ethernet via human bodies?

Filed in archive Technology on October 20, 2003

This concept sounds a bit too futuristic, but the source is reliable.

"Researchers from NTT Docomo Multimedia Labs and NTT Microsystem Integration Labs in Japan have demonstrated a 10-megabits-per-second indoor network that uses human bodies as portable Ethernet cables.
The network, dubbed ElectAura-Net, is wireless, but instead of using radio waves, infrared light, or microwaves to transmit information it uses a combination of the electric field that emanates from humans and a similar field emanating from special floor tiles."

Roland Piquepaille has more on it.

"ElectAura-Net also provides indoor positioning, which is urgently needed for "ubiquitous" communication. ElectAura-Net provides both broadband wireless(-like) networks and a meter-accuracy positioning system for indoor use. It is a kind of "intrabody communication" system that uses electric fields as transmission media, and the human body and floor as an Ethernet cable."

Could be an interesting concept for many indoor events and museums to combine exact positioning and wireless connectivity.