ETRI's Body Area Network prototype: prints through your body
Besides working on non-exploding batteries and Flexible OLEDs, Korea's ETRI is hard at work on the underlying technology of their Body Area Network (BAN). Yes, that would be the human body area network, like the Bluetooth PAN only much more personal. Really though, it's just another variation of Microsoft's (and someday even Sony's) patented technology which uses the human body as the electrical conduit between devices. So assuming you wanted to print a document from ETRI's prototype wearable above, you just start the job on the device, touch the Touch-And-Play (TAP) enabled printer and voila, out pops your hard copy. Sweet... and creepy, but still pretty sweet. Assuming of course, that ETRI has met their data transfer goals of 1MB/s by now -- otherwise, you'll look pretty silly poking the printer as you strain under the weight of that modest 2.4Kbps data rate achieved last year. Just remember, never confuse the work of Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute with the that of the Korea's Advanced Institute of Science and Technology -- no one likes a splitter. Now kick back, grab a sack of wolf nipple chips and check the pics after the break.
