“Electronic tattoo”, named after its creators, is presented as an innovative solution for medical monitoring. Applied under the skin, this painless patch worn “like a second skin” anywhere on the body can record a patient’s muscle, heart or brain activity. It can be kept for several days.
Electronic tattooing: remote medical diagnosis
The applications imagined by Nanshu-Lu of the American University of Texas-Austin are numerous: from a medical point of view, digital watermarking can send valuable data remotely to the doctor who can react in real time. But to allow this wireless interaction, the wearer of the patch will still have to connect to a computer (it’s hard to imagine how!). The patch could also contract muscles to “give patients back lost mobility or strength,” the statement said.
In the near future, Professor Lu would like his smart tattoo to be able to register information and react accordingly. For example, a failed heart could receive an electrical flow after the detection of a Cardiac arrythmia. Or one could imagine receiving a suitable drug if the tattoo detects an abnormality linked to a particular disease.
The inventor hopes with this system to bring a feeling of well-being by giving him freedom of movement while being followed by discreet instruments.
Electronic tattooing: a remote-controlled player?
But Nanshu-Lu’s altruism has limits: before these medical uses, the system will be tested for electronic games (more profitable). Placed on the throat of a player, it will be able to remotely control video game controllers, it will suffice to turn the head to the right or to the left. And in the long term, will we be able to remotely control the movements of the “tattooed”? We cannot help but wonder about the excesses of such a system.
>> To read also: Tattoo: how to get rid of it
