{"id":311,"date":"2013-11-27T12:10:55","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T12:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kevinbillington.com\/wordpress\/?p=311"},"modified":"2017-08-29T13:54:10","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T12:54:10","slug":"whats-inside-motorolas-digital-tattoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevinbillington.com\/site\/?p=311","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s inside Motorola\u2019s digital tattoo?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Davies, www.slashgear.com<\/a> on\u00a031st May 2013<\/p>\n

\"\"Motorola dropped some jaws in May, when\u00a0Advanced Technology\u00a0and Projects Group chief Regina Dugan revealed\u00a0the company\u2019s tinkering on digital tattoos, week-long implanted electronics that could free you from the tyranny of remembering passwords. Dugan \u2013 a former DARPA head \u2013 described the tattoo as perfect for a wearables market targeting users that don\u2019t actually bother wearing watches any more, instead turning the body into a walking authentication token. She also namechecked\u00a0mc10, a company not unfamiliar to SlashGear, as the brains behind the flexible tattoo-tech, but just what\u2019s inside?<\/p>\n

Cambridge, MA, based mc10 calls the tattoo \u201cepidermal electronics\u201d, and has in fact been working on the concept for some years now. The idea is relatively straightforward: rather than rely on the user carrying a device, or remembering to strap one on each morning, the\u00a0technology\u00a0is temporarily bonded to their skin.<\/p>\n

That bond has another advantage, since the responses of the wearer\u2019s skin can also be used to collect health data. The tattoo is made up of various sensors and gages, such as for tracking strain in multiple directions (how the user is flexing), EEG and EMG (electrical impulses in the skeletal structure or nerves), ECG (heart activity), and temperature, as well as light and other factors. In total, it\u2019s a mini-lab for your arm, the side of your head, or anywhere else on the body.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Like NFC chips, the mc10 epidermal electronics get powered up from an external electricity source, using the embedded wireless power coil. It\u2019s a similar system to the\u00a0wireless phone\u00a0charging Nokia and others have implemented in recent handsets, and it powers the tattoo\u2019s transmitter. That\u2019s all layered onto a sheet of water-soluble plastic that gets laminated to the skin; in fact, it can even be disguised with a regular temporary tattoo pattern, opening the door to potential branding and such.<\/p>\n

Once they\u2019re in place, they\u2019re incredibly resilient. The tightly coiled structure of the electronics means that, even if the tattoo is stretched or twisted, the connections won\u2019t break. It\u2019s also waterproof, which means that even if you\u2019re swimming or in the shower, the tattoo won\u2019t be affected.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

However, epidermal electronics don\u2019t just have to stop at being biometric keys for your laptop and your Netflix account. Studies using the technology have found that they can also track muscle movements around speech, when applied to the throat, potentially turning the tattoos into half of a\u00a0wireless\u00a0hands-free kit. Since you don\u2019t actually have to speak out loud, it could pick up sub-vocal commands, too. Alternatively, they can even track brain signals with enough accuracy to control a computer, which might mean simply thinking about making a call and having your nearby smartphone place it. Similar sensors have been used to fly remote-control planes and drones, something mc10 is working on replicating with its more compact tattoos.<\/p>\n

They were some of the possibilities mc10 co-founder\u00a0Ben Schlatka spoke to us about last year, when we talked to him about the advantages of persistent sensing. The company is also working with the US army on embedded electronics in battlefield clothing, which could collect energy and convert it into electricity to power the gadgets soldiers carry.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine a kids\u2019 fake tattoo that can sense how our bodies work: data from the heart, the brain, muscles, body temperature \u2013 even hydration levels,\u201d Schlatka told us. \u201cWhen a sensing technology conforms to the\u00a0consumer\u00a0and not the other way around, it can capture more insights for longer periods of time without discomfort or distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Motorola isn\u2019t the only company intrigued. Back in April, mc10 announced it had\u00a0closed a new $8m financing round, taking the company\u2019s total Series C funding to $18m. Exactly which investors have come on-board is yet to be confirmed, though mc10 did say that it now has backers across its consumer, digital health, and medical devices divisions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Whether Motorola will actually release a wearable using mc10 technology remains to be seen; the Google-owned company still needs to prove it has a solid foot in the smartphone market, though the\u00a0new Moto X\u00a0could address that. Still, it\u2019s clear that the digital tattoo is capable of further breaking down the boundary between users and their devices. If Motorola can leverage that, alongside Google\u2019s own ongoing research into wearables like\u00a0Glass, it could be the differentiator the company needs from the increasingly crowded Android market, not to mention finally silencing the critics who doubted the wisdom of the smartphone company\u2019s acquisition in the first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Davies, www.slashgear.com on\u00a031st May 2013 Motorola dropped some jaws in May, when\u00a0Advanced Technology\u00a0and Projects …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[90],"tags":[125,150,118],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-geeky","tag-tattoo","tag-technology-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kevinbillington.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/mc10_digital_tattoo_1-580x411.jpg?fit=580%2C411&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p45vMv-51","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinbillington.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinbillington.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinbillington.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinbillington.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinbillington.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kevinbillington.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1160,"href":"https:\/\/kevinbillington.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions\/1160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinbillington.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinbillington.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinbillington.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinbillington.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}