I’ve got data … under my skin …

A very cool story here about using skin conductivity as bandwidth.

A device attached to a PDA can send and receive weak electrical signals through people, with human bodies as communications circuits, the paper said, citing sources close to the companies.
Apparel and handbags have their own conductivity, allowing an electrical connection to a PDA that can remain in one’s pocket, the paper said.
In this way, people can exchange e-mail addresses, names and phone numbers while shaking hands, with the data automatically written into both their PDAs, the paper said.

I can see two other extensions of this, not mentioned here. First, imagine using humans you meet as routers for data. Write an e-mail, leave it in the Outbox, it gets passed on to the next wired people you touch, and eventually, the first of them who signed onto the Net gets the message out to the true recipient.

Second (and the downside), it means more than one sort of virus can propagate through touch …

… which, in turn, could lead to folks wearing gloves more, to avoid inadvertent data transfer. Sort of like the PsiCorp.

(As I think about all the various SF shows and movies that imagine any sort of electrical/energy transferrance by way of touch, I can’t think of any of them that were positive in their portrayal.)

Or imagine the variations on the conversation. “Hey, did you see that article about the new Model XYZ?” “No, not yet.” “Well I just downloaded it into your Palm, you can check it out later.”

Combine this with the regularly mentioned wiring of data sources directly into the brain, and you really are talking about something akin to digital telepathy.

Yeesh. I don’t know whether to be excited or terrified.

(via BoingBoing)