October 19, 2003
A Human Ethernet
Technology Review notes that researchers in Japan have demonstrated a 10-Mbps network using human bodies as Ethernet cables.
ElectAura-Net is a wireless technology that uses a combination of the electric field emanating from humans and a similar field emanating from special floor tiles.
A floor tile carrying a transceiver transmits data by first creating oscillations in its surrounding electric field. These oscillations are transmitted through the electric field of a person entering the effective field area, and into the electric field of another tile-transceiver, which receives the data.
NTT Docomo researchers are now using the principles demonstrated to develop portable human electric field oscillators to serve as the basis for personal area networks (PANs). The system is faster than 1-Mbps Bluetooth wireless or 4-Mbps IrDA infrared communication systems now used for PANs, and could be the basis for the next-generation communications medium between personal digital assistants (PDAs).
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