• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, November 11, 2013

Google has acquired many patents and filings with the Motorola Mobility acquisition, and not all might seem, well, normal. Known for its expertise in radio frequency technology such as near field communication and radio frequency identification technology, Google's Motorola Mobility division filed a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark and Office for a system embedded in the human body in the form of a tattoo that includes a near field communications semiconductor chip, which detects inflections in the human voice.

The patent explains how an electronic skin tattoo can be coupled to a mobile device. The tattoo supports a signal processor and microphone; an NFC chip is used as a conductor to transmit the signal from under the skin. The patent claims that the method, when recognized, causes the auxiliary voice input to transmit as a signal to a mobile communication device, which causes it to perform functions. 

The method states that the tattoo includes a microphone embedded in the electronic skin tattoo, a transceiver enabling wireless communication with a mobile communication device, a signal processor comprising circuitry for receiving vocal signals and comparison to a predetermined pattern, and an initialization signal that wakes up the wireless device through an audio stream -- all picked up from predetermined patterns coming from the throat. 

Aside from transmitting commands to your phone, the filing explains how it also would adjust to reduce acoustic noise with an auxiliary voice input and would cut down on background noise. The throat microphone of electronic skin tattoo 200 would have its own identification that the wearer or users could select in a group setting -- for example, where multiple users are wearing an electronic skin tattoo. 

The Register, which initially discovered the patent, points to the optional "galvanic skin response detector," which detects skin resistance of a user, and can suggest when the person is telling lies. "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," according to the patent.