Google SkinMarks: Smart tattoos turning skin into a touchpad

Google SkinMarks: Google is working on smart tattoos it will turn the human body through embedded sensors when added to the skin, into a living touchpad.

The wearable project is part of Google Research and is named "SkinMarks," which uses rub-on tattoos.

The project is an attempt to build the next generation of wearable technology apps, white papers and demo videos have been published by CNET.

Here's how the solution is functioning. The sensor-driven tattoos refer to any part of the body.

Instead, as we do on smartphones, the sensors can be activated by conventional tap or swipe movements.

There are a few gestures that function more directly on the surface of the skin.

"You could squeeze the area around the tattoo or bend your fingers or limbs to activate the sensors".

In a white paper, the researchers at Saarland University in Germany wrote that the advantage of using skin as an interface "is tapping into the fine motor skills that human beings naturally have"

The project is funded partially by Google Faculty Research Awards. It also means you can communicate with your own skin and limbs without looking at it.

The tattoos are made onto tattoo paper by screen printing conductive inks. Many of the tattoos on the prototype contain cartoon sketches or stage lighting.

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"Through a vastly reduced tattoo thickness and increased stretchability, a 'SkinMark' is sufficiently thin and flexible to conform to irregular geometry, like flexure lines and protruding bones," the researchers wrote.