Infrared Radiation From Hand Can Soon Be Used to Transmit Secret Messages [STUDY]

Secret messages have been passed through a myriad of bizarre and convoluted ways for many years. But a team of engineers from China has found a new way that involves infrared radiation from the hand so even the most secret data can be transmitted, Inverse reported.

The engineers demonstrated how their technology works in their paper, entitled "Human hand as a powerless and multiplexed infrared light source for information decryption and complex signal generation," published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

This new technology is a powerful way to secure data and transmit it instead of using a computer.

Infrared Radiation From Human Body

The team's technology uses the infrared radiation from the hand to decrypt secret messages and create passcodes that cannot be cloned or reproduced to grant unique access to information or locations using wavelengths.

The human-machine integration offers a way to secure data controlled by the human body instead of computers. According to Interesting Engineering, this will allow for a power-free, multi-functional decryption system that will not become obsolete unless the time will come when humans completely merge with AI and leave their bodies.

The team focused on the infrared light that is invisible to the naked eye. This technology has been used in previous technologies like the night vision goggles that allow wearers to see animals in the dark.

"The use of human components as IR light sources may provide a promising way to increase the controllability and flexibility of the engineered systems," wrote the authors. "[T]he human hand is not just a natural and powerless IR light source, but also a multiplexed light source with each finger serving as an independent light source."

Benefits of Encryption-Decryption System From Infrared Radiation

The team used a low-reflectivity polydimethylsiloxane spray on aluminum to decode a hidden message that "tared," the news outlet reported. That means the secret message is revealed when infrared radiation is added to the hand.

The authors further explained that the decryption process could be improved at different depths. So, fingerprints that have unique contours could be utilized as a non-copiable encryption key.

According to Inverse, having an immutable, physical encryption-decryption system, like the hand, offers a new, robust method to encrypt and decode data, which has become more important to human lives as the most sensitive data or information have increasingly become digitized.

Moreover, the researchers identified two major benefits of the potential use of infrared radiation. First, it would become a sustainable encryption-decryption system as it only needs the heat from human homeostasis, and it also future-proof encryption of information.

Experts fear that the current encryption methods that are available today may not be able to compete with quantum computers in the future as they will be too powerful by then. With the new encryption-decryption system from the infrared radiation, the solution to this problem is literally in people's hands, particularly in the fingers.

Check out more news and information on Infrared in Science Times.