While leafing through the annals of 2007, as people across the etherweb publish their lists for the year, i clicked back to 2006. Popular Mechanics site had Body Area Networks listed as a “trend to watch”.

“The cellphone in your pocket sends a tiny electrical current—a fraction of an amp—along your skin, so your car door springs open at your touch and your PC logs in when you grab the mouse. That’s what German startup ImCoSys says its new smartphone will be capable of, thanks to body area network (BAN) technology. Of course, proving those claims would require partner companies to build BAN-compatible devices, and no such deals have been announced since the phone was released last summer.”

What i like about this kind of technology is its circumvention of the object of interaction needing to be external, meaning having something in your hand like phones, cool gizmos, buttons, keyboards(it still has to be in your pocket though..).It can also force some kind of human to human interaction by creating circuits via touch. Gestures like shaking hands or tapping someone could do all the work to power a further action. Why can’t we just shake hands to become “buddies” in a local social network or exchange contact information?

Another point is that this kind of technology will suit a small but charismatic minority of friends who were 5 years late to adopting mobile phones and the like. Ditch the gadgets, let’s connect.