Meet The Next-Generation Wearable Sweat Sensor

All of you sport enthusiasts should pay attention to this: meet the next-generation wearable sweat sensor, the latest invention that is designed to collect data from body sweat.

Wearable technology has been one of the largest sources of interest shown by modern society in the past few years, there is no doubt. But it depends on how you look at the facts. From a certain point of view, this technology hasn’t done much regarding the concern of human health.

The most common activity and fitness trackers make use of GPS and accelerometers as sensors, in order to keep track of the amount of steps one person takes in a day or how much sleep that person is getting in a day. Occasionally, these trackers also put in a heart monitor, in order to keep track of the heart’s activity and even manually fill in one person’s daily diet – that is as far as fitness trackers go.

However, for the first time, a flexible, wearable sensor can collect data about multiple chemicals in body sweat. Inventor Ali Javey – an electrical engineering and computer science professor at the University of California –Berkeley – promises to impress with this new product.

His recently designed device is able to measure sweat chemicals such as glucose, lactate, sodium and potassium. This characteristic would allow the device to track and alert the users of health issues such as dehydration, fatigue and even more.

Lots of studies have shown how and why sweat composition changes, but it was very difficult before to measure this on patients. The beauty of this is that it is a comfortable and easy-to-wear system. – Ali Javey declared.

Dr. Javey and his colleagues described their system in the journal Nature and sustained that other researchers have been developing sensors for sweat, but this one is the first and the only one that is able to multiple chemicals in sweat at a molecular level and that can transmit measurements in real time.

For instance, the sensor could provide an alarm, that alerts the patient to drink a glass of water or take some medication, transmitting the data to a smartphone in real time.

The researchers have filed a patent application for the technology.

The biosensors was tested with 26 male and 26 female volunteers, who were asked to wear the band while exercising. The team verified if the sensors operate well and if they send live, usable data back to a connected phone, in real time.

Of course, it is too soon to talk about an implementation in the near future, as the technology must go through some red tape before it’s in a consumer device. But the experts are convinced that this revolutionary idea will change people’s lives.

Image Source: www.nature.com