The research engineers at National California's Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering created an experimental tattoo that if you drink too much sends a warning message to your cell phone to prevent you from driving.
This is a temporary one tattoo which contains a sensor that detects alcohol levels in your sweat and through bluetooth alerts your smartphone when you have surpassed higher levels of alcohol.
Sheila Selimovic (Seila Selimovic), Ph.D. and director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Biomechanical Program, said:
“It looks like a temporary tattoo, but it's actually a biosensor that has a pretty flexible built-in wireless device. One ingredient releases a chemical that stimulates sweat in the skin under the tattoo. Another component detects changes in the electrical current flowing through the sweat produced, which measures alcohol levels and sends them to mobile phone of the user".
Measuring alcohol from sweat isn't new technology, but the speed at which this new device is shipping is signalto your smartphone (about every eight minutes) is vastly superior to the two or three hours taken by its predecessors.