In the near future, electronic tattoos will turn your skin features into smartphone controls

In the early days of electronic tattoos, when attached to your skin, they will allow you to control your smartphone and other wearables with those areas of your skin. Now, researchers from the Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany, have created ultrathin, temporary electronic tattoos, called SkinMarks, which will turn your skin features like freckles, blemishes, birthmarks or even your fist knuckles into smartphone controls.

The researchers’ novel approach was based on the premise that you are “familiar” with your own skin features, with the attached electronic tattoos, you will reach out to them and control your paired smartphone with relative ease. The SkinMarks patch has electroluminescent features; it can be programmed to light up, just like the notification LED on a typical smartphone.

One of the major hurdles the researchers had to overcome was the transmission of signals from the attached electronic tattoo to the paired device. For this experiment, the researchers made use of thin copper wires connect the electronic tattoo to a “small Arduino microcontroller” housed in a wristband. Although the SkinMarks patch is very thin, thinner than a strand of human hair, it's SkinMark’s controller that will pose a problem for the user. This is because the controller board is too bulky to be worn comfortably on other parts of the human body. Also, the research team have yet to demonstrate the use of SkinMarks with a smartphone; so far, the team has used PCs for their testing.

Play

In spite of the glaring limitations of SkinMarks, the New Scientist reports the future is look bright for embedded controls and the next step in development will be on-skin devices. However, it may be a decade or more before such embedded controls and devices will make their way under our skins.

(Source: New Scientist)

Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.