Implanted User Interfaces: I’ve Got You Under My Skin
By Charles Q. Choi
The human body is regularly augmented with technology, from pacemakers and hearing aids to magnets people embed under their skin to give them a new sense. However, these implants typically don’t provide any means to directly interact with them, limiting their usefulness. Now implantable user interfaces tested under artificial skin and in the arm of a cadaver reveal a new way people can interact with and control devices both inside and outside their bodies, and perhaps in other bodies.
Scientists at Toronto-based Autodesk Research and their colleagues tested a dozen or so different user interface implants. Input devices included microphones for audio; buttons, pressure sensors and tap sensors for input via direct touching of the skin; and brightness sensors and capacitive sensors — the kind now often found in mobile device touchscreens — for input through motions above the skin. Output devices they examined included audio speakers, LEDs, and vibration motors. Wireless communications were enabled using Bluetooth, and wireless recharging was tested with inductive chargers, the kind seen with cordless power tools.
To see how well these devices might operate under the skin, researchers implanted them in an arm from a lightly embalmed cadaver, between the skin and the underlying fatty tissue. They also developed artificial patches of skin made from silicone that people could wear on their forearms and walk around with — these covered the devices, simulating implantation.
“We showed these can all still operate through the skin,” said Autodesk researcher Tovi Grossman. “These results open up a lot of possibilities.”
A prototype device (a) was covered with a layer of artificial skin (b) for use in an outdoor scenario. Courtesy Autodesk Research.
The scientists will present their work May 7 at the CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Austin.
Such implanted user interfaces could wirelessly communicate with devices such as the augmented reality eyewear Google is developing with Project Glass, Grossman said. These implants could also help people control other devices within their bodies. “Medical implants already exist, but there are no real ways to easily get the status of these devices, or use them to get information about the state of your health, or be able to control the doses of various drugs,” he added.
Implanted user interfaces could also be used to control items around the house like remote controls, or to play games, suggested human-computer interaction researcher Albrecht Schmidt at the University of Stuttgart in Germany, who did not take part in this study. “You can also extend social networks into your body — be connected with others with implants, feel pulses of vibration from others,” he added. “This can get very personal… it’s a way of letting someone under your skin.”
Simple, more passive implants might also include memory cards, “so that you never have to worry about bringing important files with you to a meeting or the office — you have data with you at all times, under the skin,” Grossman said. A notification system involving blinking lights or a little buzz on the arm could also alert users to appointments or messages, and implanted watches could help people always tell the time. Schmidt added that motion-sensing accelerometers could also analyze how you move your body, for gesture control of devices or for keeping track of how active you are when it comes to monitoring fitness.
“We’re at a point where implants may become something quite normal,” Schmidt said. “This work will open up discussion as to whether we get implants not for a medical reason, but for convenience.”
These devices were implanted in a cadaver during the study. Plastic bags around devices prevented contact with tissue fluid. Courtesy Autodesk Research.
Not every device might be suitable for implantation. “You might see dots of light through the skin with LEDs, but you can’t really read emails,” Grossman said. “And sound gets muffled through the skin. A phone would definitely be feasible, but whether it’s desirable is a different question.”
The best user interface implants will have to take the limitations skin imposes into account. “It might make sense to reduce to one-task, goal-specific devices,” said Christian Holz at Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, who participated in the research. “If all you need to use the device is to press a few buttons, that’s not hardware you need to constantly update.” The implants can still regularly get software updates wirelessly, he added.
One concern about such implanted devices would be security — any device that can be accessed wirelessly should have protection in place against unwanted intruders, the researchers said. Another consideration might be the hassle involved in replacing these implants, given how often owners of mobile phones and other electronics upgrade their hardware. However, Grossman reasoned, “people often upgrade cell phones not because of some new functionality they really wanted, but because it’s a social status symbol to have the latest gadget.”
Implanted devices, on the other hand, “don’t carry such implications — they’re completely invisible to other people, so it’s not clear if there will be the necessity to upgrade for status reasons,” Grossman added. “They’re more like devices that stay at home, like a printer, which people typically upgrade when they fail, not when a new printer comes out.”
The conveniences provided by such implants raises the question of whether they might become pervasive. “We might see a situation similar to mobile phones — if they provide a direct benefit, then there’s pressure for everyone to get it,” Schmidt said. “Ten years ago, it was quite optional to have a phone or not, but now for people who live a regular life in society, it’s not really an option anymore.”
Software tends to get updated rather frequently. So according to this article you could get them wireless. Either that means you have to go some where to get within range of the wireless transmitter or it's set up like a cell phone. If it's set up like a cell phone, then it must contain several other devices or software in order to function properly.
You don't need to update again, if it has already updated. If this were to become a standard, such as the cell phone is today, then wireless traffic for this device would be added to that of the cell phone. Wireless companies are already concerned with b/w of cell phones today. This would only add to that traffic. In order to know when you are in range for good reception, GPS would need to be added as well as some sort of signal strength recognition. You would not want to partially receive a new program that would be responsible for say sending pulses to make an artificial heart function or one that triggered when automatic doses of medicine would be given.
Software isn't the only thing that gets updates, hardware does as well. So much so that if you bought a game 10 or 12 years ago, chances are good, because of updates to the software and to the hardware it doesn't function today. So at some point you got to go back and have it redone to 'upgrade'. This strikes me as one of those consumer forced spending patterns to continue to have the device function. If you don't upgrade, you're cut out of the loop with the rest of society.
We've already had some individuals that have allowed themselves to have chips imbedded under the skin as a condition to allow them into work. You can either present a company issued work id to be scanned or walk through with a wireless scanner iding you. I find that extremely creepy. When the day comes you leave that job, do they actually spend the money to have it removed or do you tote the dang thing for life?
RFD (radio frequency devices) are already used in passports. Since they are not encrypted in any form, nothing prevents someone from reading your data without your knowledge. I know of no better way to steal someone's identity stealthy. All personal information normally protected from the public is exposed through this method. Having it imbedded in the body does nothing for easing these qualms for me.
Still haven't talked about the first thing that probably hit you. That of privacy invasion. We already have police force and government forces that think nothing of tracking down where you are, through GPS in a cell phone. You can pull the battery on a cell phone and end that or even better, leave it at home. Under the skin is a whole different animal.
The last thing I want, is to receive ads in my sleep. If you ever had concerns about subliminal messaging, this one should be sending alarms out with a red flashing beacon. All it takes is another Facebook style social app and this could become a very 'in the flesh' reality.
Err, thank you but no thank you. Somehow I keep getting these pictures of the 'mark of the beast' in all this.
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