Electronic tattoo display runs on blood
The tattoo display: "Waterproof and powered by
pizza."
Jim Mielke's wireless blood-fueled display is a true merging of technology and body art. At the recent
Greener Gadgets Design Competition, the engineer demonstrated a subcutaneously implanted
touch-screen that operates as a cell phone display, with the potential for 3G video calls that are
visible just underneath the skin.
The basis of the 2x4-inch "Digital Tattoo Interface" is a Bluetooth device made of thin, flexible silicon and
silicone. It´s inserted through a small incision as a tightly rolled tube, and then it unfurls beneath the skin to
align between skin and muscle. Through the same incision, two small tubes on the device are attached to an
artery and a vein to allow the blood to flow to a coin-sized blood fuel cell that converts glucose and oxygen
to electricity. After blood flows in from the artery to the fuel cell, it flows out again through the vein.
On both the top and bottom surfaces of the display is a matching matrix of field-producing pixels. The top
surface also enables touch-screen control through the skin. Instead of ink, the display uses tiny microscopic
spheres, somewhat similar to tattoo ink. A field-sensitive material in the spheres changes their color from
clear to black, aligned with the matrix fields.
The tattoo display communicates wirelessly to other Bluetooth devices - both in the outside world and
within the same body. Although the device is always on (as long as your blood´s flowing), the display can
be turned off and on by pushing a small dot on the skin. When the phone rings, for example, an individual
turns the display on, and "the tattoo comes to life as a digital video of the caller," Mielke explains. When
the call ends, the tattoo disappears.
Could such an invasive device have harmful biological effects? Actually, the device could offer health
benefits. That´s because it also continually monitors for many blood disorders, alerting the person of a
health problem.
The tatto