PhD students at MIT and Microsoft researchers has developed a temporary tattoo that can turn into a remote control for your device or even share data. This is similar to a previously developed technology that turns the skin into a big touch screen.

MIT students Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao, Andres Calvo, and Chris Schmandt collaborated with Microsoft Research personnel Asta Roseway, Christian Holz, and Paul Johns to create a temporary fashion tattoo that turns skin into a trackpad. The tattoo technology, called DuoSkin, will be presented at a wearables symposium, The Verge reported.

MIT Media Lab's DuoSkin can be used as an input to control a device such as a computer, a phone or a tablet. It can also be used as an output device that utilizes the property of thermochromic pigments to change its color. Additionally, it can be used as a communication device by using NFC.

The tattoo is created using gold leaf -the same material used in picture frames and as a packaging to some chocolates. The circuit design can easily be created using the regular computer software available such as Paint. Then, it would be cut by a specific cutter and then gold leaf is applied and electronics are mounted. After the circuitry is finished it is applied to the skin via water transfer.

This is not the first time, however that the skin is used as a touch-controller. Back in 2010, Chris Harrison of Carnegie Mellon University turned human skin into a touch screen. He used biosensors that detects movement using the vibrations that travels through bone mass and soft tissues. Harrison was also the one who developed a technology that turns tabletops into input surfaces, according to the CMU's official website.

Harrison is also a PhD student in CMU's Human-Computer Interaction Institute. He envisions that a device in the future, smaller than a stack of coins, can be worn around the wrist to serve as a smartphone.

These skin input technologies could be the future of mobile devices.

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Topics MIT, Carnegie Mellon University