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IBM Previews Personal Area Network

Sci-fi-sounding technology enables data transmission via hand-shake.

By Rebecca Sykes, PCWorld   

Using a receiver and a cigarette-box sized device, an IBM researcher transmitted contact information from his business card to a computer monitor by shaking hands with a volunteer at Comdex here today.

The volunteer stepped on the device, and shook hands with Tim Zimmerman, research staff member at IBM%squots Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. Zimmerman was standing on a foot-sized receiver, and once the two men touched, Zimmerman%squots business-card information appeared on a computer monitor, which was not physically connected to either device.

The device which hosts the transmission technology consists of a nine-volt battery, two electrodes, a microchip and an on/off switch, according to Zimmerman.

The device %dquotis basically a tiny little AM radio signal%dquot which transmits data, Zimmerman said.

Though the technology is at its most basic stage -- Zimmerman called it the %dquotmost nascent%dquot technology IBM had ever shown to the public -- Zimmerman said there will be numerous applications for the technology as it increases in sophistication. Right now, the device needs the force of being stepped on to function, but as its sensitivity increases it will be able to be carried in a person%squots pocket, expanding its uses, Zimmerman said.

For example, slipped into a pocket, the device could contain the information housed in a user%squots wallet, such as credit card numbers and a telephone calling-card number. When a user receives a phone number via a pager, that number could automatically be plugged into the user%squots cellular phone for easy call-back, according to Zimmerman.

The technology could also simplify using a pay phone, Zimmerman said. For instance, a user%squots calling-card information contained in the device in a pocket could automatically be transmitted to the phone company when the user picked up the telephone, Zimmerman said.

%dquotEvery phone will be like your home phone. Just pick it up and dial the number,%dquot Zimmerman said.

The transmission technology, which IBM is calling a Personal Area Network, will have security features which will prevent people from inadvertently transmitting data when they bump into each other on the street. Last week IBM filed a patent on encrypting the data which is transmitted, and further security could be achieved by using a personal identification number (PIN), Zimmerman said. For instance, a user%squots calling-card number could be automatically transmitted to a phone, but the user could be required to dial a PIN on the phone before the call would be placed, according to Zimmerman.

IBM wants to add capabilities to the Personal Area Network by working in concert with other technologies, including that found in radio frequency (RF) tags. RF tags are the labels on many consumer products which cause a beep at the door if the product is improperly checked out at a store%squots register.

RF technology can be used in conjunction with the Personal Area Network in many different ways, Zimmerman said. For instance, a user with a Personal Area Network in his or her pocket could pick up RF-tagged videos at a video store and head for the door, without waiting in line for checkout, Zimmerman said. The device could transmit the user%squots video-store account number to the store%squots computer, and the RF tag could inform the store which video the user selected, Zimmerman said. Right now, RF tags can%squott specify what a given item is, but IBM%squots labs are working on changing that, letting the tags transmit specific information about the item, Zimmerman said.

Some observers had health concerns about using the device, but Zimmerman said there was no cause for alarm on that front. Because th power and frequency the technology uses is so low, there is no risk to people from essentially using themselves as a wire over which data is transmitted, according to Zimmerman.

In addition, the signal travels around a half an inch under the skin, so %dquotit doesn%squott really go through your organs,%dquot Zimmerman said.

One witness to the demonstration was as impressed with what he said was a new IBM as with the technology being demonstrated.

%dquotThe technology is interesting, but the big difference is IBM%squots willingness at an early stage to share it with the world,%dquot said Sam Albert, president of Sam Albert Associates, a Scarsdale, New York-based consulting company.

IBM has filed more patents than most companies in the last three years, and they%squotre obviously willing to let people preview some of that technology, according to Albert.

%dquotThat%squots a change in IBM culture. [IBM Chairman and CEO Lou] Gerstner doesn%squott want things to languish in the lab,%dquot Albert said.

An IBM spokesman confirmed that the Personal Area Network project is important to Somers, New York-based IBM.

The project %dquotis one that has the attention of senior management of IBM,%dquot he said.