of sci-fi is turning into a reality. The prototype human body communication device sends data through a radio field on a person’s skin at up to 100kbps, if they touch an object or person with a transceiver, data will be exchanged.
The software has been on show at the Ceatec Electronics’ show in Japan, and they’ve used colour coded demonstrations to show off the technology. One example used involved a coloured ball and a lamp, when the person holding the coloured ball touched a sensor connected to the lamp, the data on the colour of the ball is sent to the lamp which then changes colour to match, pretty cool huh?
Whilst the demonstrations don’t really show the software to be useful for anything other than pretending you’re a wizard, Panasonic has high hopes for the contact-based tech (slightly odd in a world that is obsessed with contactless, no?). They hope to make the technology a lot smaller, so that they can fit it into items such as watches and smartphones, we’ll then be able to exchange contact information with a handshake, or unlock a door by touching the door knob.
At the moment it seems that Panasonic are trying to discover a demand for such a product, so whether this tech will be as revolutionary as the iPhone, or as forgotten as a minidisc player, we will have to wait and see.
