Scientists from the Rice University in Houston are developing ways in which human skeleton will be able to transmit commands reliably and securely to wearable gadgets and medical implants. Scientist claim that the skeleton is a surprisingly accurate transmitter of digital data, the principle could be used in medical devices and handheld gadgets. Bone is a great conductor of sound and to see if it could transmit digital signals over longer distances, to a headset, say, from a sensor worn on the wrist, the team applied a small vibrator to various parts of the body. On measuring how well bone conducted these signals they found the skeleton conducted even low-power vibrations from one location to another with amazingly few errors.

The researchers suggest applications such as a vibrator in a wrist receiver/transmitter that could tell an implant placed near a bone to release a drug dose, with the implant then sending back data from its sensors. Similarly, tooth clacks or finger clicks could be interpreted by a receiver to activate, say, functions in a phone.