What the term means
The Internet of Bodies is a label for connected devices that sit on, in or very close to a human body and exchange data about it. It extends the idea of connected objects to the person using them. The phrase is used by researchers, regulators and journalists, but it is not a precise technical standard, and different writers draw its edges in different places.
It is worth being clear from the start that the term covers a wide range, from a fitness band that most people already own to specialised medical equipment that is only used under professional care. The more ambitious pictures sometimes painted of the field, such as people casually fitted with networked implants for convenience, describe possibilities and a few niche experiments rather than a mainstream reality.
Three broad categories
Writers typically divide these devices by how close they get to the body.
Wearable
These are worn outside the body: watches, bands, rings, patches and some clothing. They commonly measure movement, heart rate, sleep patterns or temperature. Some are consumer gadgets and some are medical devices with specific approvals. This is by far the most widespread category.
Implanted
These are placed inside the body by a clinician. Established medical examples include pacemakers, some insulin-delivery systems and nerve-stimulation devices, some of which can be adjusted or monitored wirelessly. These are medical devices used for particular conditions under professional supervision. Implants for non-medical purposes, such as a small chip under the skin used for access control, exist but are rare and personal choices with their own risks.
Ingestible
These are swallowed and pass through the body. A small number of capsule devices exist for medical examination of the digestive system, used under a doctor’s direction. Others are at research stages. This category is the smallest and the most specialised.
How the technology works in outline
Whatever the category, such a device typically combines the same building blocks as other connected devices: a sensor, a small processor, a very low-power radio, a battery or other power source and software. Because bodies are small and sensitive, the constraints are tight.
- Power. Space for a battery is limited, and for implants, changing it can mean surgery. Designers therefore squeeze every bit of power use, and the same logic as any battery runtime estimate applies, with much higher stakes.
- Radio. Short-range, low-power links are common, often to a phone that acts as a gateway. The trade-offs resemble those in a comparison of wireless protocols, with the added need to work reliably next to a human body, which absorbs radio signals.
- Processing. Some analysis happens on the device, some on the phone and some in the cloud. Small models running on tiny hardware, as in tiny machine learning, are one way to detect patterns without sending raw data away.
Why people are interested
Potential benefits are real, though they vary by device and person. Continuous measurement can give a clinician more information than an occasional visit. Wearables can prompt people to move more or notice changes in their health patterns. Some medical implants allow adjustments or monitoring without a clinic visit. Remote monitoring can in principle help people who live far from a hospital.
None of these is guaranteed. Consumer wearables measure some things well and others poorly, and their readings are not always accurate enough for medical decisions. Anyone with a health concern should speak to a qualified health professional rather than relying on a gadget’s output.
Privacy questions
Data about a body is among the most personal information there is. Heart rate, sleep, location and activity can reveal health conditions, routines and even emotional state.
Questions worth asking about any such device:
- What data does it collect, and is all of it needed?
- Where is it stored: on the device, on the phone, in a company’s cloud?
- Who else can see it, including advertisers, insurers, employers or other companies?
- How long is it kept, and can you delete it?
- Is it protected during transmission and while stored? The ideas behind data encryption apply fully.
- What happens to your data if the company is sold or closes?
When a wearable sends information to an online service, the questions around cloud AI privacy and who processes the data become relevant too. Legal protections differ widely between countries, and health data is covered by special rules in many places, so a device’s privacy policy and local law are worth reading rather than assuming.
Safety and security questions
Because these devices can affect health, their failure modes matter more than for a smart speaker.
- Reliability. A battery that dies or software that fails can have consequences, particularly for implanted medical devices.
- Security. A connected medical device that can be changed wirelessly needs strong protection against unauthorised access. Basics such as firmware updates, secure boot and avoiding default credentials matter as much here as anywhere, although updating an implant is far more constrained than updating a phone.
- Regulation. Medical devices are generally regulated, and approval processes exist to check safety and effectiveness. Non-medical wearables often face lighter rules.
- Consent and control. Who decides when data is shared or a setting is changed: the user, a doctor, a manufacturer or an employer?
Wider concerns about emerging cyber threats apply, since a device on a body is a device on a network.
The accurate state of the field
Realistically, wearables are widespread; certain implanted and ingestible medical devices are well established but specialised; and many of the more dramatic ideas, such as merging human and machine for enhancement, remain experimental, small-scale or speculative. Claims about what will arrive and when should be treated cautiously, including figures about market size or adoption, which vary by source and definition.
What this means for makers
For a hobbyist, the sensible line is to enjoy low-risk experiments, such as building a sensor that logs your own movement or temperature on a bench, while avoiding anything that attaches homemade electronics or batteries to the body in ways that could cause burns, shocks or infection. Do not build or modify medical devices, and do not try to implant anything. Follow manufacturer guidance and local rules, and ask a professional when health or safety is involved.