First we sent data through wires, then the air, now the human body is becoming a communications conduit. Researchers at Korea University in Seoul have transmitted data at a rate of 10 megabits per second through a person's arm, between two electrodes placed on their skin 30 centimetres apart.
The thin, flexible electrodes use significantly less energy than a wireless link like Bluetooth. That's because low-frequency electromagnetic waves pass through skin with little attenuation, a route that also shelters them from outside interference.
Rather than wiring people directly to the internet, the team see health benefits for their technology.It is difficult to monitor vital signs, such as blood sugar and electrical activity of the heart, in a person going about their everyday lives because it means either covering them in snaking wires connected to a recording device, or using wireless transmission.
"If we use wireless for each of these vital signs we would need many batteries," says study co-author Sang-Hoon Lee of Korea University in Seoul. A network transmitting through the skin would cut energy needs by roughly 90 per cent, he says.
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