[LINK] Our wireless world...

[Ivan Trundle]

Linkers

Hot on the heels of the press release announcing that 1 billion  
bluetooth devices are now in circulation (see footnotes), a follow-up  
to the story of the woman who was made sick by WiFi - Kate Figes,  
author, claims that she is able to detect when a wireless network is  
present:

> "Imagine being prodded all over your body by 1,000 fingers. That is  
> what I felt when I walked into the house... Then I started to think  
> it might be the wi-fi, so we scrapped it - and I felt better."

The boffins step in:

> But Chris Guy, head of Reading University's School of Systems  
> Engineering said: "The amount of power emitted by wi-fi devices is  
> about a tenth of that given out by mobile phones. It is very, very  
> unlikely that it is harmful because the power levels are so low. I  
> just do not believe wi-fi is damaging people's health."

...and from a respondent to the article (Dave Hardesty) on the website:

> The electromagnetic fields in your home, due to it's internal  
> wiring, is much larger and more powerful than anything your  
> consumer wi-fi electronics is capable of creating and the same is  
> true for your computer monitor and or television set.

But now, to add to this matrix - an article in New Scientist (Tech):

> Sony's Tokyo research lab has found a way to connect headphones to  
> portable music and video players without the need for fiddly  
> wiring. They simply feed an audio signal straight through the  
> listener's body.
>
> Existing wireless headphones use Bluetooth radio, but this means  
> pairing two devices beforehand and is prone to interference from  
> other equipment. Another approach – infra-red – relies on line-of- 
> sight, which is rarely practical.
> "The new system uses the listener's body as a capacitor that  
> carries a tiny electrostatic charge. A music or video player sends  
> a fluctuating signal to a conductive cloth pad – such as a wrist  
> band – and this slightly charges the wearer's body. A pair of  
> conductive ear pads in the headphones pick-up the signal and  
> rapidly convert it back into sound.
>
> Just a few millionths of an amp flow through the wearer's body, so  
> there should be no nasty tingling effect. ...
I can see where all this is leading. It won't be long before human  
bodies will need batteries, too. And more tinfoil.

iT

Wireless technology made me sick:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23375600-details/Wireless% 
20technology%20made%20me%20sick/article.do

Bluetooth hits one billion devices:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/ 
story/11-14-2006/0004473727&EDATE=

Invention: body-wired headphones
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn10663&feedId=online- 
news_rss20