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.