Akademik

n.

A device that enables to people to exchange data via a handshake.

"IBM recently showed a prototype of its personal area network, or PAN....The PAN device, about the size of a thick credit card so it can be carried in a pocket, creates a low-power external electronic field using the natural salinity of the body that can transmit data to, and receive data from, someone else with a PAN device."

— Adam Bryant, "No Great Shakes," The New York Times, July 6, 1997

One of the most compelling technologies that wasn't yet ready to be on display was described by Louis Gerstner Jr., chairman and chief executive of International Business Machines Corp. In his keynote address, he discussed a research project at the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that involves putting tiny processors inside shoes.

"It's not such a crazy idea," he said. "As I understand it, you power the computer with every step you take, and when you shake hands with someone who's also wearing a shoe computer, you establish a low-voltage electrical connection and you instantly exchange information through that handshake — sort of a 'personal area network.'

— Alan Goldstein, "The future is now," The Dallas Morning News, November 20, 1995