For decades, people have been using tattoos as a symbol of art, a way to express their feelings, or showing solidarity towards a certain cause. But this technology created by Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao, a Ph.D. Student at the MIT Media Lab, promises to revolutionize the world of tattoos!
Cindy and his group of Ph.D. students have collaborated with Microsoft Research to generate a new fabrication process called “DuoSkin.” It aims to convert a conventional tattoo into the one with connected interfaces. Also, this technology gives it the capability to be controlled by a smartphone remotely. It can also be used as a display output based on the temperature changes in your body. You may also use it to share data using NFC.
The researchers claim that DuoSkin is quite inexpensive and easy to fabricate. The circuit pattern can be devised using any graphics software, and then a layer of gold leaf can be added on the top to make it look fancy. This gold leaf is similar to the one you add on the top of some desserts. Fancy stuff!
This tattoo can be applied as any other washable tattoo. Moreover, adding other commodity materials and components adds to the capability of tattoos’ interactive qualities.
The tattoo can be modified to turn your skin into a trackpad, and can also change color based on your body temperature. It can be used to send or receive data from other devices, making it sort of a smart device embedded in your skin. The researchers showed that the tattoos could even contain embedded LEDs to create a programmed glowing display on the skin.
Would you consider having such a tattoo on your skin? Do you think it is trendy enough to catch on? Comment below!