Future Wireless Systems for Human Bond Communications Enrico Del Re 1,2 • Simone Morosi 1 • Lorenzo Mucchi 1 • Luca Simone Ronga 2 • Sara Jayousi 1 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract In the near future the capability of the human beings to communicate sensa- tions is going to be enhanced by incorporating the five sensory features in the messages and allowing more expressive and holistic sensory information exchange through communi- cation techniques. The human bond communication (HBC) is currently a vision, but it is expected to become true. The objective of this paper is to give an overview of the potentiality and the main challenges for the adoption of HBC in the existing and future wireless systems. Starting from the HBC main features, a flexible architecture that could be considered for the development of these systems is described, highlighting how wireless systems could eventually boost the HBC adoption in different scenarios. The security and privacy issues are presented, focusing on the requirements and the new threats identifi- cation and proposing some possible solutions. Finally, some potential application contexts are analyzed and the open key issues for HBC implementation are addressed. Keywords Human bond communications Á Wireless systems Á Network architecture Á Security Á Privacy 1 Introduction One of the main goals of the future pervasive communication ecosystem is the improve- ment of the quality of our lives by increasing comfort and the enrichment of the inter- actions and conditions of our everyday activities [1]. In the near future this general objective is likely to encompass the capability of the human beings to communicate sensations by incorporating the five sensory features in the messages and allowing more & Enrico Del Re enrico.delre@unifi.it 1 Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, University of Florence, Florence, Italy 2 CNIT, University of Florence, Florence, Italy 123 Wireless Pers Commun DOI 10.1007/s11277-016-3240-x