As developments in wearable tech continue at pace, a next generation development could see us heading down the cyborg route and actually becoming one with technology.

We've recently seen London studio This Place unveil an app (MindRDR) designed to control Google Glass with the mind, now design consultancy New Deal Design have moved away from wearables and into implants, combining technology with the increasingly popular world of tattoos.

In collaboration with Fast Company, Project Underskin is a smart digital tattoo designed to help you in all aspects of life, from unlocking doors, making payments, monitoring health and understanding your emotions. Our hands are an incredibly communicative device and by placing the technology within our hands, Project Underskin shifts away from the abstract science fiction worlds of Google Glass and Occulus Rift, and places it in a more human, tactile place. The technology becomes an extension of what our hands can already do, running off the body's electro-chemical energy in order to always be on.

New Deal Design believe Project Underskin could be ready within five years and are already planning a second tattoo which would monitor vital statistics and would be placed on a wearer's palm.