Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) in the United States have developed a flexible wearable device that can be wrapped around the finger and monitor health parameters — such as glucose, vitamins and even the presence of drugs.
Details of the research that created the device were published Tuesday (3) in scientific magazine Nature Electronics.
The device receives power and collects data from the sweat produced on the fingertips. According to a press release, the region is one of the areas that generates the most sweat on the body.
The wearable’s construction is made of a flexible and stretchable polymer, with electronic components printed on its surface.
“[O dispositivo] is based on a remarkable integration of energy harvesting and storage components, with multiple biosensors in a microfluidic channel, along with the corresponding electronic controller, all at the tip of the finger,” says Joseph Wang, a professor at UC San Diego and one of the authors of the paper.
In the device, a small chip is capable of processing the information collected by the sensors and transmitting the data via Bluetooth to an application on a smartphone or computer.
In the tests, participants wore the wearable throughout the day to monitor glucose levels during meals, lactate levels during work or exercise sessions, and vitamin C levels while drinking orange juice.
According to researchers, the device can be adapted according to each person’s needs.
This content was originally published in Wearable that wraps around your finger can monitor health, says study on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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