Here’s an interesting one. There’s been a bit of talk over the past week about Nokia looking in to some pretty unique notification systems.
The general idea behind the whole thing is to design a phone capable of emitting different and programmable magnetic fields whenever a notification is received. On the receiving end of this field will be a ferromagnetic ink that has been linked to the phone and can vibrate at different intensities or frequency depending on what kind of alert has been received.
The way it works, in theory, is that the ferromagnetic ink is demagnetized by exposing it to extremely high temperatures. After it’s applied to the patch, or whatever you’re applying it to, it can be remagnetized in order to sync up with your phone’s specific magnetic alert fields.
Nokia’s current intention is to introduce small patches that can be stuck to the skin and will vibrate whenever your phone receives an alert. It’s a fair enough idea. Too many times do I pull my phone from my pocket only to find a missed call or message that I just plain didn’t hear or from which I didn’t feel the vibration. However, sticking a patch somewhere on myself every day seems a bit cumbersome, repetitive and weird. There’s also the question of whether or not these imagined little slips would be cheap and disposable or expensive and reusable. Expensive and reusable would imply the need to remove, wash and reapply regularly, only adding to the weird factor.
It doesn’t stop with patches, however. Seeing as the technology relies on an ink, Nokia sees a few more possible applications. There’s the potential to simply draw something on to your skin and sync it with your phone, which is pretty funky but once again possibly annoying when it comes to repeat applications. Nokia has also gone as far as to suggest applying the ink as a tattoo.
Haptic Tattoos, as they’re being called, would act in exactly the same way as the patch or draw-on ink. It would be synced to your phone and then vibrate whenever you receive an alert.
It certainly adds a functional element to tattoos, but there are a few foreseeable drawbacks:
- Will the tattoos be reprogrammable? If not then it’s possible that I’m going to get pretty frustrated when I get a new phone in 2 years and need a new one.
- If the ferromagnetic ink doesn’t lend itself well to body-art then its aesthetic appeal will drop significantly.
- Tattoos hurt, are expensive and are pretty difficult to get rid of.
- In the increasingly DRM-controlled market each manufacturer might require you to get their own specifically branded style of ink or design.
- It bridges a gap between the human body and technology that we’re yet to fully embrace on a purely commercial basis. We often talk about being ‘attached’ to our phones or devices but we still have the option of putting them down if we so choose. Removing that option is an understandably large step in the eyes of many.
The general consensus on the web seems to be that the entire idea of haptic tattoos is creepy. It’s understandable that people would balk at adding a consumer product to their body would seem foreign and maybe even a little wrong.
However, I’m still not convinced that it's all bad. If it were possible to program each of my successive handsets to work with my original haptic tattoo then maybe it could save me a lot of grief and missed calls in the long-run.
Now, I’ve never been one for tattoos. I don’t have any, nor am I seriously considering getting one in the near future. That being said I’ve never found them particularly offensive either. So the idea of ‘installing’ a small haptic tattoo, perhaps a circle or a square, behind my left ear in order to make sure I don’t miss any more calls definitely appeals to my sense of efficiency.
It does make me think about how the technology could end up being applied, however. Right now we’re seeing marketplace trends that almost force you to pick a product line and stick with it. iCloud works best if you have only Apple products, Zune Pass works on computers but when it comes to gadgets it’s a Windows Phone-only affair. Could these theoretical tattoos, then, end up being brand-specific?
It’s within my scope of imagination that in 20 or 30 years I may find myself buying solely Samsung handsets because ‘I already have the Samsung tattoo’. Switching to Apple or another manufacturer may mean going through the whole process again, not to mention finding somewhere else on my body to permanently dye. Furthermore, I'll let myself be considered a technological luddite before I get "Nokia" or any other brand name tattooed on my body.
Of course the whole thing is totally hypothetical and right now discussion regarding it is nothing more than a bit of fun. But this kind of stuff can be really intriguing. 10 years ago I would never have guessed that I’d be carting around a dual-core touchscreen smartphone in my pocket with internet access and an 8MP camera by now, so it’s not beyond reason that in the next 10 or 20 years we’ll have something equally unexpected or unbelievable. Maybe haptic tattoos or something like it could be that very thing.
Then again, maybe not.
Source: UnwiredView via USTPO
Image Source: Users JD and Amy Ferguson via Flickr
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