Exchange Email Addresses With A Handshake 435
Eye of the Frog writes "Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and its subsidiary NTT DoCoMo Inc. have developed a device that attaches to your PDA which uses the body's conductivity to transmit data at an amazing 10 megabits per second."
How about people with pace makers? (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's what I don't get... (Score:5, Interesting)
Seen this...? (Score:5, Interesting)
The exception was that it was planned to be a device placed in the shoe which would store the information, like a business card's worth of info.
Really, I can't think of a better way of transmitting your public key to someone. Have a sit down with the boss of the family and shake hands. Write your messages on your PDA and send them to the person through IR or with another touch.
Imagine the human-to-human e-mail system or TCP/IP over Homo Sapiens Sapiens; HSS for short. Write an e-mail with a public key attached and it travels from person to person via handshake until it reaches the person who's key is the same and they in turn could decode the message with their secret key.
Damn... maybe I should patent my system.
Re:Here's what I don't get... (Score:1, Interesting)
Say you're at a conference. You meet 30 people. Do you want 30 business cards that you'll have to scan into your addrbook later or would you rather just greet people saying "Hi" while shaking hands (hearing a beep from your PDA telling you that it downloaded their contact info).
Re:Here's what I don't get... (Score:2, Interesting)
We should use this for the last mile. (Score:2, Interesting)
Shades of "The Belonging Kind" (Score:2, Interesting)
"I know what you like".
A fleeting touch verifies it- she sure does.
So, she settles down next to you, and rests her hand on your leg. It can't be the data-transmission that's making you shiver, you've done this before.
A few breathless minutes later, she smiles, and kisses you lightly on the forehead.
"Keep the faith."
You know you will. After all, a quick glance at your PDA shows that you've benefitted twice tonight.
Re:Seen this...? (Score:1, Interesting)
God, the latencies on such a network would be hideous.
X degrees of separation. (Score:4, Interesting)
From Japan? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Here's what I don't get... (Score:2, Interesting)
Ok... so you go up to a complete stranger at a convention. Instead of a quick paper card or a beam from a pda, you have to hold the strangers hand, then with the other hand, press SEND, then wait maybe 10 VERY AWKWARD seconds while holding this man/woman's hand. Only if she were sexy would this be anything but really weird...
Re:Shades of "The Belonging Kind" (Score:3, Interesting)
Since we're going down the sci-fi path... This article reminded me more of the IR palm implants in Greg Egan's "Quarantine". Great book for the neural mods and other tech gadgets.
But exchanging email addresses with a handshake sounds more like someone's trying to create an evil, networking, Tony Robbins fueled, cyborg-spammer from hell. Like Skynet, but with free university degrees and penis enlarging creams...
Re:Here's what I don't get... (Score:2, Interesting)
Theft by body-as-conductive-path proxy. (Score:1, Interesting)
Sounds familiar, but with more applications... (Score:5, Interesting)
Passing data from one person to another was one of the uses, but the other I found much more interesting.
Imagine a personal device "cloud" where your PDA, watch, and cell phone all pass data back and forth. Your watch acts as a small display for your cell and/or your PDA and receives time updates via the cell. Your PDA uses the cell for data calls. Your cell uses your PDA to look up names and numbers. All (theoretically
Take it a step further, and create small modules that plug into this personal network. Maybe a keychain of functions all accessable through your watch or PDA. Maybe carry a Quake quarter in your pocket.
Nokia make a lot of press with putting a camera in a cell phone. I haven't looked at the spec, but I'd imagine that like many multi-function devices, it doesn't do either well. Imagine your (dedicated to task) camera taking pics, and storing them on another device (is that smart card in your wallet or are you just happy to see me?), previewing the pics on your phone and sending them from there. You could easily give them to someone else with a handshake.
Quite a lot of possibility. I had often thought that the business card exchange application was the least exciting...
Re:How about people with pace makers? (Score:3, Interesting)
Another common misconception about pacemakers this the notion that if they go out of commission the person would have an immediate heart attack. Not true. A pacemaker on kicks in when the subjects heartrate falls out the healthy range. It spends most of it's time watching the heart and waiting.
I know this because my cousin has one.
Obligatory Sir Arthur C. Clarke ref (Score:3, Interesting)
Has he thought of everything?
Re:Interesting, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't use the technology. Same thing with all those password managers today. If you are concerned about their security, just say no.
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It is impossible to travel faster than light, and certainly not
desirable, as one's hat keeps blowing off.
-- Woody Allen