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L.N. Revathy

You shake hands with a friend, all the while trying desperately to recall his or her name. Relax, help is at hand, or rather on your hand.

YOU are on a shopping spree. Just as you enter a store, you hear someone callyou by name. You turn to see a familiar face greeting you. You vaguely recall the person as your classmate at school. Will you be able to reciprocate/recall his or her name?

If you can, you probably will not be able to contain your happiness. Some have remarkable memory. Most teachers recall not just the name of the ex-student but the year he or she had passed out. There are others who probably will recall the first meeting, but not the name. It can be embarrassing at times.

If only you had a good memory... Not to worry, Media Lab Europe Human Connectedness research group has developed iBand, a wearable device for a handshake, which aims at addressing just such an embarrassment.The device is a bracelet that stores and exchanges information about you and your relationships. However, `data exchange occurs only when you shake hands with another user.' The information gathered and processed is reflected on the bracelet itself and can serve as a reminder or as an icebreaker for further conversation.

This band aims to leverage the handshake. The prototype — a wearable bracelet — can be adjusted/designed for different kinds of users, be it a man or a woman.

When worn, the circuit board and battery lie flat under the wrist. An infrared (IR) transceiver is positioned near the back of the thumb, pointing toward the hand such that it is visible to an IR transceiver on another device during the shaking of hands.

In a full experience with this prototype, the user first enters contact/biographical information into a kiosk, which stores it in a database and assigns a unique ID number to the iBand.

The user can also create a personal logo that appears on the LED display woven into their device. When the user shakes hands with another iBand user, ID numbers and logos are exchanged and stored.

The LED display cycles through the stored logos at a pace reflecting the number of hands that have been shaken. When the user returns to the kiosk, it displays a list of new contacts by looking up the collected ID numbers in the database. One can look up the Web for details of this project and other initiatives of the group.

The next time you hear someone, you probably will recall his/her name, provided both of you wear the bracelet (with the IR transceiver) clinging to your wrist.

Picture by K.K. Mustafah

lnr@thehindu.co.in

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