Daffodil International University
Faculty of Engineering => EEE => Topic started by: saikat07 on November 20, 2016, 06:36:42 PM
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Fitness trackers just got an upgrade.
A new electronic health-monitoring device can sense a person’s temperature, analyze chemicals in a drop of sweat, and send the data wirelessly to a smartphone app — all in a package about the size of a few postage stamps.
The gadget could help athletes instantly gauge their hydration level, or give scientists an easy and noninvasive way to collect data for medical studies.
Researchers have built sweat sensors before, but the new device “just represents a whole nother level of sophistication,” says materials scientist John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Previous sensors have detected only a single chemical. The new sensor can measure four chemicals — glucose, lactate, sodium and potassium — simultaneously and in real time, Ali Javey and colleagues report January 27 in Nature.
Traditional electronics rely on “brains” made of tiny circuits laid out on silicon chips. “But the problem with silicon chips is that they’re way too small and rigid,” says Javey, an electrical engineer at University of California, Berkeley.They’re great for data processing — not for making sensors that hug the skin. For that, rubbery electronics that can twist and flex are ideal (SN: 11/17/12, p. 18). But they don’t have the processing power of silicon-based versions.