Working with engineers in Massachusetts, the company has developed a tattoo that contains flexible electronic circuits and can verify a users identity – basically a security chip implanted in the skin.
A user would place their smartphone over the tattoo for verification, like a skin stamp.
Motorola has also been working on a pill, called the Proteus Digital Health pill, that can send a security verification signal to a smartphone from inside a user’s stomach and gut.
The pill, which has already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), uses a battery powered by the user’s stomach acid, and can be taken daily for up to a month.
The e-pill is also being developed to detect a patient’s heart rate and monitor their physical activity.
At about the size of a grain of sand, it can also be added to prescription tablets, to monitor whether the correct dosage is being taken at the right time.
Regina Dugan, Motorola’s senior vice president of Advanced Research, is already wearing an early version of the security “tattoo”, but says the new technologies won’t be mainstream for a while yet.
Dugan, who once headed the US military research fund DARPA, told an audience the D11 tech conference in California this week: “If you want to ensure failure in your innovation, try removing the risks. Boredom is the enemy of innovation.”