Nano Ink "Tattoos": the next user interface?

Posted on 17. Feb, 2009 by Bradley Hebdon in Features

A cell is shown loaded with sodium-selective nanosensors. A similar injectable nanoink is under development that would appear purple when glucose levels are low

A special tattoo ink that changes color based on glucose levels inside the skin is under development by Massachusetts-based Draper Laboratories. The injectable nanotech ink could eventually free diabetics from painful blood glucose tests.

“It doesn’t have to be a large, over-the-shoulder kind of tattoo,” said Heather Clark, a scientist at Draper. “It would only have to be a few millimeters in size and wouldn’t have to go as deep as a normal tattoo.”

Initial tests of the sodium-detecting ink in mice have had “spectacular” results, according to Clark. Testing the glucose monitoring nanotech ink in mice could begin by the end of this month.

Consumers will have to wait. Clark estimates that it will be at least two years before the necessary human testing is complete to bring the ink to the market.

While this has huge potential as an alert delivery system, I wonder if there’s any possibility of this becoming a true user interface, whereby the user would be able to not only monitor information, but provide input too. In this application, the tattoo alerts users to the glucose levels, but could it also allow them to rectify the situation via a few taps to the tattoo?