MIT, with Microsoft Research, has unveiled a temporary interface for devices like smartwatches and PCs. It is called DuoSkin, and is a fabrication process based around temporary ‘tattoos’.
The ‘tattoos’ are made of gold metal leaf, due to its low price and high conductivity. The leaf is combined with other materials, like temporary tattoo printing paper, a vinyl cutter and sometimes LEDs.
DuoSkin products can be used in three ways: as an input interface, an output interface or a communication interface.
As an input interface, the tattoos can be used as a trackpad to control a connected device. Used as an output, they can place ‘displays’ on the skin, which change colour based on skin temperature. Finally, as a communication interface they can contain data that can be detected by NFC technology.
A paper has been published on the project, which will be presented at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers in September.
