Motorola's newest patent application shows a microphone tattoo

Google seems quite keen to experiment with technology using Motorola. A new patent application has popped up that hints to some new technology Motorola might be working on, according to the Telegraph . The patent filing is for a microphone tattoo, which is essentially an electronic sticker that can be applied on a person’s throat. This can then pick up sounds made by the user’s voice, which can then be sent wirelessly to the user’s smartphone.

According to the patent, the microphone tattoo will have, along with a mic, a transceiver to allow connection with a smartphone, a battery and a controller. The tattoo’s use is apparently for “acoustic noise for a mobile communication device and more particularly to reducing acoustic noise with an auxiliary voice input.”

The tattoo will have quite a few parts

“Mobile communication devices are often operated in noisy environments. For example, large stadiums, busy streets, restaurants, and emergency situations can be extremely loud and include varying frequencies of acoustic noise,” says the patent filing. “Communication can reasonably be improved and even enhanced with a method and system for reducing the acoustic noise in such environments and contexts.”

The mic on the sticker would be able to help alleviate these problems by detecting sounds directly from the vibrations on the user’s throat, along with fluctuations of muscle or tissue from the vocal chords. The sound can then be sent to the smartphone through Bluetooth. It could also have NFC pairing, if the patent filing is anything to go by.

Stranger, and possibly a bit sinister, is mention of a galvanic skin response detector. This could potentially turn the microphone tattoo into a lie detector test. “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," says the filing.