MRI + metal tattoos
They did this in House where someone had got a tattoo in prison using dodgy ink.
Nokia has filed a patent covering magnetically induced vibrating particles to be embedded in clothing or, more interestingly, under the skin in the form of a tattoo. The idea behind US Patent Application number 20120062371, spotted by Unwired View, is to use an induction coil on the phone to excite the vibrating particles, …
There was an old episode of Mythbusters (old enough to still have the tattoo-covered Scottie in the build team) where they tested the MRI+tattoo story.
Verdict was "Busted" IIRC. the only way they got anything remarkable to happen was when they mixed up some ridiculously metal-heavy ink and put a container holding a couple of pints of the stuff into the MRI scanner.
Why do people keep quoting a non-science program like 'Mythbusters' as 'proof'?
Most of the time they don't even attempt to go into any details of the physics involved and a lot of the 'simulations' are nothing like the actual situations they are trying to prove\debunk. You always get the impression that they have decide the result in advance, and are fitting the tests to match.
It's an entertainment program, thats all.
IIRC the myth was tattoos explode in MRI scanners. They put a heavily tattooed woman in an MRI scanner and her tattooes didn't explode, then they made some different inks and tattooed some pork belly and scanned that too.
Details or no details they still got a result. Maybe not proof enough in your eyes, but certainly enough for me not to worry about my tattoo in an MRI scanner.
They're actually alot more rigorous behind the scenes. But you are right - they are an entertainment show - scientific rigour doesn't make for good TV.
The Myth they actually debunked was "will your tattoo explode if you are given an MRI"
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-exploding-tattoo-minimyth.html
The results were that they managed a little excitement with bottles of doped ink - but nothing from any normal (or doped) tattoo.
Therefore they "busted" the "myth" that a decorative tattoo always explodes under MRI - not whether they could be heated slightly.
No, tattooing goes back a long, long way. For instance, Otzi (the mummified man found in the ice in the Alps) has several tattoos (quick reference: http://anthropology.net/2009/07/21/otzi-icemans-tattoos-were-born-in-fire/), and there is no evidence he was a slave - much the opposite, so far. However, tattooing *has* been used in various times and places as a way of marking slaves and "undesirables" as well. My point? Tattooing is value neutral, and in this day and age, seemingly normal!
Would the level of vibration be dependant on the power provided by the NFC tech? If you were to increase the power significantly would you be able cause the person/limb to shake?
I imagine that going near the Oyster card machines could also be interesting.
This could open new doors for the BOFH
Anything with sufficient force to move the body would (with particles as small as those in ink) almost certainly cause the particles to pull out of your skin which would probably sting. Do this thought experiment - if you took hold of areas of skin the size of a particle of ink and yanked it hard enough to move the arm, would the arm move or would you pull off the skin? It would have to be some pretty major tattooing to counterbalance that by the number of particles.
Separately, whilst the nails are cool, I do have to wonder which member of the Register editorial team is dating the owner of Sephora for that ad placement! ;)
go one step further and have carefully controlled vibrations directed into the jawbone from some cybernetic implant. Derive power for it from one of those glucose fuel cells that snails had fitted to them the other week, an audio pick up as well and you could have a fully functional and discrete communications device. Yes, encapsulated in blue ceramic and shaped like a tooth, this kind of idea could work.
Given that you would still need to actually pick up the associated phone to receive any incoming message...so you probably wouldn't leave it that far away from your own location in space (especially if it had a high fondle-rating)... are that many people so *stupid* that they actually need a vibrating tattoo to tell them when a text message arrives ? Or when the phone needs recharging ?
Oh, right, bit of a silly question really.