They say you can tell a lot from a handshake. But while it's usually guesswork, the power of human touch will soon be used in Japan to transmit data.
Telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) is planning a commercial launch of a system to enter rooms that frees users from the trouble of rummaging in their pockets or handbags for ID cards or keys.
It uses technology to turn the surface of the human body itself into a means of data transmission.
As data travels through the user's clothing, handbag or shoes, anyone carrying a special card can unlock the door simply by touching the knob or standing on a particular spot without taking the card out.
"In everyday life, you're always touching things. Even if you are standing, you are stepping on something," said Mitsuru Shinagawa, senior research engineer at the firm's NTT Microsystem Integration Labs. "These simple touches can result in communication."
He said future applications could include a walk-through ticket gate, a cabinet that opens only to authorized people and a TV control that automatically chooses favorite programs.
The system also improves security. It ensures that only drivers can open their cars by touching the doors if the keys are in their pockets, not people around them.
NTT has already developed technology that allows swapping data as heavy as motion pictures through a handshake, although it has not been put into commercial use.
NTT Electronics Corp, a group company, plans to start sales of the room-entry system in the coming months, probably in the spring, said NTT business creation official Toshiaki Asahi.
It will be the world's first commercial application of human body communication using electric fields, rather than sending electric currents into the human body, NTT said.
"There is demand for hands-free entry as there are workplaces where you always have your hands occupied or can't touch things for hygiene or medical reasons. In some factories it's simply dangerous to dangle something from your neck," Asahi said.
The price is yet to be announced but will be "a bit pricier" than the conventional IC card system, he said.
An IC card system consists of a chip-embedded card and a reading device, with its user placing the card over an article for a data feed.
Other companies have focused on electric currents and required users to wear items on the outside of their bodies.
In 2004, Matsushita Electric Works Ltd launched a system that sends a weak electric current into the human body to feed data.
The user was required to wear a watch-like device and touch a data receiver, but no single system has been sold in its more than three years on the market, a company spokeswoman said, as they never won an order for the product.
"We saw little demand ... as customers believed the current entry/departure systems are good enough," she said.
Shinagawa said his technology's ultimate aim was to go beyond human-to-machine communications and focus on interaction among humans.
"As telecom technology has developed, human contact has faded. We started the research aiming to develop a new concept of telecommunication through touching," he said.
The technology is called "RedTacton," a word coined from "touch" and "act on" along with the color red, which represents "warm" telecommunications, NTT said.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
RSS