If two people each wear a 50-gram (1.75-ounce) device the size of a matchbox, they could receive each other's details into their cellphones or other mobile gadgets simply through body contact.

The "RedTacton" technology, under development by Microsystems Integration Laboratories of the telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), can transmit data of a person's choosing, such as the information on a business card.

The device uses optical electric field sensors that look for similar electric fields on other bodies. When contact is made, the data goes through the body with a small amount of voltage, winding up in a portable terminal such as a cellphone or personal data assistant (PDA).

"As the information has the date it was obtained just like e-mails, it would help you remember who the person was. It would also make it easier to make an address book," said Tadashi Minotani of the laboratory.

The technology, which the NTT group aims to put into practical use in two to three years, could have many uses, such as being embedded into medicine bottles that send messages to mobile terminals such as a cellphone.

"The terminal would buzz or say 'Don't take this' if it is the wrong medicine. There are so many drugs that it is difficult to judge which must not be taken together with which," Minotani told AFP.

Other uses of the technology include allowing people to unlock a door by touching the door knob.

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