Temporary tattoos could make ‘electronic telepathy,’ ‘telekinesis’ possible
February 21, 2013
(Credit: mc10)
The devices are less than 100 microns thick, the average diameter of a human hair. They consist of circuitry embedded in a layer or rubbery polyester that allow them to stretch, bend and wrinkle. They are barely visible when placed on skin, making them easy to conceal from others.
The devices can detect electrical signals linked with brain waves, and incorporate solar cells for power and antennas that allow them to communicate wirelessly or receive energy. Other elements can be added as well, like thermal sensors to monitor skin temperature and light detectors to analyze blood oxygen levels.
Using the electronic tattoos, Coleman and his colleagues have found they can detect brain signals reflective of mental states, such as recognition of familiar images. One application they are now pursuing is monitoring premature babies to detect the onset of seizures that can lead to epilepsy or brain development problems. The devices are now being commercialized for use as consumer, digital health, medical device, and industrial and defense products by startup MC10 in Cambridge, Mass.
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Comments (56)
by warren
Nice technology for what it is intended for. However, making these predictions about telepathic communications is a little like someone making the same prediction when the telephone was invented. The idea of detecting brain waves and recognizing their intent has been around for quire some time and has been the subject of research in the military especially for fighter pilots being able to control their aircraft or weapons systems with thought. That’s promising but it still a very far cry from carrying on an intelligent conversation with someone else using telepathic means. Right now, it seems that the development of this sort of communication will need to take a different path than this. Of course, I could be wrong but, that’s my sense.
by Editor
Misleading headline, my bad. These are simply electronic devices for remote sensing and remote control.
by dayhawk
everything lead to some thing else.. that i know
by Peter the Printer
Why are they trying to invent something which already exists naturally?
by SmartAndSober
Because Human-Made Tech-Advance is much faster than Natural-Selection, and results in Singularity (next step of Cosmic-Evolution).
by onefeather
Well said, could be that most people are lazy/brain dead.
by thinkahol
it’s hard to believe that’s a serious question; there are countless abilities granted and extended by this technology some of which are clearly listed above.
by Bri
I think those abilities are an aspect of nature. Super AI should be able to understand what makes it work, so from that be able to use them. It appears to me to be different paths to similar goals. Technology will get there faster than evolution because we had arms and opposable thumbs. If we were different type critters it might have happened the other way.
by Vigilizer
It’s for business. As soon as the conspirators destroy our natural sensors, we’ll start relying on these gadgets to live. If you can’t afford them, you’ll be forced to sell your soul, & we all know the sea serpent that needs our souls.
by rico
this is awesome ! i am really longing for this kind of invention . i expect this thing such as we can read and text SMS without looking in the phone screen, just sending SMS electrical signals on our Skin going thru our brain. really promising.. :-)
by Snake Oil Baron
Who wants to scrape off old hardware with a luffa sponge every few days? But then, who wants to peel off their skin every few years to upgrade? I’m keeping my hardware in my pants (pun intended).
by Klaatu
Saw an Assimov YT from the 1980′s saying
how late he was to the science of global warming/
climate change. Just think, if you’re libertarian you
don’t have to wait 20 years to ketchup…just put
your tattoo on vibrate for the “latest” Fox “News”
update…directly into your mid-brain.
by Jon
I can’t understand why when facts are pointed out or scientific discoveries are made that people will make comment (even to themselves) that it can’t be so. When Obama talked about 3D printing, the camera pointed to a Rep who whispers “pie in the sky” to his buddy. “Why bother with facts” seems to be his attitude. Exponential change is happening every day and I for one will welcome the benefits.
by SmartAndSober
When techs become inexpensive (such as computers), people take them for granted and forgot how miraculous such techs are.
People should practice mindfulness and be grateful to the intelligent and hardworking people who created such life-enriching technologies.
by Bri
The problem is getting political leaders and other talking heads to understand the nature of the times we live in. To promote the ideals outlined in Ray,s books really it should be promoted to as Manu business leaders as possible. On particular the philanthropic ones. They can help mitigate the hardships of this phase transition we are going through. The distribution of knowledge in reference to the laws Ray discovered will help focus us toward being altruistic. Obamas call for investment in 3D printing is a good example. It will transform industry. The sooner they understand this the sooner we can make a smooth transition to the next manufacturing paradigm. Knowledge is like a light. It can illuminate a more orderly transition.
by hlampert
Seems rather farfetched.
by Ian Clarke
Haha, I’m sure similar was said of the ideas of Galileo, Darwin, the Wright Bros., Frank Whittle, et al. In those eras, this sort of comment reflected the majority view.
In this case, we’re talking about current tech – so your skepticism is extremely misplaced (in my opinion). But thanks for the laugh. :-)
by SmartAndSober
Ha ha. Nothing after 2030 can be accurately foreseen by us 2010ers, with our puny knowledge and our slow, lousily-wired, uncyborgized brains.
My life-plan ends at 2030 (the Vingean Singularity).
