powering a LED through the human skin

Its a nice idea but full of problems. Skin painting is probably a bad idea from the toxicity of the solvents and heavy metals involved. Also if you have any significant power then the flexing will eventually make a high resistance somewhere and that will give you a burn. Not to mention it would make you look stupid. Why don't you try integrating a wiring system into clothing?

Peter

Peter, Thank you. Some good points. Many artists wear silver body paint, so non toxic. Well it might look daft, but people have tatoos as art, so that is a matter of opinion.

I'm only passing 1-2mA through skin at present, but your issue on possible skin damage may be valid.

Re " try integrating a wiring system into clothing?" Because its too easy and already been done. Also not all the body is clothed, e.g. arms, face, neck etc.

Lyn

Peter wrote:

I think your idea is good and can make you good money if you are fast enough. 1-2 mA is not a lot, but with some more experiments you may be able to achieve 10 mA or so. Then, you may try sticking very thin enammeled wire to the skin (say, 0.06 or something, it is flexible enough to last for the evening and will only take some glue - and will carry more than 10 mA...). You will probably have to zig-zag bend the wire before sticking so it will withstand the skin expansions etc...

Dimiter

------------------------------------------------------ Dimiter Popoff Transgalactic Instruments

------------------------------------------------------

Lyn wrote:

It's a very good idea but marketing it would be a challenge. There may also be other applications. One that springs to mind is the huge coils of wire running from behind the ears of newsreaders and sports reporters. I'm sure people like that wouldn't object to a couple of flesh-toned tracks being painted along their hairlines and down their necks as long as they could be blended in with make-up.

Another thought is dumb kids who will wear anything that is fashionable. Considering how white iPod earphones have become a fashion accessory then musical "war paint" is probably exactly what the Fifty Pence and Duff Paddy generation are likely to embrace. Market it as a cosmetic thing rather than a convenience thing and you might get away with it. If you can get Fiddy to wear it instead of his monitor earpiece then sales will really boom.

Of course, you'll need some money to get it approved as safe for use. I'll bet that leaving a metallic liquid on your skin for any length of time is not very good for your health.

Not that *I* am aware of - neat idea, btw. The paint is somewhat brittle maybe one can wire up stuff on mylar-film based circuits

However, if you want patents later you could not have asked here because that is Publishing.

How about a tattoo in conductive ink?

I wonder if you could tattoo someone with ITO (indium tin oxide; used as the electrode material in LCDs). That way you could run _invisible_ wires through the skin.

Of course if you're willing to put up with this much pain, perhaps just running a thin wire through the dermis might be the right plan.

It never ceases to surprise me the ways in which people mutilate themselves. The service department secretary here has her _wrist_ pierced along with a number of other appendages. You wouldn't have to add many more to find a conductive path from her pocket to her ears!

Thanks for the patent reminder, I posted here as i'm not planning on patenting it, I'm doing it just for fun & research. My last patent on this same subject covered most of the idea:

Lyn

larwe wrote:

Thank you, these are all constructive replies.

Newreaders may well like an almost invisible auto prompt. Children love face paint. Invisible ink sounds good. BTW the silver paint wore off me after about 12 hours, not mutilation! :-)

I used silver paint with resistance 0.02 to 0.05 ohms/sq/mil.

Might be useful for medical electronics where people who have a few heart electrodes wired on them 24/7. It might be more comfortable than wires everywhere.

Lyn

Tom Lucas wrote:

Oh, you've only scratched the surface of the application. The next step is to paint a piezoelectric tweeter onto the side of your head.

You may as well go whole hog then, and imbed LEDs under the skin, connected by the subcutaneous wires you already have in place. Can you imagine what some people might pay for a tattoo that lights up? Or flashes?

-- John

Better still, do it to a friend while they are asleep and be "the voices in their head" ;-)

The piezo speakers works well on just ordinary skin , it's audible and only takes a tiny amount of current. Well I DO like the idea of a light up tatoo, perhaps someone can design an inductive loop under the skin to power it up? We could be colour coded according to our preferences...

I got into a bit of bother when I first invented device :

So I'm filing no patents on it, just putting the idea into the public domain for the possible benefit of art, research and fun! I prefer to share ideas rather than make money from them.

Lyn

John O'Flaherty wrote:

I now understand the purpose of "Organic Leds"...

Just a matter of time before all mankind will be fitted with standardized audio / video inputs.

The rear base of the scull seems a good place...

(A blue pill anyone?)

I'm thinking there must be a way to do this with bioluminescent dyes.

Don't bother, there isn't any TV worth watching anymore. :(

There's always your "favorite" DVDS but then - well we won't go where they'd have to mount those......

Hey, there you go! Just use conductive ink, and tattoo wires onto your skin!

Good Luck! Rich

(BTW, we snip and bottom-post, usually.)

It has been done by electromagnetic coupling - better than paint.