CAREER: Body Modification Technologies

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This project investigates Body Modification Technologies: wearable devices for biosensing through novel form factors with embedded biosensors that interact with body fluids. Current practices for body modification include piercing, tattooing, branding, binding, bodybuilding, and inserting implants. By establishing new collaborations with surgeons, cosmetics companies, beauty salons, and dermatologists, this project investigates placing biosensors on and underneath the skin through body modification materials--lipstick, hair dye, piercings, and tattoos. Biosensors in direct contact with body fluids can significantly improve biological sensing data. This project develops new knowledge about methods and effects of transforming the body into a bio-display, in order to make visible information from metabolism that is usually imperceptible. Potential applications include monitoring illnesses, hormonal changes, dental health, eating disorders, stress tracking, pharmacokinetics, maintaining a culture of health in communities, and sensing changes in environmental factors such as pollution, temperature and UV. Further, the project will collaborate with experts on privacy, safety, and biocompatibility to articulate ethical principles for creating Body Modification Technologies. The Body Modification Technologies project advances wearable computing by developing implementation and evaluation methods to reveal metabolic information by using the form factors of body modifications as a substrate for chromogenic, fluorescence and electrochemical biosensors. This project investigates the design of the electronics, functional algorithms, biotechnology applications, and form factors, e.g., the shape, size, materials, and other physical characteristics that make it possible to wear such devices. Expected outcomes include: (1) fabrication processes for creating the form factors that embed biosensors into body modification materials; (2) design and implementation of hardware and software for devices and mobile applications; (3) dissemination of benchmarking datasets and methods for evaluation of Body Modification Technologies; and (4) derivation of a set of principles and implications on privacy, safety, bio-compatibility, and inclusive design. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.