Microsoft has been awarded a patent for distributing data and power between devices through the skin of the user. It envisages earrings that can deliver sound via a phone worn on your belt, with a volume control located on another device.

According to the patent summary, the human body is used as a conductive medium over which power and/or data is distributed. A set of electrodes would attach a power source to the human body; devices like speakers, a display, a watch and a keyboard would also be attached by electrodes. The power source and devices then interact to form a complete computer network.

The concept of a personal area network, or PAN, is not a new one, Bluetooth being today's best enabler. Nor is the concept of using the body to power data transfer original: in 1996 IBM patented a device that would permit the transmission of data – in that case business cards – by the simple act of shaking hands.

Microsoft envisages transmission from one body to another by touch; but its method of transferring power, not just data, appears to take the concept further. The patent filing adds that the body used "may be that of a wide variety of living animals".

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