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AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsLyndsay Williams, William Vablais, Steven N Bathiche
Estimating the term…
Methods and apparatus for distributing power and data to devices coupled to the human body are described. The human body is used as a conductive medium, e.g., a bus, over which power and/or data is distributed. Power is distributed by coupling a power source to the human body via a first set of electrodes. One or more devices to be powered, e.g., peripheral devices, are also coupled to the human body via additional sets of electrodes. The devices may be, e.g., a speaker, display, watch, keyboard, etc. A pulsed DC signal or AC signal may be used as the power source. By using multiple power supply signals of differing frequencies, different devices can be selectively 15 powered. For example, a 100 Hz signal may be used to power a first device while a 150 Hz signal may be used to power a second device. Digital data and/or other information signals, e.g., audio signals, can be modulated on the power signal using frequency and/or amplitude modulation techniques. The power source and peripheral devices can interact to form a complete computer network where the body serves as the bus coupling the devices together. Devices can include optional batteries, one or more CPUs, transmit/receive circuitry, and/or input/output circuitry. In one particular exemplary network implementation the first device to be placed on the body operates as a master device, e.g., bus master, with one or more subsequently added devices working as slaves.
A wearable computer system, comprising:
A portable computing device to be worn on a human body, comprising:
A system for transceiving electrical signals via the human body, comprising:
A method for transmitting electrical signals between wearable computing devices through living tissue, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.