In this very unusual year, lots of unprecedented things have taken place remotely due to coronavirus and, not least, thanks to technology! Who'd have thought that tattooing remotely was possible, too? Dutch actress Stijn Fransen has received the world's first tattoo created remotely via 5G, as part of a marketing stunt for mobile telephony provider T-Mobile Netherlands.
Dutch tattoo artist Wes Thomas, who runs a tattoo studio in Amsterdam, performed the tattoo session on a robotic arm. The tattooing motion was mapped onto the robotic arm, enabling the remote tattooing machine to successfully tattoo the same design onto the arm of Stijn Fransen at another location.
The technology was thought up and developed from scratch by London-based creative technologist Noel Drew. He told PC Mag that “Every part of the build was considered and either purchased specifically or designed, developed, and fabricated in-house from the ground up.”
The final result was carried off flawlessly, thanks to vigorous research, testing and monitoring. The hardware was tested out on vegetables, with Noel Drew quipping that “Many butternut squashes were harmed in the test cycle before it was refined and ready for reality.”
The initial rationale for the whole project was for T-Mobile to promote 5G, but what resulted was much more significant! Massive strides in machine learning and robotics have been reached with this extraordinary technology project. We wonder what they'll think of next!