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posted by takyon on Wednesday September 02 2015, @08:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the wearable-anemia dept.

Electrical engineers at the University of California, San Diego demonstrated a new wireless communication technique that works by sending magnetic signals through the human body. The new technology could offer a lower power and more secure way to communicate information between wearable electronic devices, providing an improved alternative to existing wireless communication systems, researchers said. They presented their findings Aug. 26 at the 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in Milan, Italy.

While this work is still a proof-of-concept demonstration, researchers envision developing it into an ultra low power wireless system that can easily transmit information around the human body. An application of this technology would be a wireless sensor network for full-body health monitoring.

"In the future, people are going to be wearing more electronics, such as smart watches, fitness trackers and health monitors. All of these devices will need to communicate information with each other. Currently, these devices transmit information using Bluetooth radios, which use a lot of power to communicate. We're trying to find new ways to communicate information around the human body that use much less power," said Patrick Mercier, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego who led the study. Mercier also serves as the co-director of the UC San Diego Center for Wearable Sensors.

This could lead to many lab hijinks.


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  • (Score: 1) by taylormc on Thursday September 03 2015, @01:40PM

    by taylormc (5751) on Thursday September 03 2015, @01:40PM (#231721)

    In a case of convergent evolution, coupled with supreme irony, hearing aids (which use magnetic inductance for their "telecoil" feature) are now using Bluetooth to coordinate settings across the width of the human head.