Wearable Electronic Tattoo
Tattoos are awesome, until they aren't. Wait until Electronic skin is available commercially though,this new technology is a stretchable ultra-thin device that clings to the skin. The device includes sensors for temperature, strain, and electric signals from the body. This is a new kind of wearable technology prototyped by John A. Rogers, a Materials Scientist and his team at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Depending upon the functional requirement of the device, it can be placed at several locations on the skin. One the wrist, it can measure blood flow and muscle movement. On the forehead, it can record brainwaves, and when placed on the throat, it can function as a secret phone to record the signals by simply deciphering movements of the voice box. The device was mounted on a person’s throat and the electrical measurements are used to control the cursor on the screen, demonstrating the device's potential as a Human-Computer interface.
Electronic skin was designed to be flexible and stretchable, so that it can cling on to the skin and still be able to function normally. To achieve this, Rogers made use of high performance materials like silicon and fabricated them into thin “serpent like shapes” which helps it to flex and stretch as much as human skin.
There are several potential uses of the electronic tattoos. It can be used as a non-invasive diagnosis for patients with health conditions like sleep apnea or heart arrhythmia. It can also be used for monitoring the heart activity of premature babies. Rogers believes that the immediate use of the device is in bio-integrated technology and adds that the ultimate goal is to create tiny devices that may ev
en be able to operate independently within the body, improving, for example, the health of the human heart.
The possibilities of such a device are. From monitoring the heart rate of premature babies to using it as a console in gaming industry to transmitting data by secret agents, it can completely revolutionize the world around us.
