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TECHNOLOGY GETTING UNDER YOUR SKIN April 2003

Ian Pearson, BTexact’s futurologist says that in the future you could get your weekly video tattoo from the local corner shop!

Tattoos have increased in popularity to the extent that it sometimes seems that every celebrity from David Beckham and Robbie Williams through to Davina McCall now has one. But everyone knows how difficult it is to remove a tattoo once you’ve got one. The answer may, however, soon be at hand. Ian Pearson, futurologist for BTexact, BT’s research and technology business, says that recent developments in polymer displays and electronics means that it may soon be possible to put electronics onto and into our skin that can be programmed to display the image someone chooses to match their mood or fit with their clothing.

Semiconductor circuits can already be printed using inkjet printers, so it could be possible in the future to have circuits painlessly printed onto hands or arms, in somewhere like a local corner shop! The idea is to use a ‘five-layered’ architecture, with a few components deep in the skin that would stay there permanently, in contact with blood capillaries and nerve endings. They could communicate by infrared with others higher in the skin that would wash or wear away after a few days.

Other circuits could be factory assembled in thin polymer membranes that adhere to the skin like children's temporary tattoos and large-scale circuitry could be embedded in stick-on patches rather like Elastoplasts. The combination of layers allows entire gadgets to be built, and permits links between the body and electronic domains such as the internet.

Ian Pearson, BTexact’s futurologist, said: “Active skin is a real possibility as components become increasingly smaller. By the end of this decade, it will be possible to build simple identifier, memory and processing chips, sensors, and short range communication devices, all smaller than human skin cells, which are about 10 microns across.

“We could painlessly print or blast these chips in significant numbers into the upper layers of the skin and, by using self-organisation technology, arrange them into useful circuits and consumer electronic gadgets.”

Active skin technology could be used by the medical profession to monitor our blood chemistry 24/7 and enable hospitals to check up on patients via computers or mobiles. These computers could also remotely control drug dispensers. It might even be possible to print special membranes with pores that can be electronically opened and closed and thereby dispense accurate dosages.

Cellphones, MP3 players, electronic diaries and other consumer electronics could be printed into wrists, arms or legs. A full keyboard could be embedded in your forearm but remain almost invisible until touched and then they would light up. The circuitry itself would be made of dispersed groups of invisibly small devices, so that there would be more than a very slight colour change in that area of skin before the device is switched on.

Ian continues: “The displays for these devices could be based on small organic LEDs. It could have a simple single indicator light, an active tattoo or an entire computer display. Having a TV printed onto the back of the hand might be quite appealing for TV addicts. It will certainly make some very interesting body adornment possibilities. We could even see some real teletubbies!"

This technology could also revolutionise the cosmetics and perfumery industry. Some of the earliest examples of successful nanotechnology, technology using components less than 100 nanometres across, are in the cosmetics sector. Colours can be made by using diffraction as well as dyes, so simply changing the surface texture of a material can be enough to change its colour dramatically (that is how butterfly wings are coloured).

In the future people will be able to state the make-up colour they want and the nano-sized particles would rearrange the components to achieve it. Putting on make-up in the morning could be a revolutionary new experience. A digital mirror in the bathroom or bedroom could show a set of alternative make-up styles to choose from.

All that would have to be done would be to apply the smart make-up to the face, select a style and the make-up would then configure itself to achieve that image, using the (invisible) active skin underlay. All through the day, the active makeup could change its appearance according to the style selected whether it be for work, rest or play!

This could also be applied to video nail varnish and perfume. Active skin could include the capability to print a thin warming element that can vaporise different components of the active perfume on request.

Ian concludes: “It will also become possible to link to nerves in due course, maybe as early as 2015, to record and replay sensations. Let’s imagine we meet someone in a virtual environment and are able to feel a handshake, since we would have already recorded what a real handshake feels like. Then you would simply replay the same nerve signals as those generated by the real thing, into the same nerves. However, we’d need to print active skin over our hands and fingers to get convincing immersive environments, but not necessarily over our whole bodies. Some people might opt for additional patches, so that they could have sex via networks, or even for sports, giving computer-aided feedback to assist training.

“The future is closer than we think, but accuracy is impossible for all but the most trivial questions about the future. Active skin technology could however make our future quite exciting and interesting.”