MIT Media Lab researcher Katia Vega: The Dermal Abyss presents a novel approach to biointerfaces in which the body surface is rendered an interactive display. Traditional tattoo inks were replaced with biosensors whose colors change in response to variations in the interstitial fluid. It blends advances in biotechnology with traditional methods in tattoo artistry.
We developed four biosensors, reacting to three biochemical information in body fluid and changes colors: The pH sensor changes between purple and pink, the glucose sensor shifts between blue and brown; the sodium and a second pH sensor fluoresce at a higher intensity under UV light.
Researchers at MIT Media Lab and Harvard Medical School teamed up to create tattoo ink that reacts to your body’s chemistry.
Co.Design: Researchers are getting closer to turning the skin into an interface, while designers imagine what these interfaces might look like. Do they come in the form of a tattoo, like Vega suggests, or a temporary tattoo that doubles as a circuit? Do they act like a second skin? Will we use them to control our devices, or to better understand our bodies? Either way, there’s a whole lot more to explore on the surface of our skin.