Microsoft Patents The Body Bus

Mz6 writes "Microsoft has been awarded a patent for using human skin as a power conduit and data bus. Patent No. 6,754,472, which was published Tuesday, describes a method for transmitting power and data to devices worn on the body and for communication of data between those devices. In its filing, Microsoft cites the proliferation of wearable electronic devices, such as wristwatches, pagers, PDAs (worn on people's belts) and small displays that can now be mounted on headgear. "As a result of carrying multiple portable electronic devices, there is often a significant amount of redundancy in terms of input/output devices included in the portable devices used by a single person," says the filing. "For example, a watch, pager, PDA and radio may all include a speaker." To reduce the redundancy of input/output devices, Microsoft's patent proposes a personal area network that allows a single data input or output device to be used by multiple portable devices." (What about DoCoMo's research in this area?)

This might be valid

[Woodrow]

This is a physical device and if there is no prior art then I think this is a very valid patent.

Does this work???

[bollow (a) NoLockIn]

This sounds very much like science fiction to me. Are there any proof-of-concept studies in this direction?

My gut feeling is:

• Data transmission: maybe, but bandwidth will be low.
• Power supply: won't work

Re:This might be valid

[Anonymous Coward]

Wasn't Tesla doing this a century ago?

Handshaking

[nucal]

So I guess this might ultimately allow the transfer of data literally through a handshake ...

If this was not Microsoft...

[Woodrow]

would anyone have any objections to this patent? This patent covers a physical device made of atoms just like 100% of all patents applied for 100 years ago. I do nto agree with sofwtare patents but I do with patents covering physical devices.

Anyone who has ever been electrocuted

[dpilot]

has violated this patent. Plus the old experiment in school, where the whole class holds hands in a string, and the person on each end each touches one lobe of a Van Der Graff generator. Everyone's hair rises, and whoever breaks the circuit gets the shock - but there was a circuit and power was being delivered, it was even doing work.

Here's the problem:

Patents are being awarded for spending a little time thinking. For having the luxury of free time to think, and company lawyers to file, companies are able to establish themselves as a gatekeeper.

Patents should be the product of effort - they were meant to reward that effort, and incent you to expend that amount of effort again in the future.

IMHO, these 'few hours of thought' patents are diametrically opposed to the concept of patents as enumerated in the Constitution.

Awesome

[isd_glory]

Borg coments aside, I'd love to see this work. Turning the human skin into a data path has wonderful medical applications. Imagine being able to monitor pacemakers, hearing aids, and other prosthetic devices non-invasively.

Furthermore, this could open up the prospect of "implants" to help humans with different things. If Microsoft can really get data and power running through the human body, it could really usher in a new age of computing.

Underwear virus

[Benanov]

I'm just worried about the potential security vulnerabilities. I mean, imagine someone running down the street, flailing their arms wildly, screaming "My underwear's been infected by a virus! I can't take it off!"

Re:My thoughts exactly.

[RMH101]

perhaps someone could implant something right up his pipes, the horrible little self-agrandising worm.

This is a good thing

[91degrees]

It's a new idea. While it has been known for a long time that the body conducts electricity, sending data through the body has not been acheived before. There has to be a good reason for this.

Presumably Microsoft has solved some specific engineering problems. They also probably spent a lot of money on solving them.

Why shouldn't they be entitled to financial reward?

Re:If this was not Microsoft...

[callipygian-showsyst]

Of course not! If Steve Jobs (not to be confused with his close relative that Clinton talks about in his new book) were to have developed this so your iPod could talk to your Newton, everyone here would be drooling and saying "OOOH! Steeevie, you're SO SMART" and camping outside the Apple Store to buy one.

Give Microsoft a break here! The invented some physical device and they have a great reason to patent it.

Re:good luck MS

[kakos]

They aren't patenting PANs, they are patenting a particular method of implementing a PAN. Nice try at MS bashing though.

"electrocuted"

[gotr00t]

The word actually means death by electrical shock. If you got shocked by a Van de Graff generator, and are still alive to talk about it, then you have not been "electrocuted."

Sorry to nitpick on something so minor. The rest of the points in your comment are completely valid.

Re:This might be valid

[Anne Thwacks]

No prior art? You might want to read the spec for ieee488 bus.

Is it not a requirement for US patents to be non-obvious as well?

Re:This might be valid

[TechniMyoko]

thats not transmission of data though by your logic USB wouldnt be able to be patented since power cables exist. Afterall, all data is is electricity

Re:Dangerous?

[mstorer3772]

Horse shit.

