Semi-Android or Cyborg? 3D printer puts electronics directly on skin

Semi-Androind or Cyborg? 3D printer puts electronics directly on skin

Welcome to a future where a portable 3D printer can place electronics right on the back of your hand, and also print biological cells onto wounds.

A 3D printer can ‘write’ an electronic circuit directly onto human skin.

3D printer puts electronics directly on your skin

The portable printer can place electronics directly onto the user's hand It can also print biological cells onto wounds and could be used by soldiers The technique could lead to new medical treatments for wound healing The electronics can simply be peeled or washed off when no longer needed A £290 ($400) 3D printer puts electronics directly onto people's skin turning them into 'semi-cyborgs'.

Seeking applications for 3D printing, Michael McAlpine and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis used a 3D scanner to map the topology of a hand. The team then fed the map into an off-the-shelf 3D printer, and equipped this with tracking cameras. These allowed the printer to compensate for the inevitable motion of a living participant.

The researchers developed a quick-drying ‘ink’ that included silver particles to conduct electricity. The 3D printer squirted this ink onto a hand to create a current-carrying coil. When a second, power-transmitting coil was passed across the hand, the resulting current in the skin coil powered a light-emitting diode attached to the hand.

The authors say that the technology could be used to layer chemical sensors and biomedical treatments onto the skin.