Info transfer goes touchy feely

TOKYOin the Star Trek movies, Spock was famously able to download information directly from the skulls of friend and foe alike by putting his hands on them. Known as the Vulcan Mind Meld, he once even performed it on a humpback whale. But what if you could actually access information just by touch? Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) is experimenting with just such a technology.

Dubbed RedTacton (RT), the technology uses the natural electrical field around the human body to transmit information at a claimed speed of 10 Mbps. Essentially, people wearing RT devices could exchange huge quantities of information in a handshake.

What tech nerds call "near-field intra-body communication" is one of the holy grails of the communication industry. MIT's Media Lab experimented with the technology in the 1990s and even produced a prototype. NTT says it has pushed the technology further by miniaturising the transceivers and receivers to credit-card size. Mitsuru Shinagawa, from NTT's Smart Devices Lab, says RT is superior to wireless networks, such as Bluetooth.

"Wireless transmission between a user and a remote terminal can be intercepted by any person standing within range. RT, for its part, only allows transfer with persons in your immediate vicinity, which makes it more secure than wireless LANs." He says the lab is already in discussions with several large firms and is edging toward commercialisation.