Electronic devices to monitor your heart rate and exercise are commonplace in today’s world, but Japaneses researchers are saying they have developed a new device that can monitor a patient’s vital signs that is flexible and micro-thin, according to an article on usnews.com.
Dubbing the new monitoring system “e-skin,” the researchers say it is less than two micrometers thick and is constructed from layers of inorganic and organic materials, and it can be made to light up and/or display numbers or images. Unlike previous attempts at constructing such devices, this one is resistant to air and water damage, according to the creators.
Leaders of the research, Takao Someya and Dr. Tomoyuki Yokota at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Engineering, attached transparent indium tin oxide electrodes to the e-skin, which enabled them to create polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) and organic photodetectors.
The new devices are six times more efficient than previous PLEDs ,and that leads to less power consumed and less heat produced, making them advantageous for use directly on a person’s real skin. The devices can be used for monitoring a person’s pulse rate and oxygen levels in the blood, say the team.
The researchers predict the devices may also be used to monitor the vitals of athletes, since the new e-skin is flexible enough to not interfere with the performance of the athlete.
Someya, in a press release, said, “What would the world be like if we had displays that could adhere to our bodies and even show our emotions or level of stress or unease? In addition to not having to carry a device with us at all times, they might enhance the way we interact with those around us or add a whole new dimension to how we communicate.”
Someya added, “”We think that functionalizing the skin may replace the smartphone in the future,” in a conversation with livescience.com. “When you carry an iPhone, it is a bulky device. But if you functionalize your own skin, you don’t need to carry anything, and it’s easy to receive information anywhere, anytime.”
A paper detailing the new device was published in the journal Science Advances on April 15.