There is no proof that RF causes cancer. Heard of an class action suits against cell phone manufacturers? No. You haven't.

Why?

Because this is horse shit.

Those little healing magnets you wear to align your shakras/amplify your aura/whatever-BS-they-foisted-off-on-you? Horse Shit.

Yes. You heard it here first.

As penence, you must watch no less than 5 episodes of Myth Busters. (not really punishment, but at least you'll be less likely to fall for this stuff in the future)

Don't be so limited.

[twitter]

each device will instead have a relatively large, expensive widget to use our nerves as cat-5 (human-5?) so we only have to shlep around one little speaker?

No, the future is much better than that! Imagine yourself covered in speakers or organic LEDs. They will use your skin to make you into a big billboard. Skin power transference also shows great promise in EULA and copyright enforcement. DMCA mark V will require placement of electrodes on all external genitalia at birth and terrorism, masturbation, pre and post marital sex and other evils will cease to exist.

Somehow, I'm not impressed. Everyone knows the conductive properties of skin and electro-cardiogram makers have researching human skin electrodes and signaling for decades.

This isn't a new idea....

[bryanc]

Various forms of hearing aids have used this idea for several years. For people with hearing in one ear, you can 'transmit' the sound from the deaf ear to the working ear.

--bryan

Prior Art???

[ColdCoffee]

The facts will ultimately show that [insert deity of your choice] has prior art on this patent - It's called the nervous system!

Re:And in other news....

[proj_2501]

and anyone using an electric chair

Re:good luck MS

[Donny Smith]

> I suggest you actually READ the patent. they are trying to patent data transfer (PAN) and power transfer.

Their technique is different from other/previous inventions because the powered device can transmit and use power/data without actually having its own power source. Therefore they're not trying to patent PAN.

Quote: Because the devices of the present invention are networked, they can be recharged and powered by other devices on the network.

IBM's and others' PAN devices all have their own power source (at least News.com reported that IBM's device had the size of stack of cards).

Re:This might be valid

[velo_mike]

Wear do current technologies like Heart Rate Monitors fit into this? Polar, Nike, even Timex have what I'd call body based data bus technology already

Don't HRM's transmit the data via radio frequency? They recieve electrical impulses through the skin, but don't use the body as a conductor to transmit the data.

Re:good luck MS

[Malor]

I'm really not sure this is a very good idea.

The body is a very complex beast, and has evolved to work in ways we simply don't understand yet. Adding our own signals to the body's natural electromagnetic field may be completely harmless, but it could also have strange, unpleasant side effects over time.

Personally, I don't plan to carry any such device until they've been on the market, and in fairly wide uptake, for at least 10 years. I'm generally an early adopter of almost anything, but this technology worries me a little.

Re:This might be valid

[samantha]

Uh huh. This is the human body or more specifically, its skin. It has been known to be able to carry signals and even some amount of power for some time. Exactly what physical device did M$ invent here? It can legitimately patent devices to take advantage of this capability. But it cannot patent the very idea of using the skin in this manner any more than someone could at one time have patented running power through a conductor.

or an arial

[oliverthered]

Every stuck you finger in tha back of a T.V. arial socket to get a better reception. That's multiple modulated frequencies. If my video pickes up some information from that signal to start recording then I've selectivly activated a device.

In the audable range, I've used myself as a very noisy conductor for hi-fi equipment before, maybe I had a pizeo attached.

Prior art short list

[Felinoid]

IMAO becouse IANAL some of this may not apply.

Skin networking research at MIT
The diffrence between MITs prior art and Microsofts patent is the power distrabution.
But.. DU.. the data is electrical... power distrabution is an implied part of that.

Any time you have a reliable electrical signal you have a power source.

Basicly Microsofts patent is a minnor and obveous modification of an existing patent and as I understand it patenting the obveous is not permitted.

Old stuff

[frambris]

Hey, I heard of BAN (Body Area Networks) years ago! The US patent office seems to be lame retards that doesn't check whether someone has done this before. I can't recollect who did the experiments but read an article about 5 years ago of a computer worn in the shoes drawing power from movement (and maybe foul air =) ). When people shaking hands their computers swapped electronic businesscards. So after a day of shaking hands on meetings, fairs etc you could get a list of whom they were and everything.

How the heck can you get a patent on something that is already out there?

Why don't we file a patent for "sending information through variations in airpressure" (also knows as talking)?

Re:This might be valid

[xQx]

I remember demonstrating the same thing with an electric fence and my sister when I was about 10 ... Still, I think the PO might see a difference between grabbing an electric fence to transfer shock to another nearby person, and turning the body into a LAN.