Scientists in the United States and Italy claim to have created the world’s first temporary “smart” tattoo using organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), which can revolutionize several fields, including sports science and food technology.
Researchers at UCL and the Italian Institute of Technology used the same basic principle as a temporary tattoo, which is transferred to the skin by dipping and pressing, but combined with OLED technology to produce the new devices.
When combined with other wearable technologies, smart tattoos can emit light when an athlete is dehydrated or alert swimmers to impending sunburn. They can also be used to alert you when a product, such as a food or medicine, has expired.
“This could be for fashion – for example, providing shiny tattoos and nails that emit light,” says the senior author of the research article Professor Franco Cacialli (UCL Physics & Astronomy).
“In sports, they can be combined with a sweat sensor to signal dehydration.”
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The prototype still needs work, the researchers acknowledge, including protecting it for long-term use and preventing it from degrading too quickly.
They also hope to improve the device, which is only 2.3 micrometers thick in total (a third the length of a single blood cell), with better batteries or supercapacitors for greater durability.
The device consists of an electroluminescent polymer, which emits light when electronically stimulated, located between two electrodes. An insulating layer is then placed between the electrodes and the commercially available tattoo paper.
“At the Italian Institute of Technology, we have already created electrodes that we tattoo on people’s skin and that can be used to perform diagnostic tests, such as electrocardiograms,” The senior author, Professor Virgilio Mattoli, of the Italian Institute of Technology, said, discussing the burgeoning smart tattoo industry.
Although other ‘smart’ temporary tattoo prototypes have been promoted in recent years, they have not employed OLED technology, which is more flexible and seamless.
OLED technology was first implemented in state-of-the-art flat-panel TVs at the turn of the century and its use has been widely expanded.
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