RedTacton
Personal Area Network
Wendy Beatty
Dianne Brotherson
Rachel Corron
Agenda

Overview
– What is it?
– How does it work?

Potential Applications
– Gun Control
– Consumer

Viability
– Competitive landscape
– Projections
What is RedTacton?
HAN – Human Area Network – the last meter
 Transmits data utilizing body’s electric field

The body becomes its own Ethernet cable
High speed – up to 10 mbps
 Very secure
 Uses a transmitter
and a receiver, or
a transceiver,
which provides
both functions

How it works
Point to
Point
Network
Transceivers
exchange
information
– no server
Optical
properties of
electro-optic
crystal –
varies based
on electric
field
Data received using photonic electric field sensor combined
with electro-optic crystal and laser light
Step by Step
Transmitting transceiver creates a change
in the field
 Receiving transceiver recognizes the
change in the electric field
 Electro-optical crystal uses laser to convert
and read the signal

Security

Requires physical contact
Must be wearing the transceiver and touching something else
with a transceiver
Less potential for wireless interference
and between other RedTacton devices
 Allows for encryption and authentication
 Programmable

You decide what to share with whom and what devices you
communicate with
Caveats
No military experience
 Not members of the NRA
 Only experience with the military and guns
is from TV and movie exposure

Staged Adoption
2008
 Must-do
 Develop the
technology

Staged Adoption
2009
 May-do
 Develop the
technology for a
high-end military
weapon
 Viper – tank missile

Staged Adoption
2010
 May-do
 Develop the
technology for
standard military
weapon
 M-16

Staged Adoption
2011
 May-do
 Develop the
technology for
other military
equipment
 Howitzer

Staged Adoption
2012
 May-do
 Develop the
technology police
forces

Staged Adoption
2020
 May-do
 Develop the
technology guns
sold in the U.S.

Other Applications
Medical
- insulin pump
 Consumer

– Turnstile

General Security
– Swipe card
Competitive Viability

Power of Buyers v. Power of Suppliers
– Power is with the device manufacturers
– What is a device?
 Cell phones, PDA’s
 Any device we wish to communicate with
– Buyers may demand monetary benefit to include new
technology
 New technology may require significant design changes
 R&D still needed
– Government, Military, or medical professionals
Competition
Bluetooth
 Zigbee
 IrDA
 UWB
 Skinplex
 Verichip

Obstacles
Time & cost
 Needs to gain popularity to pull instead of
push
 Widespread marking campaigns and
education
 Not useful unless many people adopt it

Predictions

Medical
– This area has the financial resources available
for Research and Development and it also has
the potential to be beneficial to a large
percentage of the population.
Predictions

Military
– If the military adopts this technology is it
likely the public would never see it.

Consumer Applications
– Necessary funding for continued R&D does
not make this a likely scenario in the next
decade
Questions?