Consider “smart skin,” developed by brilliant university scientists and now poised for commercial elaboration. Initially valued for its ability to monitor and diagnosis health conditions from Parkinson’s disease to sleep disorders, smart skin is now hailed for its promise of ultra-unobtrusive ubiquity. Researchers at Georgia Tech developed a version of “smart skin” that sucks energy from radio waves and other energy sources, eliminating the need for batteries. Smart skin, described as “the ultimate sensing tool that could potentially allow for the mass implementation of perpetual wireless networks,” can cognize, sense, analyze, wirelessly communicate, and “modify parameters” using simple radio frequency (RFID) technology. As in the case of Paradiso’s “sensor tape,” the researchers stress that it can also “be applied everywhere” to “monitor, sense, and interact with the world around us in a perpetual way, thus significantly enhancing ambient intelligence,” all of it as inconspicuous as a “decal sticker.” They suggest, for example, the shelves of grocery stores, where revenue opportunities are plentiful.

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Cap…, loc. 753