Biometric 'tech tattoos' could be the future of wearables

Tattoos capable of monitoring your health could be the future of wearables
Image Credit: Chaotic Moon

A development firm in Austin, TX is putting a new spin on the concept of wearable tech. Combining sensors with conductive paint, Chaotic Moon Studios has begun work on "tech tattoos" that turn body art into fully-functional health monitors.

The biometric tattoos, unlike their Fitbit and implant kin, are applied like a temporary tattoo. They are removable and capable of monitoring a range of factors, from heart rate to body temperature to location.

"This is going beyond what the fitness tracker is," says Eric Schneider, creative technologist for Chaotic Moon. "This is something you can put on your body once a year that monitors everything [a clinic] would do in a physical, and sends that to your doctor. If there's an issue, they could just call you."

Schneider also mentions use for the tech tattoos in banking, saying that keeping financial information attached to your skin would less vulnerable than inside a loose wallet. Ben Lamm, CEO of Chaotic Moon, agrees on the biowearables' wide array of uses.

"We think there's military applications for it, health applications for it, and there are all kinds of opportunities around it," says Lamm in a TechCrunch report. "It's a platform that basically turns you into a human circuit board."

While the tech is still in a prototype stage, the possibilities of having cyborg-like augmentations without the need for invasive surgery, as well as being removable when one feels like going off the grid, are vast and exciting. It also makes us wish the new Deus Ex was coming out sooner.

Top Image Credit: Chaotic Moon

Parker Wilhelm
Parker Wilhelm is a freelance writer for TechRadar. He likes to tinker in Photoshop and talk people's ears off about Persona 4.