Motorola Goes Sci-Fi With Password Protection, Rolls Out Electronic Tattoos and Nano-Pills

Taking a vitamin pill to unlock a password-protected gadget may seem more like cyberpunk-inspired sci-fi than a viable tech product, but, well, here we are. Google-owned Motorola is apparently experimenting with some cutting edge password protection technologies—one is that pill, and the other is a wearable electronic tattoo that interfaces with your machines.

Regina Dugan, an ex-DARPA employee who now toils for Motorola, took to the stage at the D11 tech conference, where she explained the twin security measures.

“This isn’t stuff that is going to ship anytime soon. But it is a sign of the new boldness inside Motorola,” she said.

All Things D, the host of the event, explains that the electronic tattoo "can be used to authenticate a user instead of some flimsy password. It’s made by a company called MC10 that Motorola is partnering with, and Dugan [was] wearing it on her own arm."

So your password is now an ultra-thin sensor you slap on your skin. Or your baby's.

In terms of security, it seems like a step up from the fingerprint and eyescan activation tech that's on the horizon. Apple is reportedly working on a fingerprint scanner that can open your iPhone, while Google is after the eyescan.

But neither has anything on the bizareness of the vitamin pill-activation scheme: "Vitamin authentication … a pill that can be ingested and then battery-powered with stomach acid to produce an 18-bit internal signal. After that, the swallower’s whole body becomes a password."

Dugan reportedly had one of these on hand, too, but she apparently didn't ingest it. Guess she didn't want the crowd at the convention center freaking out when she could suddenly access everyone's iPhones.

There are plenty of ongoing concerns about electronic tattoos, and its close cousins, RFID devices. Few like the idea of being marked and electronically traceable at all times (though we don't seem to mind carrying around GPS-driven smart phones). We're facing twin threats, of course—most of us now have larger, more vulnerable online presences that are ripe for hacking. Yet we've got corporations and governments that are eager to trace our whereabouts and mine our location data, too.

Maybe vitamin nano-pills will be the way to go, after all.