Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Dattoo Personal Skinprint Technology Concept
Dattoos, DNA-based tattoos, create seamless connectivity and are the ultimate in personal technology. The Dattoo is, for now, a concept design by Hartmut Esslinger that uses the skin of the human body itself as hardware and network.
(Dattoo DNA-based personal technology)
The basic idea is to use the body as the basis for hardware, and the skin-covered surface of your body as an interface. As technologists have discovered, interfaces take up space; why not use your most intimate space to connect.
Here are some details:
To achieve absolute personal identification, the hardware would capture DNA from the user’s body, enabling direct participation in the political and cultural landscape. The technology would link remote users through engagement with their areas of interest...Science fiction authors have already gone on ahead and imagined skinprint technology. In his 1984 novel Steel Beach, John Varley thinks about handwriters:Users view, test-drive, and select their product from a variety of options, both functional and aesthetic. They also set the lifecycle of the product, to be utilized for a few hours or a much longer amount of time. Once users are satisfied with their specific configurations, they have this fully-functioning circuitry - including all UI-interactive and display functions - “printed” onto recommended areas of their skin. Energy would be pulled from the human body to run the programs. At the end of the day, users would simply wash the Dattoos off, beginning anew the following day.
Call me old-fashioned. I'm the only reporter I know who still uses his handwriter except to take notes…I snapped the fingers of my left hand…Three rows of four colored dots appeared on the heel of my left hand. By pressing the dots in different combinations with my fingertips I was able to write the story in shorthand...
(Read more about John Varley's handwriter)
Although this is a very far-fetched idea, the first steps have already been taken. IBM pioneered research in the area of using a living person's skin as a computer network in 1996 with a system that could successfully transmit data across skin at low speeds. Microsoft was granted a patent in 2004 for "a method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body."
More recently, NTT has developed a technology called RedTacton, which can send data over the surface of human skin at speeds of up to 2Mbps -- the equivalent of a fast broadband data connection. The transmission is achieved by minutely modulating the electrical body field in the same way that a radio station wave is modulated to carry broadcast data.
And is it possible to print an electronic circuit with ink? Absolutely. Manufacturers already "print" RFID tags with a special "ink" that attracts metals in a special solution.
Practical applications? What if you could transfer images from your digital camera just by touching a pad on your PC? Or move music from your computer to the phone in your left hand - by touching the PC with your right? In a more intimate space, the girl you just met could transmit her phone number and other info with a handshake - or a kiss.
Read more about Dattoos via pasta&vinegar; also, human skin broadband networking.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/16/2006)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 2 )
Related News Stories - (" Culture ")
Vesuvius Challenge Accepted - Ancient Burnt Scroll Read!
'The image on the Trimagniscope tube was an enlarged view of one of the pocket-size books found on the body...' - James P. Hogan, 1977.
Humans Love Helping Other Species
'At the ringside opposite them a table had been removed to make room for a large transparent plastic capsule on wheels.' - Robert Heinlein, 1951.
AI-Powered Jesus Hologram Accepts Confessions
'The Padre's weightless voice floated reassuringly back to him.' Philip K. Dick, 1969.
Miss Alabama Beauty Contest Offers Different Standards
'...they moved with the ease of dandelion puffs.' - Jack Vance, 1952.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Tiny Flying Robot Weighs Just One Gram
'Aerostat meant anything that hung in the air. This was an easy trick to pull off nowadays.'
Some Ringworld Configurations Are Stable
'The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky.'
TRANSFORM Dynamic Furniture Concept Becomes What You Need
'An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic...'
Harvard Metamaterials Change Structure Instantly
'Annealed in any shape for a time, and codified, the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.'
SnapBot Robots - You Choose Their Legs And They Choose Their Gaits
It's not really polite to tear the limbs off robots.
Dino From Magical Toys An AI Companion To Children
'...the imaginary companions discovered by needful children.'
Humanoid Robots Building Humanoid Robots
''Pardon me, Struthers,' he broke in suddenly... 'haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?''
Darpa 'Defiant' Unmanned Autonomous Ship
'There was no wheel, and no steersman!'
What's The Best Way To Ship And Unpack Humanoid Robots?
'I opened the oblong box, where lay the automatons side by side...'
DNA Printed Book By Isaac Asimov Now Available
'They tied the memory to the bloodline and that was their record!'
AI Computer Chip Designs Passeth Human Understanding
'It seems that at one time computers were designed directly by human beings.'
Space Traffic Management (STM) Needed Now
'...the spot was a lonely one in an uncharted region, far from the normal lanes of space traffic.'
Fine-Tune Your Infinite Book The Way You Want It
'I squatted down beside the roller and tried to make some sense out of the knobs. There were thirty-nine of them...'
SpiRobs Soft Spiral Robotic Arm
'Beware the long, flexible, glittering tentacles...'
Holland Factory 3D Printing 500 Tons Of Steak Per Month
'...I don’t understand technical things — tell me, does it ever feel anything?"
Stratospheric Solar Geoengineering From Harvard
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
