Google’s Newest Invention: A Lie Detector Throat Tattoo

Google’s Newest  Invention: A Lie Detector Throat Tattoo

Remember that one time when Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, “Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it”? Well, apparently Google has just filed a new patent for…

Wait for it…

An electronic lie detector throat tattoo.

I wish I was just joking.


Google subsidiary Motorola filed U.S. patent application #20130297301 for the nanotechnology entitled, “Coupling an Electronic Skin Tattoo to a Mobile Communication Device” on November 7, 2013. It begins:

A system and method provides auxiliary voice input to a mobile communication device (MCD). The system comprises an electronic skin tattoo capable of being applied to a throat region of a body. The electronic skin tattoo can include an embedded microphone; a transceiver for enabling wireless communication with the MCD; and a power supply configured to receive energizing signals from a personal area network associated with the MCD. A controller is communicatively coupled to the power supply. The controller can be configured to receive a signal from the MCD to initiate reception of an audio stream picked up from the throat region of the body for subsequent audio detection by the MCD under an improved signal-to-noise ratio than without the employment of the electronic skin tattoo.

The fact that it’s temporary (it’s applied with an adhesive) makes it only half a tick less creepy than that guy who wears a trench coat and visits children’s parks alone. However, it only gets creepier and the potential privacy invasion factor only gets more invasive from there.

First, there’s the fact that whoever controls the tattoo can send the signals it generates to all kinds of mobile devices:

Controller 101 of electronic tattoo 110 can be configured to execute programs or instructions to enable communicative coupling of the electronic tattoo to external electronic devices such as a smartphone, a gaming device, a tablet computer, a wearable computer, for example.

Obviously based on this description, the “controller” doesn’t necessarily have to mean the person wearing the tattoo.

Further, it can single certain people out in a group setting:

…The throat microphone of electronic skin tattoo 200 can have its own identification and be selectable in a group setting, for example, where multiple users are wearing an electronic skin tattoo 200.

Next there’s the express mention that the tattoo can also be applied to animals:

The electronic tattoo 110 can comprise audio circuitry 103 that enables reception of acoustic signals from a person’s throat when the electronic tattoo 110 is applied to a throat region of a body. Here it is contemplated that the electronic tattoo 110 can also be applied to an animal as well.

Optionally, the electronic skin tattoo 200 can further include a galvanic skin response detector to detect skin resistance of a user. It is contemplated that a user that may be nervous or engaging in speaking falsehoods may exhibit different galvanic skin response than a more confident, truth telling individual.