Why Is This Cool? LogicInk
Superbacker Tieg Zaharia explains why he loves these tattoos that tell you when you’ve had too much sun.
Tieg Zaharia isn’t just a software engineer at Kickstarter, he also backs a lot of projects (5,020 at last count). Recently, we asked Tieg to pick a project he loves to share with his friend Travis Brace, who works here, as well. They sat down to talk about LogicInk, which Tieg describes as “temporary tattoos that are sensors for your body.” Travis has a bunch of questions. Along the way, they discuss the future, transhumanism, and doomsday prepping.
Listen to Tieg explain why LogicInk is cool:
LogicInk is live on Kickstarter until Friday, October 5.
Music: “Candlepower” by Chris Zabriskie, [cc by 4.0]
Transcript
Travis: Tieg is always backing something that is very far away from my realm of knowledge or understanding. So I’m very excited to see what he’s got going on today.
Tieg: All right. So, Trav, what you’re looking at right now is a project called LogicInk.
Tieg: It’s a really cool Biology art project. Essentially, the idea is temporary tattoos that are sensors for your body.
Travis: What does that mean?
Tieg: A sensor is just something that takes data and then gives you feedback about it.
Travis: So we’re putting these sensors on our body. What do they do when they get there?
Tieg: The first one that they’re going to develop is for UV rays, the thing you get from the sun and that can cause damage. But uh…
Travis: Tell me more about that.. I don’t know what you’re talking about…
Tieg: Oh OK, the tattoo will essentially change colors when you’ve had too much sun.
Travis: From the sunlight… it’s like a little sun sensor?
Tieg: Yes!
Travis: Oh that’s cute — this is dope! I’m wondering what data they’re actually able to collect from your skin and what the limit is.
Tieg: This project is just for the UV one, but they’re thinking of doing more sensors in the future. There’s a pollution sensor. There’s a blood alcohol application which could tell you when you’ve drank too much for the day or something.
Travis: That one seems very useful.
Tieg: Oh yeah.
Travis: I have a few things to say about the project. The first is that I love it. It’s great. I think it’s very cool. These tattoos are very cute. Although, I will say it would be nice to have customizable options. What if I could get one that was like a little bunny rabbit or, like, ooh, ooh, like a tiger, and then like when the sun was too much, the stripes started to appear or something.
Tieg: That’s a good idea.
Travis: I think that would be cool. It seems like really similar technology, just different design.
Tieg: Yeah, then that would … You could even get stuff that appeals more to kids so that they’re more likely to wear it.
Travis: Exactly.
Tieg: I actually saw this and it appealed to me more because it was basic shapes and primary colors.
Travis: Yeah.
Tieg: I don’t wear temporary tattoos because I’m a really boring person and I actually just like shapes and stuff, you know. It’s like brands on clothing.
Travis: Note for listeners, Tieg is the least boring person I have ever met in my entire life.
Travis: This is the kind of thing that totally seems like the future is now. Being able to pull data directly from your skin with what is effectively like a sticker or a tattoo seems nuts. Like something out of a Sci-Fi novel.
Tieg: Totally. Yeah, we’re definitely in the 21st Century right here.
Travis: We have arrived, everyone. We have arrived at the future.
Tieg: The thing that I think is interesting about this is that it’s like chemists and scientists working with designers to create useful things. I think the 20th Century was very much about electronics and circuitry and sensors, but now what they’re doing is taking it to chemistry and creating sensors that can enhance humans and the human experience, and maybe help us make ourselves safer.
Tieg: It kind of reminds me of Transhumanism, like, this movement to improve human life through technology. I think that this is kind of like transhumanism light, you’re doing something that anybody would do, it’s not dangerous; it’s not like putting robots in your blood or something. But it’s serious technology that could help us.
Travis: I think that the future in general is a creepy idea, right? And I think that seeing this kind of technology for the first time can be alarming because it makes you think, what else is possible from this technology. It’s kind of like, Tieg, you might actually even be in this camp as someone who is effectively a Doomsday Prepper yourself.
Tieg: Oh yeah.
Travis: I’m kind of airing your laundry clean or dirty on this microphone right now.
Travis: Immediately you default to, can this be weaponized?
Tieg: I didn’t even think about that, but like, this has a lot of prepper-type applications. You get those cards that tell you the amount of radiation in a room. What if that could just be a tattoo that you put on yourself-
Travis: To see how much radiation was in the air today from your underground bunker.
Tieg: Yeah.
Travis: There’s a lot of things that could be done with this that seem crazy. But this LogicInk team, they seem like good people.
Tieg: Yes! I get a good vibe that these people are really into merging technology and design. And you don’t have to worry about data collection on this one because this is all biological at this point. So this is not hooked up to a circuit and it’s not collecting data anymore. It’s only for your eyes.
In fact, they mentioned there’s no app involved. But they’re thinking about doing an app just to make it easier to track these yourself.
Travis: Right, right, right.
Tieg: So that you could take it to the doctor and say, here is how much sun I got for the past month.
Travis: Man, totally the future. Your body communicating with an app.
Tieg: Yes!
Travis: Because it’s a sticker.
Tieg: Yeah.
Travis: That’s some nutso stuff, Tieg. Very cool but also very freaky. Okay. Cool. I think that I’m gonna back this project.
Tieg: Yes!
Travis: The things you can find when you hang out with Tieg on Kickstarter.
Tieg: Hey!
Travis: Who knew? I knew, we all know this about Tieg.
