Have you ever wondered how much pressure your work has brought to you? Scientists have developed temporary forehead tattoos that can give you an answer one day.
Scientists at the University of Texas-Austin have created a facial emotion ring, a tattoo made of electronic ink that wirelessly quantifies and analyzes electrical signals from the brain and eyes. In a small study of human volunteers, E-tatoes appear to have the ability to convey when people’s mental taxation is imposed. The unstriking, relatively affordable technology can adapt to psychological stress from pilots, surgeons and others at high-risk jobs, the researchers say.
Senior researcher Nanshu Lu and her team were driven by a famous puzzle to their electronic tattoos. Electroencephalography (EEG) can reliably measure a person’s brain activity, but it is usually not very practical to perform.
Today, a typical EEG may require someone to wear a bulky hat (not to mention a sticky conductive gel) on various wires. This is usually simple in clinical settings, but using EEG in real-world settings is more challenging, especially when measuring mental stress during work. The team’s ultra-thin, flexible and wireless electronic tattoos are designed to overcome this challenge. It also combines the function of electroencephalography and electrophotography (EOG), which measures electrical activity to monitor eye movement.
“Our approach is more wearable than existing methods such as headbands or gel-based hats, especially in dynamic or helmet-constrained environments,” Lu, an engineer working in soft electronics at UT Austin, told Gizmodo. Electronic tattoos are also cheaper than the usual EEG device (the new system starts at $20,000), with only $200 on its chips and battery packs, and the disposable sensors are about $20 each.
In a new study published Thursday in the journal Devices, Lu and her team tested their electronic tattoos on six volunteers. These volunteers took the memory test that gradually became difficult. The researchers found that as testing becomes more difficult and people perform worse, tattoos change the changes in their brain activity to indicate increased cognitive demand or fatigue. These detected brain changes also match very well with the self-reported changes in the stress levels of volunteers.
The team then fed the data collected from electronic tattoos into a computer model, which found that the model could estimate different levels of psychological workload. This suggests that these electronic tattoos can not only detect but also predict when a person will experience severe fatigue.
“This technology can help monitor cognitive fatigue in a pilot, pilot or surgeon, while mistakes can be dangerous. It can also support personalized early warning systems in learning, stress management, and even high-risk jobs,” Lu said.
However, there are still some important limitations in the team’s technology. For example, tattoos are currently only suitable for furlessness, although the team wants to combine them with wireless ink sensors that can be placed on the scalp. Lu also noted that it is difficult to extend the coverage of a tattoo to the forehead while ensuring it remains comfortable. Ultimately, real-world data will be needed to confirm that the technology can function as expected, which is the goal the researchers have already headed.
“Next, our goal is to validate our devices in relevant and even practical environments. We are also committed to integrating tattoo edge computing and real-time feedback without compromising user privacy,” Lu said.
On the consumer side, though, the biggest challenge is perhaps to make sure people don’t look too clumsy when wearing one of these tattoos.
