Miscellaneous Gadgets
Handshake recognition gadget
The greeting of someone by shaking hands can be traced back to 2800 BC in Ancient Egypt, but a firm, friendly handshake is still important in the business world five millennia later.
So much so that there’s now a handshake gadget known as “iBand: a wearable device for handshake-augmented interpersonal information exchange”.
This 21st century handshaking gadget was developed by a research tem at MIT. The device features an armband that sends an infra-red signal; “Hi, I’m Paz from coolest-gadgets.com” that is stored in your prospective business partner’s armband, which is later transferred and stored for later use.
There’s extra information there too though. For instance as well a wearer’s name and business logo, there’s also the potential to transfer business interests, and other, mutual acquaintances, such as who met who and when, which is information you can’t exchange with a business card alone
Sure the prototype armband looks a bit cumbersome, but it is a development device and no doubt production versions would be much more “discrete”.
By the way, there are 5 different types of handshakes, apparently known as:
• The Knuckle Cruncher – serious but nervous
• The Dead Fish Hand shaker – limp and lifeless and somewhat negative
• The Pumper – energetic but insecure
• The Sanitary Hand Shaker – timid and afraid of diseases
• The Condolence Hand Shaker – over-familiar and condescending
but there are even handshaking resources on the net, to help you perfect your handshake style and land that top, Fortune 500 job.
The iBand handshake gadget, found via Techie Diva.
Join 4 Comments
Sam Says: June 20, 2006 at 3:27 pm
Human stupidity has no limits! No need to say more.
Taku Says: June 20, 2006 at 3:54 pm
I disagree I would actually us this (conferences or even just going out and meeting new people).
Paz Says: June 21, 2006 at 11:09 am
Thanks for the comments guys!
Marke I read the IBM paper, but that hand-shaking gadget uses a small electrical signal conducted by the human body.
The MIT one uses an infra-red signal; but the IBM method is more likely to make a bigger (shocking?) impression on your colleagues 
marke Says: June 20, 2006 at 2:34 pm
this is like so ten years old
IBM, PAN from 1996
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/user/pan/pan.html
Using a small prototype transmitter (roughly the size of a deck of cards) embedded with a microchip, and a slightly larger receiving device, the researchers can transmit a pre-programmed electronic business card between two people via a simple handshake. What’s more, the prototype allows data to be transmitted from sender to receiver through up to four touching bodies.