We could very well be architecting a SoP for employees working on the Toyota assembly line, in the next couple of years. Human area networking or Personal Area Network (PAN) is not a new concept. Thomas Zimmerman developed and proved the PAN technology concept that uses the natural electrical conductivity of the human body to transmit electronic data in 1996. " Using a small prototype transmitter (roughly the size of a deck of cards) embedded with a microchip, and a slightly larger receiving device, the researchers can transmit a pre-programmed electronic business card between two people via a simple handshake. What's more, the prototype allows data to be transmitted from sender to receiver through up to four touching bodies."
Zimmerman's publication in IBM systems journal can be found here. The paper is well written and an interesting read. " The transmitter T capacitively couples to receiver R through the body (modeled as a perfect conductor). The earth ground provides the return signal. The circuit reveals that body capacitance to the environment E degrades PAN communication by grounding the potential that the transmitter T is trying to impose on the body. For example, in one experiment, standing barefoot reduced communication between wrist-mounted devices by 12 dB."
April 29 2005: Technology Review carries this article about NTT developing a new "human area networking" technology called RedTactont that uses the naturally-occurring electrical fields of human skin to transmit data. Replacing the electrical sensors of a Media Lab-style system with faster lasers and electro-optic sensors showed dramatic results. It makes the technology competitive with other short-range communications technologies like Bluetooth, Zigbee, and UWB. If true, the group hug could turn into a productivity tool as well as a motivational technique.
My view:
Every generation in the last 200-300 years has been thrilled by the inventions they made. Clearly the way we have built up on our knowledge is exponential. In our generation "Information Technology" and "Genetics" together have thrown open so many doors. It takes some time and effort to even understand what we would be capable of and how we as a race could potentially misuse this new information/understanding. The progress being made is to some degree contributed to the information disseminating power of the internet, Engineers/scientists of the world should make an effort to stay abreast of the new data being thrown our way every minute of the day. They should visualize the synegistic potential of different key technological inventions. Good Luck !
