A new smart that can measure various chemicals and concentrations in the wearer’s sweat I here and it could transform the lives of some 400 million diabetics worldwide by eradicating the need for finger-pricking blood tests.
The device has a clasp and pendant with the biochemical sensor on the back that when placed around the neck, captures glucose and serotonin levels.
During a human trial, engineers from Ohio State University demonstrated that the smart necklace could measure a concentration of sodium, potassium, and hydrogen ions from the subject’s sweat with up to 98.9 percent accuracy.
The team also predicts their biosensors being added to personal belonging such as rings and earrings or even implanted under the skin to let users know about changes in their health.
Study co-author Jinghua Li explained that sweat contains hundreds of biomarkers that hold details of our health status.
‘The next generation of biosensors will be so highly bio-intuitive and non-invasive that we’ll be able to detect key information contained in a person’s body fluids,’ she said in a statement.
The results of the human trial show that, in all cases, the glucose concentration in sweat reaches a peak within 30 to 40 minutes after the sugar intake.
‘The results suggest a less-obvious spike in glucose concentration afterward, which indicates that drinking sugar can induce an increase in the amount of glucose in sweat,’ the team shared in the study published in Science Advances.
The sensors are made out of ultra-thin materials. This style of design makes the product highly flexible, protects the device’s functionality, and makes sure that it can safely come into contact with a person’s skin.
There is also a separate wearable announced last year that detects if the wearer is burnout. It was developed by Engineers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and start-up Xsensio, the technology detects levels of the stress hormone cortisol in sweat.
