Here we go, folks: As reported in Plastics News, researchers have developed skin-mounted electronics and published their findings last week in an issue of the Science journal. What the team of research engineers (from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, led by engineering prof John Rogers) have physically achieved is functional circuits embedded in a thin polymer substrate which can then be moistened and adhered to your skin. I suppose you could also lick-it-and-stick-it, like a postage stamp.

These circuit-containing band-aids can support "sensors, LEDs, transistors, radio frequency capacitors, wireless antennas, conductive coils and solar cells." Even more impressive, the substrate they're mounted in can flex and wrinkle along with your skin, so conceivably even Luke Perry could wear one of these on his forehead."This could be an important conceptual advance in wearable electronics, to achieve something almost unnoticeable to the wearer," said UIUC electrical and computer engineering professor Todd Coleman, who co-led the multidisciplinary team. "The technology can connect you to the physical world and the cyberworld in a natural, comfortable way."

The obvious application is for monitoring a person's health and vital symptoms, but the researchers have also found that patches adhered to the throat could detect muscle movement well enough to theoretically transmit signals to a speech emulator. And on the interface front, they've also hooked a test subject up to control a videogame via the sensors. If these guys pair up with some forward-thinking tattoo artists, the future of wearable electronics will look very interesting indeed.

The sensor can sense I am leaning to my right.

The sensor can sense I am leaning to my right.

Now it can sense I am leaning to my left.

Now it can sense I am leaning to my left.