Electric Tattoos Providing Sensory Feedback
Ultra-conformable “tattoo” electrodes designed to deliver transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) for sensory feedback.
This Scientific Reports paper describes ultra-conformable “tattoo” electrodes (Parylene C + gold, <600nm thick) designed to deliver transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) for sensory feedback - i.e. non-invasive stimulation that can restore somatotopic sensations without surgery.
The “Fidelity” dial isn’t just about what you see and hear - it’s about how convincingly the interface layer can loop back into your body.
This matters because the bottleneck for practical, day-to-day sensory stimulation is often messy physical reality - skin irregularities, motion, adhesion, comfort. The authors explicitly target those constraints by making the electrode thin enough to conform to skin via adhesion forces and maintain contact on irregular surfaces (they contrast this with standard wet Ag/AgCl electrodes that can detach).
They report stable skin–electrode impedance over 9 hours (max ~8% variation at the target frequency), and in tests with 12 participants found no statistically significant differences vs Ag/AgCl in key stimulation parameters (rheobase/chronaxie) or reported sensory perceptions - with lower operational impedance for the tattoo electrodes.
“In this work, we propose for the first time the use of ultra-thin Parylene C-based tattoo electrodes for transcutaneous electrical stimulation of the median nerve” - Nature
That’s upward pressure on the Fidelity dial - as sensory feedback becomes thinner, more comfortable, and more “always-there”. Mediated experiences don’t just represent the world - they can feel more natively integrated with it. Not mainstream yet, but a real signal of the interface layer moving closer to the nervous system.
> The interface layer is thickening. If you disagree with my interpretation, or you’ve spotted a better signal then reply and tell me.