Digital Tattoo: Using Programmable Ink to Create On-Body Displays

我们希望从根本上重新思考我们使用由可编程颗粒制成的数字墨水的方式，这些颗粒可以改变颜色来创建数字纹身。想象一下，一个纹身消失或视觉需求的变化，或适应你所处的环境。我们的目标是创建可访问的制造方法来创建可编程墨水，生产针头注射工具来将可编程墨水嵌入皮肤，并设计工具来激活颜色变化并探索创新的应用场景。如此深远的想法带来了广泛的挑战：就最终用户的可用性和安全性而言，它是否可行？技术上可行吗？开放可编程墨水的使用有什么道德意义？在可用性和影响层面，我们将与社区合作，收集数字纹身的应用程序并与他们互动。我们将研究终端用户的可接受性和舒适度周围的实施例类型（短暂的，可移动的，确定的）。我们将与制造商社区（纹身艺术家，DIY制造商，生物黑客）合作，探讨可编程墨水的民主化如何影响他们的研究，并研究传播此类墨水的风险和好处。在技术层面（通过硬件设计、实施和评估），我们将使用黑色和白色微胶囊，并研究如何将其注入我们实验室制造的硅基人工皮肤中，以了解驱动要求;我们将通过使用我们实验室制造的生物打印体外皮肤进行测试，以研究用户的安全要求，扩展到生物相容性微胶囊的制造。我们的项目是高度投机性的，但我们希望保持在安全研究的范围内：将活性墨水注入人类参与者需要大量的工作和医学专业知识，这超出了本提案的范围。但我们相信，我们的计划将为达到这一阶段所需的科学奠定基础，作为未来的一步。我们将利用这个机会为大规模融资机会奠定基础并收集需求。

We want to radically rethink the way we use digital ink made of programmable particles that change color to create digital tattoos. Imagine a tattoo that disappears or changes of visual on-demand, or adapt to the context you are in. Our goal is to create accessible fabrication methods to create programmable ink, produce a needle injection tool to embed programmable ink within skin, and design tools to activate the color change and explore innovative application scenarios. With such far-reaching idea, comes extensive challenges: is it viable in term of end-user's usability and safety? Is it technically feasible? What are ethical implications to open-up the usage of programmable ink? At the usability and implications level, we will engage with communities to gather applications for digital tattoos and interaction with them. We will study end-user acceptability and comfort around type of embodiment (ephemeral, removable, definitive). We will engage with maker communities (tattoo artists, DIY makers, biohackers) to explore how the democratisation of programmable ink can impact their research and study the risks and benefits to disseminate such inks. At the technical level (via hardware design, implementation, and evaluation) we will use black and white microcapsules and investigate how to inject them in silicon-based artificial skin made in our laboratory to understand the requirements for actuation; we will expand to the fabrication of bio-compatible microcapsules through testing with bio-printed in-vitro skin made in our laboratory to investigate user's safety requirement. Our project is highly speculative, but we want to stay within the remit of safe research: injecting active ink into a human participant requires a substantial body of work and medical expertise which is out of scope of this proposal. But we believe our programme will underpin the science needed to reach this stage as a future step. We will aim to use this opportunity to lay the groundwork and gather requirements for a large-scale funding opportunity.