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Human body as data conduit Oldest organic molecules
THIS UNIVERSE |
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Human body as data conduit The NTT, the Japanese communications company, has developed a technology called RedTacton, which can send data over the surface of the skin at speeds of up to 2Mbps — equivalent to a fast broadband data connection. Using RedTacton-enabled devices, music from an MP3 player in your pocket would pass through your clothing and shoot over your body to headphones in your ears. Instead of fiddling around with a cable to connect your digital camera to your computer, you could transfer pictures just by touching the PC while the camera is around your neck. And since data can pass from one body to another, you could also exchange electronic business cards by shaking hands, trade music files by dancing cheek to cheek, or swap phone numbers just by kissing. How it works The NTT is not the first company to use the human body as a conduit for data: IBM pioneered the field in 1996 with a system that could transfer small amounts of data at very low speeds, and recently Microsoft was granted a patent for “a method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body.” But RedTacton is arguably the first practical system because, unlike IBM’s or Microsoft’s, it doesn’t need transmitters to be in direct contact with the skin — they can be built into gadgets, carried in pockets or bags, and will work within about 20cm of your body. Receiving data is more complicated because the strength of the electric field involved is so low. RedTacton gets around this using a technique called electric field photonics: A laser is passed though an electro-optic crystal, which deflects light differently according to the strength of the field across it. These deflections are measured and converted back into electrical signals to retrieve the transmitted data. Using a new super-sensitive photonic electric field sensor, RedTacton can achieve duplex communication over the human body at a maximum speed of 10 Mbps. 1. The RedTacton transmitter induces a weak electric field on the surface of the body. 2. The RedTacton receiver senses changes in the weak electric field on the surface of the body caused by the transmitter. 3. RedTacton relies upon the principle that the optical properties of an electro-optic crystal can vary according to the changes of a weak electric field. 4. RedTacton detects changes in the optical properties of an electro-optic crystal using a laser and converts the result to an electrical signal in a optical receiver circuit. The transmitter sends data by inducing fluctuations in the minute electric field on the surface of the human body. Data is received using a photonic electric field sensor that combines an electro-optic crystal and a laser light to detect fluctuations in the minute electric field. The naturally occurring electric field induced on the surface of the human body dissipates into the earth. Therefore, this electric field is exceptionally faint and unstable. The photonic electric field sensor developed by NTT enables weak electric fields to be measured by detecting changes in the optical properties of an electro-optic crystal with a laser beam. RedTacton has three main functional features Touch Touching, gripping, sitting, walking, stepping and other human movements can be the triggers for unlocking or locking, starting or stopping equipment, or obtaining data. Duplex, interactive communication is possible at a maximum speed of 10Mbps. Because the transmission path is on the surface of the body, transmission speed does not deteriorate in congested areas where many people are communicating at the same time. Taking advantage of this speed, device drivers can be downloaded instantly and execute programmes can be sent. Any media In addition to the human body, various conductors and dielectrics can be used as transmission media. Conductors and dielectrics may also be used in combination. A communication environment can be created easily and at low-cost by using items close at hand, such as desks, walls, and metal objects. Some futuristic applications of human networking are: (e) Connect to N/W just by putting laptop on table: An electrically conductive sheet is embedded in the table. A network connection is initiated simply by placing a laptop on the table. Using different sheet patterns enables segmentation of the table into subnets. (f) Just touching a make it
yours: Your own phone number is allocated and billing commences. Automatic importing of personal address book and call history. (g) User Verification and unlocking with touch:
Carrying RedTacton capable device in one’s pocket, ID is verified and the door unlocked when the user holds the doorknob normally. (h) Touch a printer to print:
Print out where you want just by touching the desired printer with one hand and a PC or digital camera with the other hand to make the link. Conclusion Human body networking is more secure than broadcast systems, such as Bluetooth, which have a range of about 10m. With Bluetooth, it is difficult to rein in the signal and restrict it to the device you are trying to connect to. You usually want to communicate with one particular thing, but in a busy place there could be hundreds of Bluetooth devices within range. As human beings are ineffective aerials, it is very hard to pick up stray electronic signals radiating from the body. This is good for security because even if you encrypt data it is still possible that it could be decoded, but if you can’t pick it up it can’t be. In the near future, as more and more implants go into bodies, the most important application for body-based networking may well be for communications within, rather than on the surface of, or outside, the body. An intriguing possibility is that the technology will be used as a sort of secondary nervous system to link large numbers of tiny implanted components placed beneath the skin to create powerful onboard or in-body computers. So we can conclude that this technology will change the future of wireless communication. Mr Parteek Bhatia, Faculty, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, Patiala. Mrs Sanmeet Bhatia is doing Masters in Enginnering at Thapar Institute.
