It just might be your mother’s worst nightmare. MIT Media Lab, in partnership with Microsoft Research, has unveiled DuoSkin, a project that uses temporary tattoos as connected interfaces that can be used in a variety of ways. Tech Times brought this very interesting information to our attention in their article, “MIT Unveils DuoSkin: Temporary Tattoos That Function As On-Skin Interfaces To Interact With Computers, Mobile Devices.”

DuoSkin is a fabrication process that allows for the creation of customized functional devices that can be attached onto the skin of users. The temporary tattoos used are made out of gold metal leaf and combined with materials such as temporary tattoo printing paper and a vinyl cutter, and also LEDs for bling.

Now that you feel like a robot, the tattoos can be used to transform the wearer’s skin into a trackpad or slider to control connected mobile devices or computers. As an output interface, the tattoos are capable of bringing soft displays to the skin that can change color depending on the skin temperature. As a communication interface, the tattoos can contain data which can be detected by other devices using near field communication (NFC) wireless technology.

So, the term unplugged just took on an entirely new meaning.

Melody K. Smith
