Last year, LogicInk, a San Francisco, CA-based startup and a pioneer in programmable materials, announced its first product LogicInk UV, a wearable that resembles a temporary tattoo and monitors your UV exposure, signaling when it is time to get out of the sun in order to prevent skin damage.
Related L’Oreal’s Batteryless UV Sense Fits On Your Fingernail
Now, the company’s UV temporary tattoo is complete, and it has launched a Kickstarter campaign to leverage its existence in an interesting way. For at least $14 you can get two UV tattoos by November 2018. However, for LogicInk, this is about taking it to the next stage, reports Wareable.
LogicInk co-founder and CEO Carlos Olguin told Wareable that his company wants to use all its proceeds from the Kickstarter campaign to fund new temporary tattoos that focus on hydration, blood alcohol level, pollution and more.
The UV has two rings: the inner ring responds to the harshness of the sun, turning from white to purple; while the outer ring tells you when you’ve had enough sun by turning from pink to purple.
LogicInk is working on a tattoo that can detect blood alcohol level. The tattoo changes color as your blood alcohol level gets higher, letting you know how drunk you are. The tattoo has been certified by the National Institute of Health.
About the hydration sensor, Olguin told Wareable that it isn’t just meant for athletes or fitness fanatics, but it’s also aimed at the elderly and other groups who might not realize that they’re dehydrated. Similarly, the tattoo would change color based on how hydrated you are.
The blood alcohol and the hydration sensors work by detecting your sweat and the skin voluntiles that come from your skin, and the detection triggers a color change in the tattoo.
According to Olguin, the core mission of these sensors is to empower users to understand how their body is being affected by outside forces.
LogicInk has also been looking at balancing how quickly the color changes. The company has found that those with sensitive skin like how quickly it tells them they’ve got their fill of the sun, while those without sensitive skin find it moves too fast.
Related Wearables Can Monitor Your UV Exposure, But How Effective Are They?
While the $14 pledge will get you two UV tattoos, the second reward for pledges $79 and up, will get you whatever the next sensor from LogicInk is. And, about the type of the next sensor, that’s up to the backers, who gets to participate in choosing which technology the company moves toward first.
“It’s important for people to see that this isn’t just blue sky dreaming, there is work done already,” Olguin said.
