I know temporary tattoos are usually pretty lame, but the ones they’re making over at the University of Illinois are looking pretty rad. Because unlike regular temporary tattoos that fade within two days and look like awful birthmarks, these guys come with diagnostic sensors, LEDs, wireless antennas, and solar cells for power. Take that, Kinder Surprise.

John Rogers, professor of engineering at Illinois, discussed the skin-mounted electronics in Science:

“We threw everything in our bag of tricks onto that platform, and then added a few other new ideas on top of those, to show that we could make it work.”

At the moment the patches are mostly used for collecting and transmitting data about the wearers, but research has found that they could be used to transcribe speech when applied to the throat, and allow for remote connectivity.

All I’m saying is that these things look less douchey than most smartphones.

[physorg]