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Massachusetts Institute of Technology has teamed up with Microsoft to develop the ultimate wearable tech: a temporary tattoo.
So next time you go to a festival or party and decide to put one on, it might do so much more than just look good.
Developed by MIT PhD students, the new technology is called DuoSkin and uses gold leaf to transfer the tattoo on to your skin. You put it on the same way you would a normal temporary tattoo: it’s as simple as that.
There are three potential functions for the new tech:
1. As a trackpad for your device.
2. As an output of information (for example, a colour change could be triggered if there is a change in temperature).
3. As a communication device, using NFC to share data.
You can check out the tattoos in action here:
DuoSkin:Functional, stylish on-skin user interfaces from MIT Media Lab on Vimeo.
Gold leaf has been chosen because not only does it look pretty, but it is also relatively low cost, conductive, skin-friendly, and can be made very thin to seamlessly be placed on to the skin.
The students that wrote the paper say “we believe that skin serves as the bridge between the physical and digital realms, enabling users to leverage the personal aesthetic principle that is often missing in today’s wearable tech”.
In short: they aim to put the beauty and functionality back into wearable tech. They reckon wearables shouldn’t only be reserved for health and fitness purposes, but have a huge potential beyond that.
We’d put money on the brains behind these tattoos having gone to Coachella this year, as their designs are remarkably cool. They wouldn’t be out of place on a fashion blogger’s Instagram – and who said tech didn’t have to look good?
A pretty temporary tattoo that can control your phone? Sign us up.
