Adventures in the Skin Trade

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Before the technology goes commercial, Sakamoto says, it will probably first be integrated into security applications. Because RedTacton avoids wireless snooping, touch-based purchases would be private and provide authentication to vendors, allowing people to do things such unlocking a door simply by touching the knob.

Edging toward the Big-Brother scenarios that all such pervasive technologies seem to enable, RedTacton could be built into objects such as filing cabinets so companies could keep track of who used what.

Assuming NTT Labs has solved its power problems and can regularly achieve even a quarter of its top, 10Mbps rate, it should find a place in the market. The biggest challenge is the glut of competing short-range wireless formats that use more proven technology.

While NTT positions RedTacton against the leading short-range contender, Bluetooth, perhaps the more apt comparison is with the up and coming Near Field Communications technology. NFC's RFID-like technology only transmits at a few hundred kilobits per second, but it's likely to be much cheaper than RedTacton (or any other competing technology), and like RedTacton, it boasts greater security due to its short, 10-centimeter range. Sony and Philips hope to get NFC embedded in everything from cell phones to smart cards over the next few years.

Aside from offering greater bandwidth, RedTacton's biggest advantage over NFC and other wireless technologies is convenience.

"You do not have to take your ID card from your pocket," says Sakamoto. "Just touching or walking with your PDA in your pocket is enough for authentication."

Some people will be highly attracted to the idea of using their bodies as networks, and new applications could flourish. Yet psychological barriers could prove a problem with many users. Even if convinced of the device's safety, some might worry about privacy or theft from accidental physical contact. With proper security, these are not serious problems, yet some users might also feel a vague sense of violation of their personal space.

Sakamoto argues that we have overcome such psychological barriers many times in the past.

"If the user benefit is much larger than their concerns, people will start to use it," he says. "This is exactly what happened to cell phones."