Transferring info through bones: security? disruption?

Rice University here in Houston announced an interesting research project and technology called “OsteoConduct: Musculo-Skeletal Conduction for Secure Data Communication“, transferring sound waves through bones. The project is has been awarded funding from Microsoft Research.

As I understand it, the project centers around using sound waves at low frequencies to transfer data through bones and across joints. Theoretically, you could have a sound wave generator (such as your teeth clicking together) connected to a receiver (a cell phone transmitter hooked) and transmit some type of data through your body.

The article says the frequencies are low enough to not be felt or heard.

My questions on this are in two categories:

  • Security: it’s be shown that a short distance technology such as RFID can be intercepted with off the shelf equipment (decrypting is another matter); detecting low frequency sound waves would appear to me to be quite interceptable while traveling from bone to bone (no research on my part here, just MHO); the article referred to above mentions transferring secure data with a handshake which sets my hacker alarm off the meter;
  • Disruption: several other frequency sensitive human systems are in the body. One that is important in most people is the brain (where voltage based brain waves run at low frequencies) and the Qi system (which may be bio-electric, according to some research).

Exciting technology, many more areas to cover.

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