Generating energy from human contact

People still think that a handshake has many meanings. While the above is still a judgment, in Japan, energy through human contact will soon be used to transmit data. Giant telecommunications group Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) is planning to commercialize a system that allows people to access rooms without keys or magnetic cards.

The system uses technology to transform people themselves as data transmitters . Because data passes through clothes, bags and shoes, anyone with a special card can unlock the door by touching the handle or standing at a special location without having to remove the card.

Research engineer Mitsuru Shinagawa, senior researcher of NTT Integrated Micro Systems Laboratory told AFP: 'In everyday life, you always touch many things. Even while standing still, you are standing up on something. These simple contacts can form communication. '

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) is planning to commercialize a system that allows people to access rooms without keys or magnetic cards.(Photo: AFP)

Shinagawa said that future applications could be a door-to-door type, a room type that is only open to those with access rights and a type of TV control that automatically selects the owner's favorite program. This system also improves security. It can ensure only the owner can open his car by touching the door if the car key is still in the bag.

NTT has developed a new technology that allows heavy data to be captured equivalent to an animation through handshaking, although this technology has not yet been commercialized.

NTT Electronics plans to start a room access control system in the coming months, according to Toshiaki Asahi, business creation officer.

This will be the first commercial application of a system that communicates through the human body with electric fields rather than generating electric currents into the body. Asahi said: 'Currently there is a need for hands-free door systems in offices where people are always busy or do not like to touch their hands for hygiene or medical reasons. In some factories, a factory that hangs an object hanging from its neck (ie access card) is very dangerous. '

The price of this system has not been announced but will be " slightly more expensive" than the conventional card test system, and the system will only be released in limited markets.

A conventional card inspection system includes a chip with a chip and a card reader. The user must scan the card through the reader to check the data. Some other companies focus on using electricity and require users to wear devices outside the body. In 2004. Matsushita Electric Work, a unit of the founder of Panasonic, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., launched the system to send a current to the human body to retrieve data. Users must wear a device similar to a watch and touch the data receiver unit but within 3 years this product is on the market, the company has never received any orders.

The company spokesman said: 'We see very little demand, perhaps customers think that the system using current electricity is fine.'

Shinagawa stated that the highest goal of this technology was to exceed human-machine communication and focus on human-to-person communication.'As telecommunications technology develops, contact between people has gradually faded away. We pursue the work for the purpose of developing a new concept of telecommunications through contact. '

NTT introduced technology with the name ' RedTacton ', a word with the idea of ​​' touch ' and ' act on ' with red, the symbol of ' warm ' telecommunications technology. Doctors and nurses can record patient data such as heart rate and temperature just in contact with the patient's body.