You Can Now Get A Contactless Card Microchip In Your Manicure

We're suckers for the latest piece of tech - and now it seems even our manicures are becoming state of the art.

One beauty lounge in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is offering a "microchip manicure", which can embed whatever personal information you'd like to share about yourself into your nails.

You can see how it works in the video below.

Think of it as a portable business card stored in your fingertips!

The idea was thought up by Nour Makarem, who decided to offer the very modern manicure at Lanour Beauty Lounge after the pandemic hit.

Describing her innovative new product as 'smart nails', Nour wanted to promote social distancing in beauty services by using cutting edge tech.

Instagram - Lanour Beauty Lounge)

How does it work? Well, the chip uses 'Near Field Communication' technology to connect with smartphone devices and tablets.

It's technology not too similar to what's in credit cards and Oyster cards, which can be used to tap on or transfer funds without touch.

Nour admitted she did have some problems when she started to design the technology - namely, making the chips small enough to fit on a fingernail, while also trying to make them discrete enough to be disguised through glitter and varnish.

Instagram - Lanour Beauty Lounge)

"We can install whatever information the client wants on their chip," Nour told CNN Middle East.

When you tap your microchipped nail to a smart phone, the data is transferred within seconds. Details including your WhatsApp details, a digital business card, or your Instagram handle can be added - it is entirely down to what you fancy.

While the amount of data it can store is quite small for now, Nour hopes the technology can be developed in the future for bigger transfers where you can pay for bills, share menus, and circulate information at the tap of a finger.

Unsplash)

And if you're scared this is like something straight from an episode of Black Mirror, you don't need to be alarmed just yet - the size of the chip means it is untraceable, and can only be activated at the very close distance of between one to two centimetres.

The future really is now, people!

Topics: Life News, Beauty, Life, tech, Technology, Style

Kimberley Bond

Kim is a journalist at Tyla, and has previously worked at the Evening Standard, Radio Times as well as several national newspapers. A showbiz obsessive and a television fanatic, Kim is particularly interested in celebrity gossip, A-list events and the latest releases on either the big or small screen. Contact her at [email protected]

@0xKimberley