I will plan further when I cyborgize and get a much better intelligence.
by Editor
Sounds wildly ambitious. I have trouble imagining next year. Think of it as the law of accelerating confusion. My question is: will we be able to augment our intelligence or merge with machines fast enough to understand what’s going on in the coming years?
by Bri
I agree, it’s hard to comprehend all the trends and make plans in accordance. Long term looks nice but is speculative. The short term is more dire and needs concerted attention.
by MatthewQ
Imagine having your entire body covered with this.
by SmartAndSober
” … having your entire body covered with this.”
Great idea, but I believe that full-body covering must be coupled with thoroughly enhanced nervous systems. It will be wasteful otherwise, as the full potential of the electronic tattoos are not exploited.
by liam
with your answer i see your not aware of irony
by SmartAndSober
What you see as irony I see as bold tech proposal.
Anything get us to Singularity faster should be done.
by Gorden Russell
Maybe this is what drove Ray Bradbury’s “Illustrated Man” out of his mind.
by Klaatu
Bradbury? I was reading a lot of Charles Stross lately
and he has been writing about this for awhile.
I think it is not concept tech to be able to pick up
thoughts/words on the breath or the vocal cords,
not from neurons or directly from the brain.
by SmartAndSober
Thanks for mentioning Stross. I hope more Singularitarians can try to make (beneficial) SF scenarios come true.
by Snazster
One tattoo to rule them all and, under your clothing, bind them.
by Ralph Dratman
Goldfinger
by Rollie
Terrific! Yet are their implications for tracking and privacy?
by DougW
Privacy is going away long term, there really isn’t anything we can do to stop it. Our ability to sense objects even through solid walls is increasing all the time, 100 years form now you will only be able to really have privacy if we pass laws that prevent people from observing you. At that point where does one person’s right to observe intersect with another’s right to be unobserved? And what are the real benefits of allowing people to be unobserved anyway, other than silly societal taboos?
by melajara
Wow! Now imagine all the possibilities for cheating on exams, interviews, chess competitions, or even dating (it’s not you but a professional seducer who has this witty talk with your “prey” ;-)
by SmartAndSober
People will switch from using the term “cheating” to “cooperating”.
Ubiquitous (and high-level) cooperation is, in my opinion, a pre-requisite for the advent of Technological Singularity.
by Bri
Yes SAS. Understanding and cooperation. It will make it hard to perpetrate any crime.
by SmartAndSober
I am not advocating crimes, of course.
Melajara used 4 examples: exams, interview, chess competitions and dating.
I believe exams and interviews will be obsolete after cyborgization (with direct connection of the brain to the Internet) become common (Kurzweil predicted that “Human Body 2.0″ will appear in, according to Wikipedia, the 2020s).
After universal cyborgization, people will soon find the traditional board games (such as sudoku and chess) boring and will probably devise much complexier games. It may be a virtue to not “cheat” (in other words, voluntarily limit oneself) in chess, but certainly “cheating” is acceptable (and even required) when we encounter the real world equivalent of chess (detective-actions and warfares).
As for dating, I believe most people will be satisfied by virtual soul mates.
(Kurzweil predicted that first AI that passes the Turing Test will be created by 2029.)
by SmartAndSober
” … and will probably devise much complexier games. ”
Actually, such games already exist.
I wonder how many commenters at KAI are game-literate.
The complexity (and the intelligence required to play them successfully) of some modern video games are staggeringly high.
AIs grown (with evolutionary algorithms) to play these games exhibit some interesting features that (I guess) can have important role in the rise of AGI.
by Jho
I’m not sure if I agree. Not fully anyways. Few games have a more complex fighting system than chess for instance. Computer games just usually have more content, more stuff and more freedom. Still in their core modern games usually have really simple mechanics.
I always think how sad it is that old people aren’t used to playing computer games. When I’m old and I have all that time, I will mostly be playing. I don’t think playing computer games requires much intelligence at all! I think they are much closer to sports. Think about a game like basketball. Anyone can understand the rules and play a little for fun. But then if you start to play professionally, you need to understand the tactics and all the more deep things that are involved.
Damn, sorry for the long babble. I’m a game developer so this cought my eye.
by SmartAndSober
Thanks for the reply.
Chess = game on an 8*8 grid, with 32 pieces (traditional rule).
Most modern video games contains a much larger grid and more pieces.
Developers should work hard to create a game that *actually* produce higher complexity (than chess).
I wonder in which ways will Ray Kurzweil, Ben Goertzel, Yudkowsky and other researchers take advantage of such complexities (in their study on AI and Singularity).
by SmartAndSober
I think the “basketball” example is great. Designing a basketball-playing robot will pose challenge not just in game-complexity but also in the physiology of the robot. What materials should constitute the robot’s muscles and bones, and most importantly, how to create a effiecient brain (with an artificial cerebellum and artificial somatosensory lobes) for the robot, so that the robot can play all by itself (without the help of a human or supercomputer remote controlling it).
