Can Smart Skin Tattoos Replace Your Cellphone?

How would you like to find out what time it is simply by looking at your bare arm instead of a wristwatch? How about seeing your heart rate or body temperature?

This is all possible with a new technology known as “smart skin” or “e-skins.” Here’s how it would work. Electronic sensors would be packed into an ultra-thin and incredibly flexible material that could be worn on the skin. Think temporary tattoo with technology smashed into it.

These sensors could be Bluetooth compatible and receive data from your smartphone or they could work on their own. Recent research by the University of Tokyo gave way to a test where they attached smart skin to a finger which then detected blood oxygen levels and transmitted the results to a smart skin display on the hand.

Now what was special about this research is not the fact that you can replace fingertip pulse oximeters with tattoos or smart skin but it was the robustness of the skin’s production. Earlier skins only worked for a few hours at the most where this one worked for over a day due to its protective coating that prevents water vapor and air from seeping in
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The head of this study, Professor Takao Someya, elaborated on its importance, “The advent of mobile phones has changed the way we communicate. While these communication tools are getting smaller and smaller, they are still discrete devices that we have to carry with us. What would the world be like if we had displays that could adhere to our bodies and even show our emotions or level of stress or unease?” He continued, “In addition to not having to carry a device with us at all times, they might enhance the way we interact with those around us or add a whole new dimension to how we communicate.”

There are various independent researchers working on smart skins with the eventual goal of being able to turn them into a full-on digital screen. These screens would be able to feed you all of your smartphone data right on your skin.

At this point that’s probably a long way off but not out of reach. The University of Tokyo’s research is a giant step forward but we’re likely to see numerous giant steps forward before we see smart skin tattoos commercially available.

Google Building a Futuristic Digital City – What You Need to Know

According to a recent report from The Information it seems as though Google is tossing around the idea of building an entire city from scratch to serve as a test-bed for new and cutting edge technology. To say this is a Google endeavor isn’t exactly correct as it’s a potential endeavor of Sidewalk Labs which is a subsidiary of umbrella corporation, Alphabet.

Alphabet was created as a parent company to Google and other companies and projects so that they wouldn’t have to brand everything “Google.” But let’s be honest, it’s basically Google. Sidewalk Labs is putting together a proposal to start soliciting bids from states and counties to create a digital district and then eventually an entire city. Apparently they’re eyeing parts of Detroit or Denver as possible locations.

The Information had this to say:
“The idea under consideration is for Sidewalk to create an area in the U.S. that serves as a test-bed for new technologies from super fast Internet to autonomous cars, according to several people involved in the effort. Some 100 city planning experts, researchers and technologists have been involved with the project.”

What this entirely digital city would look like is anyone’s guess. I’m thinking self-driving cars, smart hubs to control everything from traffic lights to utilities like gas and electric, central WiFi, air traffic lanes for flying cars, robots handling basic service duties like drive-thrus, flying cars, robots secretly plotting to take total control of Google City and enslaving all resident humans, flying cars.

This is all speculation of course. The question is: will everything be electric? Will we see a city built without the need for gas-powered machinery? It could be an interesting test to see if we could in fact live without oil. As for now the Alphabet/Sidewalk Labs/Google digital city remains a rumor. I’m sure we will hear more of this in the coming months.
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While the idea excites me and fills me with hope that this will be a step in the right direction with green energy solutions a definite possibility, I can’t help but to think we might be a living prequel to a couple of my favorite Sci-Fi films – Blade Runner and Terminator. I’m all for faster Wi-Fi, less auto accidents and electric-powered machinery but I’m less than thrilled at the idea of computers becoming self-aware á la Skynet.