Wear a watch at the back of your hand with E-skin

This might be the advent of a new era in digital technology. Ultra flexible gadgets which become a part of your biological self or get embedded with body parts are the new innovations that will soon hit the wearable technology market.

What's a wristwatch? An emerging technology could soon embed a timepiece in the back of your hand.

A report in Science Advances details new "e-skin" technology developed by researchers at the University of Tokyo. "E-skin," or electronic skin, is "ultra thin, ultra flexible, and constructed of layers of silicon oxynitride and perylene," according to a press release.

The technology has been in development for some time. Early versions were too bulky or fragile for mainstream consumer use, but the researchers behind this new version believe they have overcome this hurdle by building a product that can be crumpled in a ball and still remain usable.

"The advent of mobile phones has changed the way we communicate. While these communication tools are getting smaller and smaller, they are still discrete devices that we have to carry with us," explained Takao Someya, a professor at the University of Tokyo and an author of the study, in the press release. The team hopes that electronic-skin represents a new era in digital technology, perhaps extending to ultra-flexible watches and phones.

Whether you want a light-up tattoo on your arm or measure blood oxygen levels, this technology has myriad applications both medically and otherwise.

"What would the world be like if we had displays that could adhere to our bodies and even show our emotions or level of stress or unease?" asked Someya. "In addition to not having to carry a device with us at all times, they might enhance the way we interact with those around us or add a whole new dimension to how we communicate."