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Temporary “tech tats” can track the wearer’s health and location, it has been recently announced by the inventors of this revolutionary technology.
The devices has been developed by Chaotic Moon Studios, a mobile software design and development studio, headquartered in Austin, Texas.
Prior projects of this company, which was recently acquired by Accenture, involved the “Smarter Cart”, which can follow customers in a store and assist them in finding grocery list items, and Freewheel, a wheelchair-oriented fitness tracker, which can monitor speed, altitude, distance, as well as incline and decline.
The agency has also created a”Board of Awesomeness” which is actually a motorized, mind-controlled skateboard that can reach 32 mph, as well as a “Helmet of Justice” which can act like a black box for the bicycle, in the event of an accident.
Now, Chaotic Moon Studios employees have devised a new type of wearable technology, using biometric devices that look just like stick-on tattoos, which can easily be applied on skin, without being permanently imprinted there. In fact, the slightly embossed miniature gadgets can be removed just by being washed off, like ordinary fashion tattoos.
The tech tattoos can easily monitor the user’s blood pressure, pulse and body temperature. Therefore, they can provide real-time health data, which could help prevent life-threatening issues, such as heart attacks or strokes.
In addition, they can also determine if the wearer is experiencing heightened levels of stress, by measuring sweat production, total body water percentage, and heart rate.
This is achieved thanks to their electronic elements, which consist of a micro-controller, as well as a cluster of LED lights, basically turning the user into a “human circuit board”.
Health data collected using this non-invasive system is afterwards conveyed and reported back to the wearer, using the conductive paint that the tattoos are based on.
According to Ben Lamm, Chaotic Moon Studios’ CEO, the “tech tats” can certainly be considered the new generation of wearables, and can offer an innovative alternative to other more conventional fitness trackers such as Fitbit Charge HR, Fitbit Surge, Jawbone UP2 and UP3, Moov Now, Xiaomi Mi Band and Garmin Vivoactive.
Developers also suggest other potential ways of using this biometric device, for personal reasons or even during military combat.
Given that the tech tats can transmit information regarding the wearer’s location, it could be much easier for parents to make sure that they don’t lose sight of their children at amusement parks or department stores. The wearables could also allow concertgoers to find each other more easily at heavily packed venues.
Alternatively, the devices, which are just prototypes at the moment, could also be beneficial in the banking sector, by facilitating user identification and payment authorization.
Moreover, the army could employ this wearable technology which is extremely cheap and virtually undetectable, so that the soldiers’ health and location can be tracked at all times, in order to determine if someone has been injured or poisoned.
Recently, several other inventors have also been working on creating such electronic tattoos. For example, Korean researchers have developed temporary tattoos using hybrid graphene, which also hold the promise of accurately monitoring health status.
Also, scientists at the University of California San Diego have come up with a bio-sensor which has the appearance of a temporary tattoo, and can monitor exercise intensity levels, turning sweat into electricity.
Image Source: Chaotic Moon
