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Re:Magnetic fields provide a new way to communicate wirelessly by zyxley on Wednesday September 02, 2015 @01:43AM (#10157614)
> Researchers noted that a limitation of this technique is that magnetic fields require circular geometries in order to propagate through the human body. Devices like smart watches, headbands and belts will all work well using magnetic field human body communication, but not a small patch that is stuck on the chest and used to measure heart rate, for example. As long as the wearable application can wrap around a part of the body, it should work just fine with this technique, researchers explained.

Wait, so how do you get the data anywhere useful? At some point to connect to a phone or whatever it'll have to bridge to Bluetooth or equivalent anyway.

Re:Magnetic fields provide a new way to communicate wirelessly by flashman on Wednesday September 02, 2015 @01:55AM (#10157640)
The phone could use a transmitter with circular geometry - a wire loop, for instance. It could be part of the case; I assume the magnetic field is unaffected by human touch, unlike the iPhone 4's antenna infamously did: http://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-loses-reception-when-a...