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OHIO State University geologists have isolated complex organic molecules from 350-million-year-old fossil sea creatures — the oldest such molecules yet found. The molecules may have functioned as pigments, but the study offers a much bigger finding: an entirely new way to track how species evolved. Christina O’Malley, a doctoral student in earth sciences at Ohio State, found orange and yellow organic molecules inside the fossilised remains of several species of sea creatures known as crinoids. The oldest fossils in the study date back to the Mississippian period. She reported the find recently at the meeting of the Geological Society of America in Philadelphia. Crinoids still exist today. Though they resemble plants, they are marine animals. They cling to the seafloor and feast on plankton that float by. The crinoids in this study had flower-like fronds capping skinny stalks about six inches high — a look resembling “starfish on a stick,” said William Ausich, professor of earth sciences and O’Malley’s co-advisor with Yu-Ping Chin, also a professor of earth sciences. Today’s crinoids display a range of colors, some variegated shades of red, orange, and yellow, so the geologists weren’t surprised that some of those colours turned up in the 350-million-year-old crinoids, Ausich said. “People have suspected for a long time that organic molecules could be found inside fossils,” he added. “This is just the first time that scientists have succeeded in finding them.” Though the organic molecules could be classified as pigments, nobody can be sure that they functioned as pigments inside these ancient animals, the geologists emphasised. They may have served some other purpose besides coloration — perhaps to defend the animal from predators by making it less palatable. Because the molecules appear to be a little different for each species of crinoid, scientists can now use the pigments as biomarkers to map relationships on the creatures’ family tree. Until now, they could only infer crinoid lineage based on the size and shape of key features on the animals’ skeletons. “This could be a new tool for figuring out how long-dead creatures became so prolific and successful. We can’t travel back in time, but now we can look for clues about these creatures’ lives in a way that hasn’t been attempted or taken advantage of before,” O’Malley said. Scientists can only view fossilised plants and animals in the grays and tans of sedimentary rock, such as the limestone fossils in this study. Rock is inorganic, and replaces organic molecules such as pigments during fossilization. What O’Malley and her colleagues discovered is that some organic molecules occasionally survive the process. “Crinoid skeleton is very porous, and we think that when inorganic molecules filled in the spaces of the skeleton during preservation, some of the organic molecules were trapped inside the fossil” she said.
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THIS UNIVERSE Do we have any object in the universe that This innocent-sounding question requires some detailed consideration. Scientists distinguish between the words “weight” and “rest mass”. In ordinary life on earth the two are the same. Rest mass or — more simply —mass and weight are proportional to each other and the measuring units are so chosen that they are the same. What we determine by weighing with a balance is the weight. This is the force with which the earth attracts the object because of the force of gravity. However, if the same object is in orbit around the earth, it is freely falling towards the earth and is weightless. If you were that object and stood on a balance while both you and the balance were orbiting the earth the balance would show a reading of zero. Both the balance and you would be weightless, even though both would have the same mass as they had on the surface of the earth. Therefore, I will assume that you are interested in finding out whether there is any entity in the universe that has zero “rest mass”? The answer to the last question is yes. The very obvious “object”, if you can call it that, is light. Light photons have energy but zero rest mass. In addition there are other particles called neutrinos that have zero or near zero mass. The existence of neutrinos was theoretically postulated to explain certain observations. They have been experimentally observed since then. There is some recent evidence that their mass may not be exactly zero but they are close to being mass-less. Mass less particles have a central role in the universe. This is obvious as far as light and heat are concerned. It has been found that neutrinos are basic in determining the nature and evolution of the universe. Perhaps we can discuss it another time if there is sufficient interest amongst the readers.
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OUR body could soon be the backbone of a broadband personal data network linking your mobile phone or MP3 player to a cordless headset, your digital camera to a PC or printer, and all the gadgets you carry around to each other. 
RedTacton uses the minute electric field emitted on the surface of the human body. Technically, it is completely distinct from wireless and infrared. A transmission path is formed at the moment a part of the human body comes in contact with a RedTacton transceiver. Physically separating ends the contact and thus ends communication. Communication is possible using any body surfaces, such as the hands, fingers, arms, feet, face, legs or torso. RedTacton works through shoes and clothing as well.
RedTacton doesn’t introduce an electric current into the body — instead, it makes use of the minute electric field that occurs naturally on the surface of every human body. A transmitter attached to a device, such as an MP3 player, uses this field to send data by modulating the field minutely in the same way that a radio carrier wave is modulated to carry information. 