The DARPA SyNAPSE project works exactly on how to make efficient brains for mobile robots.
by The man
You clearly haven’t played any RTS games. Starcraft is infinitely more complex than chess could ever be. That is just to name 1. Chess is actually very simple (complex to master yes) but still simple. RTS games (the good ones at least) are more complex both in just simply playing and in mastering. Unless you are doing speed chess there isn’t even a comparison in the 2 for complexity.
by SmartAndSober
I guess we need a supercomputer that can play RTS games (using brute-force “tree-growing”). Such supercomputer can help us get to Singularity faster.
by Ralph Dratman
Um, soul mates, whether real or virtual, are and will be great. However, we will still have bodies, and our bodies will still have physical needs for touching, kisses, sex and just plain being together. If we can’t feel physical sensations, our lives are over.
by Jenny Linsky
With companies such as Real Doll out there, you can’t possibly imagine that the first strong AI isn’t going to be closely followed by the first sex-toy robot.
by DougW
Agree. At some point, ‘tests’ will become participation in active group problem solving sessions, and your contribution to the process will be measured, resulting in your ‘grade’. Tests as we know them today will be obsolete, memorizing ‘facts’ will be a relatively valueless thing, as they will be instantly available to everyone.
by SmartAndSober
” … and your contribution to the process will be measured, …”
I hope that in the future, knowledges are no longer tested. Instead, employers of the future test your enthusiasm and work ethic, which is a much fairer measurement of a person’s ability.
Connecting to a central “knowledge bank” (for example, online encyclopedia) is not enough. The relevant knowledges must be constantly copied and stored in backup storages (in many physically secure locations), so that even in the dire event of malfunction of the “knowledge bank”, people will still have useful knowledge handy.
by Gorden Russell
I’ve been thinking about that for a long time, melajara. I’ve never been able to talk to girls.
Lately I’ve observed that a sociopath is very seductive and is busy all day long hitting on every girl he meets.
Now imagine copying this skill into spintronic memristors and implanting this into your brain. You could switch it on whenever you saw a girl you liked and were too shy to talk to.
But don’t leave it on all the time, or it would turn you into a monster Casanova. (I would only use my sociopath program to seduce our beauteous editor, she’s such an angel.)
by Ian Clarke
I view it differently – living in a world where no-one can lie unknowingly – that’s a world I’d like to live in.
by Ian Clarke
Fantastic! I think empowering individuals with the ability to accurately monitor their own health will be the first step towards significant life extension.
Admittedly, the telepathy/telekinesis aspect would be a nice bonus. :-)
by SmartAndSober
This “electronic tattoo” alone is very powerful. It will be incredibly more so if combined with other appliances, such as smart phones.
I recommend a KAI article that appeared not very long ago:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/ibm-reveals-five-innovations-that-will-change-our-lives-within-five-years
I also anticipate other applications for this “electronic tattoo”, such as biofeedback-enabled training programs, and a more intuitive way to percieve, transmit and “tangiblize” (visualize, auditorize, olfactorize, hapticize and other methods to present data to humans via existing sensory organs) data, which should enable more scientific and technological breakthroughs.
by Gorden Russell
Right, Ian, women already expect you to read their minds, and get angry with you for not meeting their unvoiced desires.
Life would be so much simpler if you knew what a woman wanted before she started throwing pots and pans at you.
by Ian Clarke
Gorden, a mate of mine was floored by his wife (wielding a frying pan) after he spent a little too long down the pub. I sincerely hope future tech won’t deprive us of such anecdotes. :-)
by Luke
Amazing.
by SmartAndSober
It usually take several years (or at least months) for the latest technology, such as this electronic tattoo, to become widely available.
In a post-Singularity world, the process will take much shorter.
The superintelligences will need to spend time analyze a new invention and speculate its influence (positive and negative) on the society.
Such process, which takes years for unaugmented human beings, shall occupy only hours of a superintelligence’s fast and parallelized mind.
A few days would, I anticipate, be the rightful time span between invention and ubiquitization in the not-very-distant future.
by Gorden Russell
Just look at how fast computers are getting now. After the Sing, you will be a super intelligence and will only need a New York nanosecond to analyze a new invention and ubiquitize it.
You’ll be enmeshed constantly on the web and trading your latest designs for things to grow at home with your photovoltaic self-assembling carbon nanocells that will use the power of the sun to take carbon out of the air and minerals out of the soil to grow everything you can imagine.
The only limitation will be the size of your lot. You will need a certain sized piece of real estate to support your solar array.
With a 160 acre homestead in the Arizona desert, on a piece of land with calcium in the soil, you’ll be able to grow a shining marble palace.
Englishmen living along the chalk cliffs of Dover will be able to do this too, but it will take them a lot longer, just waiting for the rare sunny day.
by SmartAndSober
If the acceleration is to continue indefinitely, the time span will eventually be shortened to a fraction of a second.
by Dave
Time on earth is limited. If DeGray is correct we can escape from existing human lifespans, then it will be only a matter of time before we have humans able to live to 1,000 year plus lifespans.
The question is how and when, not if and why.