- Adding the Human Touch to Communication -

NTT DoCoMo has revolutionized the way people use their mobile phones over the last few years, introducing and successfully popularizing its Osaifu-Keitai services such as iD mobile-credit payment platform and DCMX mobile credit card to transform phones into lifestyle tools for payments, ticketing, booking and much more.

Now DoCoMo is planning to take contactless technology a big step further and enable people to do things like exchange business card info through a simple handshake, or pass through security doors with the mere touch of a finger, all the while leaving their phone—where the data is stored—in their pocket or purse.

This may sound a bit like science fiction, but DoCoMo is starting to turn such applications into hard science. The key development—the addition of the "human touch" to communication—promises to herald a new era of ubiquitous communications technologies, perhaps in as soon as five years.

Touch Communication

Working with start-up company Kaiser Technology, Inc., DoCoMo has developed a working prototype technology that actually uses the human body to transmit information through touch, rather than via wired, wireless or optical communications, according to Yuji Nakayama, Senior Research Engineer at NTT DoCoMo's Research Laboratories.

The technology, known as near-field intrabody communications, uses a tiny electrical field that exists on the surface of the human body to safely and harmlessly conduct information to and from devices—such as a mobile phone—via the human body.

It's less futuristic than it sounds: DoCoMo experimentally integrated the technology into a mobile phone and hundreds of visitors eagerly tried it out at the company's booth during the CEATEC (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) show in Japan this October.

"It was one of the most popular demonstrations of the entire show," says Nakayama.

Safe and Simple, and at your Fingertips

"One of the first questions we got from people at the show was, 'Are you sure it's safe?'" relates Nakayama. "So we explained that the technology is not harmful because it uses the extremely weak but natural electrical field of the human body. Moreover, people using it feel absolutely nothing," he adds.

In fact, the field is so weak that it falls well below the safety levels stipulated in the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses' radio frequencyexposure protection standard, RCR STD-38.

The system itself basically consists of a sensorchip module packed with functions but nonetheless is small enough to be embedded in a mobile phone. In a demonstration for Mobility at DoCoMo's Research Laboratories near Tokyo, Nakayama held a handset in his left hand and put his shoe on a plate connected to a transmitter. Immediately a "receiving data" message appeared on the phone screen and continued to display as he slid the phone into his shirt pocket. As soon as he took his shoe away from the plate, the data stream stopped.

"People were amazed when they saw it at CEATEC and lined up at our booth to try it out," says Nakayama, with a grin.

Tremendous Advantages

The technology holds huge promise because of its inherent advantages over today's wireless communications technologies, especially in terms of security. Since it uses only a tiny amount of power, has a very short range, and can be stopped immediately by breaking contact, the technology is more secure than Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Furthermore, neither interference nor frequency allocation is a big issue, which is welcome news for applications developers and service providers, Nakayama points out.

In Touch with the Future

So what are the potential applications for this exciting technology?

Of course, it is easy to imagine it would be applied in next-generation versions of DoCoMo's successful e-wallet and e-ticket services, such as walking through a ticket gate and just tapping a panel without ever taking out one's phone, or using one's finger to unlock a PC or enter a secure area. The keywords here are convenience and security.

Beyond this, DoCoMo envisages a future where a mobile phone, while still nestled in one's pocket or purse, acts as hub or gateway for a range of ubiquitous communications applications between the user and, for example, IC tags or a range of other devices, as well as the mobile Internet. One of the most promising applications, believes Nakayama, is mobile phones with specially equipped sensors that not only monitor body conditions, such as pulse and temperature, but continuously relay the data to the person's health provider.

Getting There

After just one year, DoCoMo is already taking long strides towards these applications, says Nakayama. At this point, no major obstacle has been encountered. DoCoMo is now working to further shrink and upgrade the module for embedding in phones and other devices. At the same time, engineers are working on boosting speed from the current 40Kbps to as fast as 1Mbps. At present, the system can be used only one way, either to transmit or receive, but two-way capability is being developed. Moreover, software is being devised to integrate the technology with hardware and applications. Nakayama is confident that these tasks can be accomplished sooner rather than later.

"We have already demonstrated the basic functionality needed to commercialize this technology. We are not talking about waiting another ten years—it's more likely a case of three to five years," he estimates.

For more articles and information, go to Mobility15