Boffins working on biodegradable flexi LED implants

Boffins in America are working on biodegradable, flexible electronic devices printed on silk, which could be implanted in the human body and would decay naturally over time. Applications could include LED displays inlaid beneath the skin, or direct nerve-controlled interfaces. MIT Tech Review reports on the new in-body tech, …

[crypt]

21st century - delivering on Sci-Fi promises

brillant - sign me up !

[Richard 39]

idea! (stolen from The Matrix)

The human body creates heat, kinetic engery, electricity and methane. Surely this can be harnessed to power these little devices?

Can I be the first to have laser beams mounted in my eyes please?

[Albert Gonzalez]

Power supply

Already invented :

Just use a tiny cell that converts sugar to electricity : ie : a fuell cell.

Waste products : HEAT, water & CO2 Easily absorved and disposed by the body.

Can be optimized for faily constant temperature, humidity and sugar concentration.

[Sureo]

Under the skin LED tatoo?

Glad to see the boffins are solving the world's pressing problems with such ingenuity. Wait - maybe this is how they plan to raise money to fund their research?

[Anonymous Coward]

ha!

finally a useful implant!

*laughs at that fuckwit Prof Kevin Warrick*

[Anonymous Coward]

But at what cost...

So, what's the Essence cost on one of these?

Mine's the one with the monofilament blade and the netdeck in the pockets.

[John F***ing Stepp]

This has been my excuse for not getting a tatoo for . . .

Really.

Correct time?

WiFi without spam?

A high enough res to support. . .

Well never mind about that one.

[Hungry Sean]

tread carefully

Dear El Reg,

Pennsylvania Uni is developing this very cool tech, you say. Which institution exactly would that be?

University of Pennsylvania (aka U. Penn)

Pennsylvania State University (aka Penn State or PSU)

U. Penn is a member of the ivy leagues (Harvard, Yale, Princeton. . . )

Penn State is a bit more blue-collar.

Confusing the two generally causes a good deal of indignation.

I know that other American readers have commented on these shenanigans in the past-- our institutions of higher learning don't generally lend themselves to idle re-ordering (e.g. University of Miami at Ohio really should not be listed as Ohio University). I also know that you earn your buck by slinging a breezy, whimsical writing style. You could make everyone happy by employing the existing (and unambiguous) short-hand for our Yankiversities-- a brief google or gander at wiki should help clear things up.

[William Clark]

Maybe...

....this allows changeable Tattoos for people who change partners sooner than they expected.

[Psymon]

lmao @ methane power source

Finally, a genuine excuse to let one rip in the lift.

"I need to check my blood sugar! PARP!!!"

[Anonymous John]

Subcutaneous title

Didn't one of Larry Niven's books mention a spray on wristwatch? Is anyone working on transfer booths?

[Graham Bartlett]

Power supply

Muscles manage to get energy from blood fairly effectively. Figure that one out, and you're sorted. Hell, if it uses significant power then a big light-emitting implant could even work as a diet aid by burning excess chemical energy from your bloodstream.

[Anonymous Coward]

Neat, but I'll wait for...

... led displays designed in through custom dna.

[C Yates]

*jumps on the power supply band wagon*

Powered by overzealous wrist action perhaps? =D

[Anonymous Coward]

Could they make it

work on some sort of fat-munching principle? That'd make it sell!

As others have already said, this is the type of tech I've been waiting for before getting a tattoo. When utterly static they're just not functional enough.

Nerve implants could be used to make all sorts of trippy visualisations, autostereoscopic tattoos could make all sorts of really realistic/impressive looking "exposed muscles/ bones/ adamantium claws" effects!

Power isn't a problem- a couple of transdermal contacts or an inductive system would be perfectly suitable. Even conductive ink tattoos from (say) the wrist and up the arm to a shoulder-mounted (where bulk is less of an aesthetic issue) battery / processing pack wouldn't be that bad. Or- on men, anyway- split the penis and stretch it around a stack of batteries + conductive foam. Et voila, instant enlargement, porn on-the-wrist AND it's really high tech. Add in bluetooth and what man wouldn't buy it?

Would it be possible to have IR as well as visible-spectrum LEDs mounted? How about photodiodes? That could give a great method of simple low-power nonpenetrative comms.

[Kevin Campbell]

clever!

"allowing one to have an LED 'tattoo' beneath one's skin able to display... one's current blood-sugar count."

Now THAT's a clever AND useful application to everyday life. If the diabetes rate is as bad in the UK as it is over here, this will be extremely popular tech. Pricking one's skin numerous times each and every day is, quite literally, a pain.

[Casper Orillian]

How about

Mini lights mounted behind the eyes?

[Player_16]

Runway Lights or...

... a BIG glowing knob!

[Nexox Enigma]

Ahhh finally...

I'll need one on my right middle finger nail, so I can goatse someone while flipping them the bird. My life would be pretty much complete after that.

[Nameless Faceless Computer User]

I see where this is leading

Pretty soon, people will be renting out their bodies as human billboards selling advertising time on Ebay. It's happened before.

[William Oakley]

Warhammer

Foreseen over 30 years ago in the orginal Rogue Trader source book.