Future technology will wire people By Ed Scannell For the first time, IBM last week demonstrated technology that uses the natural salinity in the human body as a conductor to send and receive data electronically. At fall Comdex in Las Vegas, IBM showed a prototype transmitter called the Personal Area Network (PAN). About the size of a deck of cards, it has an embedded microchip along with a slightly larger receiving device. IBM researchers were able to transmit an electronic business card between two people who were simply shaking hands. The present prototype allows data to be sent between as many as four bodies that touch each other. "The current used is only one-billionth of an amp, which is lower than the current that the human body ordinarily uses. It passes just below the skin and doesn't touch any of the major organs," said Thomas Zimmerman, a researcher working on the project at IBM's Almaden Research Center, in San Jose, Calif. The speed at which data is sent is equivalent to a 2400Kbps modem. At least theoretically, 400Kbps of data can be sent using the technology, researchers said. IBM does not expect to produce a commercial product that uses this technology for at least a few more years. Aside from passing data between electronic devices being carried by two people, such as in the business card demonstration, IBM researchers envision the technology being applied in other ways. It could be used to exchange data between personal information and communications devices carried by users, such as cellular phones, pagers, personal digital assistants, and smart cards, which would constitute a sort of LAN that most users wear physically. It could secure consumer business transactions, such as public phones outfitted with PAN sensors that could automatically identify users so that they would no longer need a calling card. Some of the technology in the PAN grew out of work done at MIT's Media Laboratory. The initial funding was provided by IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Festo Didactic. IBM can be contacted at