High-Tech Device Makes You Part of the Matrix

Where body modification intersects with technology, you find the intriguing new product concept developed by Jim Mielke: a Bluetooth tattoo.

Made of silicon and silicone, it’s a thin, flexible high-tech device implanted between the skin and muscle. The top surface can be accessed through the skin. Instead of ink, the display uses minute “smart” spheres that are tattooed over the device. Tiny tubes attach it to an artery and a vein. Blood flows to a small fuel cell (which converts glucose and oxygen to electricity) and flows out again through the vein.

The new high-tech tattoo can communicate wirelessly with other Bluetooth devices, both in the outside world and — perhaps even more importantly — inside the body! Can a healthcare application be far behind? Could this high-tech tattoo be useful, for instance, in diabetes management?