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Strange Patents: Vibrating Tattoos
Technology is advancing in leaps and bounds: every day a new gadget or app comes out. But how many ideas have been invented and even patented, yet never came to fruition? Were they truly failures, or were they simply ahead of their time? EXIP continues to study strange patents from the past and fantastic inventions of the future.
Today a smartphone user unlocks the device about 40 times a day on average. The management of the well-known Finnish company Nokia clearly anticipated this situation. Back in 2012 it patented tattoos that vibrate when calls and messages come in.
The tattoos were planned to be made with ferromagnetic ink. This is how a company representative described the technology: “The phone will be connected to the tattoo through magnetic waves. The smartphone will emit magnetic waves, and the tattoo will act as a receiver. When the waves hit the tattoo, there is a noticeable tactile response on the user’s skin.”
The patent was quite creative. It offered settings similar to those on smartphones. You could assign melodies to different contacts or to the type of incoming signal: a call, a text message or a notification.
Nokia’s patent was never implemented, but in 2016 the VivaLnk digital “tattoo” went on sale. In fact it is simply a sticker. It allows you to unlock a smartphone quickly via NFC wireless communication.
