DIY cyborgs have taken to injecting magnets and computer chips into their bodies in tattoo parlors and basements around the world, commonly referred to as biohackers or grinders.
Neil Harbisson, a colorblind artist with an antenna implanted into his skull to detect colors, compares their hobby with that of gender reassignment surgery – and are taking their creativity one step further with high-tech tattoos that take it even further.
Embedded Devices
Chaotic Moon, an Austin, Texas-based software design and development firm, has created a kit using components and conductive paint to form what it calls a tech tattoo. When inked onto the body, this device can collect and upload health and biometric data – such as sweat levels and heart rates – directly into applications on smartphones or computers via Bluetooth Low Energy technology used by wearable devices like Jawbone UP or Apple Watch. The company suggests this device could also be used by military or medical staff as it tracks patients using Bluetooth Low Energy which powers wearable devices like Jawbone UP or Apple Watch.
Embedded Sensors
Biohacking, the do-it-yourself (DIY) movement characterized by genetic editing and implanted prostheses, has emerged in response to an increasingly digital world and is dramatically altering lives [1.
Biohacking, popular among technologists and transhumanists alike, involves employing science, technology, and self-experimentation to enhance health, performance, or longevity. Biohackers may use tools like DNA kits, nootropics, and cyber implants in an attempt to expand human potential beyond natural limitations of the body.
These cutting-edge technologies feature embedded sensors at their core, enabling users to track and monitor their bodies in real time. While fitness trackers collect data via wrist sensors, tattoos capture intimate data via forehead or chest tattoos – data then wirelessly transmitted back to a smartphone/tablet for analysis and interpretation.
Tech Tats, based out of Austin, Texas is among the many companies providing biohacking tattoos with embedded sensors. Their most advanced product – LifeMapper – uses electroconductive paint to form circuitry that captures data on sweat levels, body temperature and heart rate of users as well as sending this information via Bluetooth Low Energy to an app on mobile device.
LifeMapper collects biomarkers that can be displayed as a map that changes color depending on an individual’s readings. If a person’s blood pressure is too high, for example, or cholesterol levels too high, LifeMapper turns red; similarly for cholesterol levels. The team hopes that over time this technology may allow permanent long-term monitoring for chronic diseases like diabetes.
Not surprisingly, this form of body modification has quickly made an impressionful statement about itself in the grinder culture–an underground subculture known for implanting devices to increase physical functionality. Grinders typically cut themselves open and surgically implant magnets or RFID chips beneath their skin – glass-encased RFID implants capable of being scanned by Android phones to store data have proven particularly popular among them, serving both as replacement PIN codes or fingerprint recognition for mobile phones as well as contactless card readers to pay for goods purchased using contactless card readers.
Embedded Software
Embedded software refers to any type of programming designed specifically to work inside devices other than traditional computers, from toasters to missile tracking systems. Unlike application software which may be installed across different devices and modified to perform various functions, embedded software must meet rigid hardware requirements before being integrated with its target hardware system.
Firmware on your PC’s motherboard and the applications you run on it would fall under application software, not embedded software. A more common use for embedded technology lies within medical implants such as pacemakers or insulin pumps that must be regularly updated for accuracy and safety purposes.
Cyberpunks or grinders are a subculture who undergo biohacking by surgically implanting magnets and RFID chips into their bodies for biohacking purposes. Grindhouse Wetware, which creates open source RFID implants for humans, says it has experience working on digital tattoo concepts as part of biohacking projects. Other large companies are also exploring this idea.
Chaotic Moon, an Austin tech design firm, is creating a high-tech tattoo using components and conductive paint to form circuitry. While the prototype stage remains incomplete, Chaotic Moon CEO Ben Lamm indicated it will collect health and biometric data such as sweat rate and hydration levels from users’ sweat glands via Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity to smartphones or laptops for uploading later – providing another means to track fitness, sleep patterns and stress levels more discretely than via Fitbit for example – or could even help identify signs based on reading sweat and heart rate measurements alone!
Embedded Apps
Hacking culture of people who manipulate their bodies and minds shares many similarities with tech culture. Biohackers – often known as grinders or “cyborgs” – may seek practical solutions, like using an implant in their foot to communicate with seismographs to sense earthquakes; others, however, may pursue more creative projects – for example artist Moon Ribas’ implants that connect to online seismographs to allow her to feel earth tremors beneath them.
Biohacking goes far beyond practical applications – its essence lies in altering human hardware to enable new ways of being and feeling. Thanks to advancements such as synthetic biology, wearable biosensors, neurostimulation and artificial intelligence for predictive health analytics, the cyborg movement has gained more momentum and acceptance than ever.
Tech tattoos may help us move closer towards becoming cyborgs by providing us with an less-expensive and discreet method to collect health data. Chaotic Moon’s prototype tat is still in its infancy, but CEO Ben Lamm has told me it will eventually track temperature, blood pressure, hydration levels and stress via Bluetooth Low Energy.
Data such as this is already being collected by mainstream wearables, quantified self tools and other sources – but it’s often separated among multiple applications. An easy-to-use interface would make this information even more helpful for consumers – think how PCs truly took off when killer apps like word processing, spreadsheets and games came out onto the scene.
