'Body Area Networks' in 2020?

By Roland Piquepaille

This is almost certain, according to Ian Pearson, a futurologist working for British Telecom. In fifteen years, local area networks will be replaced by body area networks. As writes BBC News Online, "when technology gets personal," you can expect a "pervasive ambient world" where "chips are everywhere." Not only we'll be surrounded by intelligent objects in the streets, but we'll wear clothes made of nano-engineered smart fabrics or we'll carry implants. Pearson thinks that we'll use wearable technology that runs on body heat such as intelligent electronic contact lenses functioning as TV screens when we are in the subway for instance. Of course, this raises interesting questions about our privacy. Pearson adds that security should be integrated into the design of these future devices. He's obviously right, but as usually, making money will always have a higher priority than protecting privacy. Read more...

Here are the opening paragraphs of the BBC News Online article.

In 2020, whipping out your mobile phone to make a call will be quaintly passé. By then phones will be printed directly on to wrists, or other parts of the body, says Ian Pearson, BT's resident futurologist. It's all part of what's known as a "pervasive ambient world", where "chips are everywhere"

Here is an example of a jacket with a mobile phone woven into it (Credit: Unknown, via BBC News Online).

Inanimate objects will start to interact with us: we will be surrounded -- on streets, in homes, in appliances, on our bodies and possibly in our heads -- by things that "think". Forget local area networks - these will be body area networks.

I've already covered MP3 jackets here, but there's more to expect from "smart fabrics."

These "smart fabrics" have come about through advances in nano- and micro-engineering -- the ability to manipulate and exploit materials at micro or molecular scale.

At the nanoscale, materials can be "tuned" to display unusual properties that can be exploited to build faster, lighter, stronger and more efficient devices and systems.

The textile and clothing industry has been one of the first to exploit nanotechnology in quite straightforward ways. Many developments are appearing in real products in the fields of medicine, defence, healthcare, sports, and communications.

Of course, wearable technology raises important questions regarding our privacy.

If our clothing, skin, and "personal body networks" do the talking and the monitoring, everywhere we go, we have to think about what that means for our concept of privacy. Mr Pearson picks up the theme, pointing out there are a lot of issues humans have to iron out before we become "cyborgian". His main concern is "privacy".

"We are looking at electronics which are really in deep contact with your body and a lot of that information you really don't want every passer-by to know. "So we have to make sure we build security in this. If you are wearing smart make-up, where electronics are controlling the appearance, you don't want people hacking in and writing messages on your forehead."

Will he be heard? Time will tell.

Finally, for more information about Pearson's thoughts, you can read all the articles he published on this British Telecom web site, "Views of the future." My only regret is that these articles are not dated -- at least explicitly.

Sources: Jo Twist, BBC News Online, December 6, 2004; and British Telecom 'Views of the future' web site

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Future
  
• Nanotechnology
  
• Pervasive Computing
  
• Privacy
  
• Wearable