Why your mum was WRONG about whiffy tattooed people

Boffins have overturned the wisdom of parents everywhere by proving that stinky people with tattoos can play a vital role in society: by charging up mobile phones. Dr Joseph Wang and a team at UC San Diego have designed a temporary tattoo which acts as a sensor which contains an enzyme that strips electrons from lactate, …

[Chris G]

Perfect for the beach

If they can combine it with a solar power function it will be great for the beach.

There are lots of people male and female with dozens of square cms of sweaty tattoos. They could tweet and post on Fartbook all day from the beach.

[Alien Doctor 1.1]

And...

the matrix is born

[NorthernCoder]

Re: And...

Morpheus, is that you?

And why are these suited gentlemen approaching my cubicle wearing sunglasses indoors?

[dan1980]

Tattoos?

Nice P.O.C. but surely some kind of skinsuit (or component pieces) would be best - like the 'UnderArmour' gear or equivalent.

The real question is whether this tech can be made cheap enough so that using it is cheaper than just buying batteries.

[John Tserkezis]

I sweat so much that I could power a medium sized city while reading this article. I'll be auctioning my power off through the usual means from tuesday - get in soon while the juice lasts..

[Anonymous Coward]

Or how about a less invasive armband, watch or phone? You know, some of us don't want to cut ourselves up for a bit of tech or a phone call.

It's a great idea though for medical and a few other uses.

[Havin_it]

Well, per TFA it's a temporary tattoo, so any self-mutilation you indulge in will be quite extraneous, not subcutaneous ';)

[psychonaut]

combine with e-ink

For your own tatoo watch or scrolling marque.. .."gareth is a benny" for instance

[poopypants]

If only there was some more efficient way of harnessing the energy expended through all that pedalling.

[Matt Bryant]

Re: poopypants

"If only there was some more efficient way of harnessing the energy expended through all that pedalling." Ignoring the obvious, I'm guessing it would be more efficient even to just harvest the heat generated in producing the sweat. The whole idea seems a pretty pointless exercise in science for science's sake with little practical use even if you want to completely cover your body in tats - no thanks!

[thomas k.]

Yes, mom definitely wrong

I've known mom was wrong about sweaty, tatted-up guys for, like, forever.

[MyffyW]

Re: Yes, mom definitely wrong

No, she was right. Trust me...

[Lionel Baden]

Oh Dear

This is going to bring a whole new meaning to the term "sweat shop"

[mark 63]

I think the Egyptians pioneered a much more efficient method of harvesting energy from the human body

[Chris Hunt]

@Egyptians

Your mummy was right about that one!

[JimmyPage]

Human physics !

Many years ago, I read a book (it may have been a siblings schoolbook) which expressed human activity in SI units.

If I remember correctly, the human brain, running at full pelt, can use an incredible 100W ... which is 25% of the total energy a human can expend. Which, if you think about it, means your body has to deliver enough power to your brain to light a 100W light bulb.

When you start to think about the chemistry behind that, it leaves you in wonder at nature. It also puts "technology" squarely in it's place, when you think how much power a CPU takes to badly ape human thinking.

[Eddy Ito]

Re: Human physics !

Makes sense. Doing the math to convert a typical 2000 Calorie (kilocalorie) per day diet is equivalent to 96.9 Watts. That means a banana provides enough energy to power a person for about one hour fifteen minutes or an iPhone for the better part of a month.

[Martin Budden]

Re: Human physics !

A banana also produces antimatter, although not enough to (ahem) matter.

[asiaseen]

Re: Human physics !

They are also radioactive so a banana is like having your own personal reactor,

[ukgnome]

which harvests energy from body fluid like sweat

Like sweat huh? So a million boys bedrooms will have self powering flash-lights soon?

[Captain Hogwash]

Re: self powering flash-lights

Autocorrect?

[RainForestGuppy]

I'm still waiting for my piezoelectric shoes to charge my phone whilst walking.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I'm still waiting for my piezoelectric shoes to charge my phone whilst walking."

Likewise, my methane harvesting underpants have not yet materialised. I can't speak for your shoes, but judging by the corrosion holes in older underwear the problem may be the need for FGD kit before the methane can be captured. From a chemical engineering perspective, my flatus must qualify as "sour gas", but I prefer to think of it as "fruity" or "mellow".

But regardless, can somebody sort out my phone charging underwear? Combine it with sweat power for those times I'm out of gas, stick in a QI charging pad and my phone can charge wirelessly and renewably in my pocket. Patent, please!

[Anonymous Coward]

watch this

my swining hand chargews my Kinetic watch just fine

[Martin Budden]

Re: watch this

Perhaps if your hand stopped swinging for a while you might be able to hit the right keys on the keyboard.

[hekla]

a cuff would be good

a suggestion would be an arm cuff around the bicep which could hold the mobile phone and by the skin contact give a little power to the phone.

A phone battery hold (1500 mAh at 5V) about 25 kJ of energy.

This tat gives 70 microWatts per cm2, now a bicep wrap could give 300 * 100 mm2 or 300 tats and thus 21 mW (that is milliwatts).

So 25kJ means that at 21mW a full charge takes 357 hours.

system would need some more work (in both meanings).

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Re: a cuff would be good

If you had a cuff around the bicep you could probably generate more energy to be harvested just by flexing your muscles.

Why don't they invent a mouth filter that can recover hot air and convert that to leccy?

[Mark 85]

Re: a cuff would be good

Not a bad idea. The average politician could probably power a small city.

[Mark 85]

Re: a cuff would be good

Not a bad idea. The average politician could power a small city.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: a cuff would be good

There are 650 fully qualified hot air generators in Westminster. Add the other flotsam and jetsam that accompany them and we could turn off a coal powered generator or two.

[Garlicky]

So, how much energy was wasted...

Seems to me like the wasted energy going into the exercise bikes would be thousands of times more useful than the "patch". Rather than get micro Watts from the patch, hook the damn exercise bike to a small generator and get Watts from the deal... There's so much wasted energy going into gym equipment...

[disgruntled yank]

Re: So, how much energy was wasted...

Or--here's an innovative idea--you could use a bicycle for your commute, thereby saving the electricity or fossil fuel that would have gone into your commute. Meet you at the patent officde.

[Fibbles]

Re: So, how much energy was wasted...

Exercise bikes are considerably less portable than these patches. If we're not concerned with portability why not use a nuclear power-station...

A fair point about gyms though. They should be using their punters to power the lights.

[Zog_but_not_the_first]

Coming along nicely

A nice little spin-off from the prole-chipping project.

[Blitheringeejit]

Would it work on...

...shaved hamsters?

[John Smith 19]

"you want fame, well fame costs and here's where you start paying for it, in sweat."

I know.

I'm going.

[oddie]

One step closer...

to fully functioning Stillsuits :)

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Re: One step closer...

Urine and feces are processed in the thigh pads.

Yuck.