FrogDesign’s DNA ‘Dattoos’

Posted on February 23, 2007 by C Johnson
Culture, Design, Tech

Right. So let’s just pretend for the moment that you’re down the pub with your mates. Friday night. Rank DJ, great beer. Been making eyes at someone all night and you’ve finally struck up conversation. And when the moment comes to either part ways or make a move, you simply shake hands and walk away. Damn pleased with yourself too, since you’ve just walked away with a phone number… transmitted to you by a simple touch of the hand.
It does rather sound like a scene from a sci-fi flick, and maybe DNA Tattoos (“dattoos”) are still a rather far-fetched concept, but the strange truth of the matter is that they’re not an impossibility. Not by any means.

I can hear you screaming at me ‘what the heck are you on about’, so let me take a minute to summarize.

According to FrogDesign the dattoo concept is to utilize the body as hardware and human skin as an interface. Energy to run programmes is pulled from the human body (that is, the body’s natural electrical field) and circuitry is “printed” onto the surface of the skin. Therefore, dattoos can be created not just on self, but in your shoes, gloves, hats, Zippos, anything that you carry about your person.

Crazy, right? Absolutely bloody mad.

Then again that’s what they once said about the horseless carriage, talking pictures and portable phones. And you’d be surprised at what’s already being done to make this admittedly Assimov sounding idea anything but.
About ten years ago, IBM began researching the idea of using human skin as a computer network. No I’m not making this up. What they found is that they could successfully transmit data across skin at low speeds. Interesting…

Then Microsoft got into the action about three years ago, securing a patent for what is called “a method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body.” Hmm…

Oh and then, there’s RedTacton. It uses the surface of the human body to transmit data at speeds up to 2Mpbs… yeah, just like broadband. Hands, fingers, toes, legs, anything works as RedTacton works through your clothing too. The electric fields on the surface of the body are modulated for communication purposes much like radio waves are modulated for broadcasting purposes.

OK, you say, but what about this whole ink circuitry thing? That surely is a load of rubbish, right? Wrong. Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are currently being used for security reasons on things like passports (that’s ANOTHER blog altogether). 10 million Londoners use RFID’s daily with their public transport cards— tags that are “printed” with a type of “ink” designed to attract metal.

But before you start putting too much stock into this, remember that just because the technology is there doesn’t mean it’ll happen. I mean, aren’t we all meant to be zooming about flying cars by now? And anyway, is any of this what we really need… or even want? Is this the ultimate form of self expression? Or is it an overt invasion of privacy?

Let the debate begin… you’ve got time.

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