April 11, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC
Orange County – The rule of thumb with tattoos has always been, choose it wisely because it stays with you forever. Now, mobile phone-maker Nokia wants to make sure its users stay with them forever by puttinga permanent mark on the cellular phone industry. The company has reportedly filed a patent application for a tattoo that would vibrate when the user receives a call, text message, or email alert.
Nokia’s tattoo patent would send a “perceivable impulse” to your skin whenever someone tried to contact you on your mobile phone. According to the application, filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the tattoo would act as a receiver to the magnetic waves that the phone would emit when a call, text, or email was coming through. As the magnetic waves are hitting the tattoo, a physical response is felt in the user’s skin, alerting them that someone is trying to get in touch with them. Literally.
Users could sync their magnetic tattoos with their mobile phones much like they would sync a mobile phone with a Bluetooth device.
Other details from the patent suggest the possibility of customizing the palpable response depending on who the party that is contacting the user is, much like having a unique ring tone for each contact in your phone. For instance, if your boss is calling, you may customize the response to be a sharp tingling feeling, whereas if it is your spouse, you can customize it to be more of a pleasant sensation.
In order for the tattoo to receive the magnetic waves from the phone, the tattoo artist must apply it using ferromagnetic ink, an ink that includes compounds such as iron or iron oxide. Before the tattoo is applied, the ink is temporarily demagnetized by heating it to a high temperature. After the tattoo is completed, the user re-magnetizes it by waving a magnet over it.
In its filing, Nokia included a much less invasive version of the magnetic tattoo technology. Under that version, the user could wear a magnetic receiver that could be worn on the skin like a sticker, but would also vibrate when the user is being contacted.