Skip to main content

Motorola's tattoos could replace passwords

Motorola’s forthcoming phones could use electronic tattoos or pills to identify users, it has been announced. 

 The technology, which aims to remove the need to enter passwords and replace them simply with a phone being close to a user’s body, was one of the suggestions Dennis Woodside, Motorola’s chief executive, California's D11 conference yesterday.

The tattoos have been developed by Massachusetts-based engineering firm MC10, and contain flexible electronic circuits that are attached to the wearer's skin using a rubber stamp.

Nokia has previously experimented with integrating tattoos into mobile phones, and Motorola's senior vice president of advance research, Regina Dugan, a former head of the US Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, demonstrated the silicon-based technology that uses bendable electronic circuits. Initially designed for medical purposes, Motorola hopes the ‘Biostamps’ could now be used for consumer authentication purposes.

Motorola is also investigating the Proteus Digital Health pill, which has already been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and was given European regulatory approval in 2010. Its computer chip is powered by a battery using the acid in a user’s stomach.

The pill creates a unique signal like an ECG trace that can be picked up by devices outside the body and which could be used to verify a user’s identity. It can be taken daily for up to a month, it has been claimed. 

 Woodside admitted that such experimental ideas were not going to be on sale soon. But he claimed Motorola had “tested it authenticating a phone, and it works.'

The former Google employee, however, who was parachuted in to Motorola after its $12.5billion acquisition in 2011, said “Having the boldness to think differently about problems that everybody has every day is really important for Motorola now.'”

Dugan added “Authentication is irritating. In fact its so irritating only about half the people do it, despite the fact there is a lot of information about you on your smartphone, which makes you far more prone to identity theft.”

She said authentication takes 2.3 seconds each time for existing users, some of whom log in to their phones a 100 times a day and added Motorola would not be put off by those who felt that the new technologies were “creepy”.

Meanwhile, the Moto X phone, which will launch in October, will be struggling Motorola's first device to go on sale sinces its acquisition. It will know what you want to do before you do but cost significantly less than an iPhone, Motorola has claimed.

The phone, which is to largely be manufactured in America, will also use advanced sensors to anticipate user behaviour, Woodside said.

Without offering further details, he said the Moto X would change the way users “engage with how the devices are designed”, and that the “broadly distributed” phone would provide “experiences [that] are unlike other experiences out there.” 

 The device will also be an attempt to drive down prices of smartphones, and Woodside said the flagship device would compete with both top Android devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One as well as the iPhone, which is expected to be updated later this year.

Woodside said the Moto X “is more contextually aware of what’s going on around it. It allows you to interact with it more than other devices today. It anticipates my need”.

The device, which is likely to build on the features in Google’s ‘Now’ search product, will aim to predict what a user wants to do so that they do not waste time choosing it manually. Examples include automatically sensing a device is travelling at speed along a road and suggesting entering ‘car mode’ or making it faster to open the camera application.

Woodside added that Google wanted to sell the device at lower margins than companies such as Apple have become used to. Although he did not aim the iPhone specifically, he told the D11 conference, “Those products earn 50 per cent margins. We don’t necessarily have those constraints. Those [margins] will not persist.” He said that while computers and televisions had seen dramatic price drops in recent years, smartphones had yet to see such falls.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Jiah Khan ended life over troubled love affair with Suraj Pancholi, failing career: Police

Young actress Jiah Khan, also known as Nafisa Khan, allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself, with the police claiming she was heartbroken after a failed relationship with Suraj Pancholi, the son of actor couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, which possibly drove her to take the step at her home last night. The body of Jiah, 25, was found hanging at her 'Sagar Sangeet' residence in Juhu at around 11 PM where she lived with mother and sister who were not present when she ended her life. Preliminary investigation has revealed that she was in a relationship with Suraj, son of actor couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab for nearly a year. Jiah was said to be under depression after coming to know of Suraj's new love interest, who supplied jewellery to the Pancholis. Jiah Khan's life in pics Investigators said the actress, who made her dream debut opposite Amitabh Bachchan in Ram Gopal Varma's 2007 film 'Nishabd', prima facie took her life due to her...

MS Dhoni receives ICC Shield for India's ODI glory

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Monday received the prestigious ICC ODI Championship Shield and a cheque of $175,000 for leading his side to the top of the ICC ODI Championship table on the annual April 1 cut-off date. This is the first time since the current ranking system was introduced in 2002 that India finished as the No. 1 ranked one-day international (ODI) side. David Morgan, former president of the International Cricket Council (ICC), presented the Shield to Dhoni, who also collected the cheque, after India's training session at the Cardiff Wales Stadium. "I am very proud of this huge achievement, as being No. 1 is a reward for all of us but hopefully it is just the beginning. Being No. 1 in the world brings with it a certain respect for the game itself and for the way in which we play the game and conduct ourselves on the field," said Dhoni. "You have to be consistent to be ranked No. 1 and I think we have reached that level of consisten...

With Love from Tehran – Mandana Karimi

The part Turkish, part Iranian, part Indian Mandana Karimi will be soon be seen in the Vikram Bhatt-directed Bhaag Johnny. The tall, brown-eyed Karimi talks to us about poetry, watches and food. When we heard you were from Iran, we instantly thought of Ferdowsi. We think his Shahnameh was as excellent piece of work as ever to come out of Iran. Are you into poetry as well? I love Ferdowsi, but there are others that you should read. People like Ahmad Shamlou and Sadi. And Hafiz, too. Hafiz… he was good, eh? Can you recite a couplet or two from one of his poems? You have to read them in Farsi, but wait, let me try to translate a couple of lines from one of his poems. This is from Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved, a collection of some 100 poems by Hafiz: Come and set my boat free on sail in the winerivers! Come and burn the guru and the youth inheavenly fires! Oh wine-bearer! In wine, let my boat sail away As, “in water set free your goodness”, they say. In mistake, I turned away from...