Chillout Lounge

PAN - Microsoft - The Human Body as a Computer BUS

Recently, Anu (A Good & intelligent friend of mine) posted about PAN in Scape.NET. This was quite impressive. Read at: http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2876950

To Quote from the article
<quote>Microsoft suggests using the body to generate power for the network, too. A “kinetic power converter” in the wearer's shoe or wristwatch would produce electricity in the same way that an old-fashioned self-winding watch extracted energy from its owner's normal movements.
At the moment, übergeeks who want to create a so-called personal area network (PAN) have to link their personal electronic devices—mobile phones, pagers, personal data assistants (PDAs) and so on—using infra-red or radio signals. What Microsoft is proposing is to use the skin's own conductive properties to transmit the data needed to create such a network. And the firm does not stop at people. A “wide variety of living animals”, it says</quote>

<quote>It all sounds very revolutionary, but Microsoft is not (as is often the case with the firm's “innovations”) actually the pioneer in the field. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Laboratory and IBM jointly developed the idea of using the human body as a personal network nearly a decade ago. The first prototype PAN, which was demonstrated at the Comdex trade show in 1996</quote>



So, What should we call this ?



posted by Logu Krishnan : 10:35 AM