Slashdot Mirror
Skin-Based Display Screens From Nanotech Tattoos
destinyland writes "Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York is developing flexible nanotubes
inserted under the skin to create a handheld display — inside your hand. They wirelessly receive data and display reminders and text messages, and the concept has also been broadened to suggest endlessly programmable digital tattoos, while Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics is also exploring the concept of
the body as 'a platform for electronics and interactive skin technologies'." That middle link is quite old, but is still loaded with interesting links.
Finally a way to change my tattoo every time i feel like it, and get rid of my gf's complaints that she doesn't want me to have more tattoos.
Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice - Grey's Law
If you thought fun with programmable road signs was something, wait 'til tatoo hacks become the new fad!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Implant this under all exposed skin and a solider could have camouflage patterns turned on/off and changed for the terrain.
but most Geeks don't have a high pain threshold.
Its only a matter of time before someone figures out how to get porn on it.
If programmable digital tattoos catch on, it might be a good idea if the data feed in your "handheld display" was used to ensure that the name in your tattoo matches the name of the person you're with.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
This reminds my of the futuristic OCtattoos (Organic Circuitry tattoos) that Peter Hamilton makes use of in his Commonwealth Saga stories.
They're described in the Wiki as:
Would be really neat to have this in our lifetime.
wristwatch without the watch, for a long time now.
I can be a very willing guinea pig, lab rat, et cetera. Just tell me where to sign!
Yes, the prospect of long-term, irreparable skin damage is nothing next to the coolness of having the dermatological equivalent of animated GIFs. And I mean that sincerely.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
Good luck with that the next time you're at the security check at the airport. Pacemakers they know about, but with people getting withheld due to t-shirts with *images* of electronics, this thing is just asking for trouble.
"Good news, everyone!"
It all sounds cool...for a movie or a fad. The next thing you know you have to keep your virus defs up to date or your tatoo will be throwing up all kinds of unwanted pop-ups. If it can be 'reprogrammed,' that is just a freq that manipulates the nano devices, then it can be maliciously altered as well. I still don't understand the fascination with putting electronics in the body (medical reasons notwithstanding). And there is already an issue with people being tracked and watched. They tie the screen to your vitals and it will glow green if you are telling the truth or red if you are lying. It will tell folks your current medical status. _IF_ that is what you want.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
There are many biologically neutral materials that are safely implanted into the body all the time. Titanium pins for repairing bones. Pacemakers. Composite plates for skull injuries. These are just medical examples. You get into the "body modification" crowd and you start seeing stainless steel, neobium, and nylon implants and piercings.
I suspect that rejection or attack by white blood cells are not an insurmountable issue here, but I'm not a doctor.
Hypothetically, if this were to become common. It'd force police to rethink how they document and identify distinguishing marks on the body. Or a gang member being some kind of double agent and switching inks from one gang to another. Its the stuff of scifi. Makes me think of The Illustrated Man of Ray Bradbury.
If they could figure out a voice-command interface to this, "Talk to the hand" could get a whole new meaning.
One step closer to Ghost in the Shell's brain hacking becoming an everyday reality!