This story by Saranja Sivachelvam about research into temporary tattoos that can be used to monitor medical conditions has the stuff of whimsical sci-fi epic all over it.
Apparently doctors in the US, Singapore, and China have developed electrochemical sensors that can be embedded subtlety into human skin to monitor temperature, strain, and electric signals from the body. The tattoos are even self-powered using tiny solar cells and can be bonded with the skin of anyone and the captured data can be output for any number of uses. The fact these tattoos have been developed to monitor a heart condition is amazing enough, but it doesn't take much to start imagining the other implications of this technology for the future.
How long until this is developed to more complex electronics? Imagine having a tattoo applied across the linking the tip of your pinky to the end of your thumb. Place a microphone on the pinky and a speaker on the thumb and you could have a cell phone that actually works when you do that phone gesture. In Sivachelvam's article, one doctor even points to an experiment that placed such a sensor on the throat of a person and detected the difference between "up," "down," "left," and "right." Or imagine havine a sensor in one of these tattoos applied to the tips of each of your fingers. Suddenly any surface could become a digital display and a wirelessly connected monitor could be your window to an agumented reality world. No keyboard? Just type using muscle memory and the words could appear. No white board around for your brainstorming session? Just use your finger on the nearest wall and allow a projector to draw the lines for you.
Of course, while the tattoos hold a lot of promise for making both useful and effortless, there's a too. With technology so cheap, easy to deploy, and effective at tracking information, there's no doubt that governments with authoritarian leanings will be tested to put them to use. Imagine the temptation of placeing a permanent tattoo on anyone convicted of a crime that would contain a record of what they've done. Or instead of issuing a driver's licence, you just put a small tattoo on the back of a person's hand. That'd be convenient for border crossings and getting pulled over by the police, right?
As society moves forward with these exciting technologies, we'll have to keep in mind how the information they're collecting is both accessed and governed. People wearing any such devices should be the sole purveyors of the data collected from them, just as they have privacy rights to their own bodies.
