High-Tech Tattoos Redefine Health Care Solutions

In the not-so-distant future, patients with heart disease won’t have to strap brick-size Holter monitors to their arms or waists, with webs of electrodes connected to their chests to monitor their hearts. Those unable to speak will communicate by muscle movements in their throats, and the blind will read with finger tubes that “poke” their fingertips with programmable electrotactile stimulations in place of bulky brail.

The technology enabling these advances is called bio-integrated electronics, and it is expected to revolutionize health care.

Nanshu Lu, an assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the Cockrell School of Engineering, is one of the minds behind the design of the bio-integrated electronic tattoo, an intricate arrangement of filamentary micro-metal and silicon wires that measures vital signs and muscle movement, transmits data wirelessly and harvests solar energy.