http://www.nanogirl.com/museumfuture/dermaldisplay.htm

Dermal Display - In his book Nanomedicine, Volume I: Basic
Capabilities [available on the web at
http://www.nanomedicine.com/NMI.htm ], Robert A. Freitas Jr.
describes [in section 7.4.6.7 (page 204)] a "programmable dermal
display" in which a population of about 3 billion display pixel
robots would be permanently implanted a fraction of a mm under the
surface of the skin, covering a rectangle 6 cm x 5 cm on the back of
the hand. Photons emitted by these pixel bots would produce an image
on the surface of the skin. This pixelbot array could be programmed
to form any of many thousands of displays. Each display would be
capable of two functions: (1) presenting to the user data received
from the large population of medical bots that roam the user's body;
(2) conveying instructions from the user to that same large
population of bots. The display could be activated or deactivated by
finger tapping on the skin. This 3-minute animation illustrates the
motions and live interaction of these display screens.

I began this project in March and it has been both the most
challenging and the most educational of the animations that I have
done so far. Since the functions illustrated on the display
represent actual data that could be obtained in real time from a
human body equipped with the dermal display screen each moment of
this animation had specific guidelines for timing and movement
directed to me from the author. I am very grateful to have had this
experience in which I have learned so much and I hope that this
animation helps to visualize what Robert A. Freitas Jr. theorizes in
his wonderful books on the subject.

To see the movie click here (.mov 8.61Mb opens using Quicktime).
Alternately you click here to view the movie (.wmv 10.14Mb opens
using Windows Media Player).

Downloads require some patience, depending on what type of
connection you have.
These movies have been compressed from their original quality for
online downloading, due to this you may see lower resolution
artifacts.

Click here for a high resolution version of the image below.

Below: stills from the movie.

Deepest appreciation to:
James Lewis PhD for your assistance with crunching the numbers.
Jude Ng for those late night Combustion emergencies.
And of course Robert A. Freitas Jr. for this opportunity.

© Gina Miller and Robert A. Freitas Jr. all rights reserved.

Dates of creation: March through September 2005
Added to the web site on 9.22.05

Dermal Display Media mentions:
KurzweilAI.net
medGadget
Nanotechnology Now
NanoVIP