This Electronic Temporary Tattoo Will Soon Be Tracking Your Health<\/h1>\n\n\n- BY\u00a0NATHAN HURST<\/a><\/li>\n
- 02.28.13<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/3a.jpg\" "\\"3a\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nThe silicon electronic apparatus, glued to a forearm, after one week\u2019s use.\u00a0Photo: Courtesy of Hong Yeo and John Rogers<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
FitBit too bulky? Why not glue a sensor array to your skin?<\/p>\n
The quantified self goes nanoscale with a stick-on silicon electrode network that could not only change the way we measure health metrics, but could enable a new form of user interface. And the researchers behind it aim to have the device available in the next few weeks through a spinoff company,\u00a0MC10<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe development takes wearable technology to the extreme, designed as a non-invasive diagnostic sensor that could be used to measure hydration, activity, and even infant temperature. It bonds to the skin, somewhat like a temporary tattoo, flexing and bending in sync with your skin the way you wish a Band-Aid would. How? Researchers at the University of Illinois, Dalian University of Technology in China, and the University of California at San Diego made it really, really small.<\/p>\n
With a thickness of 0.8 micrometers at the widest \u2014 around one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair \u2014 the thin mesh of silicon actually nestles in to the grooves and creases in your skin, even the ones too small to see. Being small helps, but it\u2019s also important that the silicon is laid out in a serpentine pattern and bonded to a soft rubber substrate, allowing the stiff material to flex, a little bit like an accordion.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough electronics, over the years, has developed into an extremely sophisticated form of technology, all existing commercial devices in electronics involve silicon wafers as the supporting substrate,\u201d says John Rogers, who led the study\u00a0published this week<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Advanced Materials<\/em>.<\/p>\nThose wafers are mismatched to the body\u2019s mechanics and geometry, he says. The goal here was to develop a system that matches the body more naturally.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy doing that, you can much more easily integrate electronics, either onto the surface of the skin, or on internal organs like the heart and the brain,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The epidermal electric system is either stamped onto the skin using a silicon wafer, or glued there with a water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol layer. Then it\u2019s covered with spray-on bandage to keep it protected and watertight. After a couple of weeks, the layer will peel off as the underlying skin particles naturally exfoliate.<\/p>\n
But aside from natural skin shedding, it\u2019s actually quite robust, says Rogers. To test its durability, they stretched and compressed subjects\u2019 skin, over and over, to see how much the device could take. It lasted easily through 500 cycles, and through washings.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot more convenient than the electrodes that scientists used to connect to skin via a conducting gel. And it can offer more data, too, from high-resolution electric biopotential measurements, like electrocardiograms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try to design not just point-contact electrodes, but full integrated circuits on platforms that have physical properties matched to the skin,\u201d says Rogers. \u201cThey really can laminate on the surface of the skin, conform to all the microscale roughness that\u2019s kind of intrinsic and natural to the surface of the skin, to provide a completely different class of interface between electrodes and electronics and the skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such a technology has many potential uses, from continual electrocardiogram readings, to precise measurements of temperature and hydration, to many other health and wellness readings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat could be relevant for advanced surgical procedures, implantable devices, or even systems that are designed to do continuous health and wellness monitoring or to track the progress or accelerate the wound healing process,\u201d Rogers says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re interested not only in demonstrating concepts and an underlying scientific foundation around new measurement modalities through the skin, but also in their ultimate commercial realization,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But the tool could offer more than self-measurement. Because of the detail in the signal received, it could be used as a human-machine interface \u2014 for example, a videogame or drone controller \u2014 based on signals from the user\u2019s muscles. It\u2019s really marrying fully integrated electronics to the skin, a non-permanent bionic interface.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/2f.jpg\" "\\"2f\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nA magnified view of the epidermal electric system.\u00a0Photo: Courtesy of Hong Yeo and John Rogers<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n![\"Nathan](\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/design\/wp-content\/gallery\/biopics\/hs-nathanhurst.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n\nNathan Hurst is learning how to make some things, knows how to fix some others, and is already pretty good at breaking everything else. He has written for\u00a0Outside\u00a0and\u00a0Wired, traveled in Africa, and tweets as @NathanBHurst.<\/p>\n
Read more by Nathan Hurst<\/a><\/p>\nFollow\u00a0@NathanBHurst<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Between this and Google’s contact lens, there won’t be many places for glucose in your blood to hide… http:\/\/www.mc10inc.com\/ http:\/\/www.wired.com\/design\/2013\/02\/skin-printed-electrodes\/ This Electronic Temporary Tattoo Will Soon Be Tracking Your Health BY\u00a0NATHAN HURST 02.28.13 The silicon electronic apparatus, glued to a forearm, after one week\u2019s use.\u00a0Photo: Courtesy of Hong Yeo and John Rogers FitBit too … Continue reading Electronic temporary tattoo bio-tracker<\/span>
- \n
- BY\u00a0NATHAN HURST<\/a><\/li>\n
- 02.28.13<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nThe silicon electronic apparatus, glued to a forearm, after one week\u2019s use.\u00a0Photo: Courtesy of Hong Yeo and John Rogers<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
FitBit too bulky? Why not glue a sensor array to your skin?<\/p>\n
The quantified self goes nanoscale with a stick-on silicon electrode network that could not only change the way we measure health metrics, but could enable a new form of user interface. And the researchers behind it aim to have the device available in the next few weeks through a spinoff company,\u00a0MC10<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The development takes wearable technology to the extreme, designed as a non-invasive diagnostic sensor that could be used to measure hydration, activity, and even infant temperature. It bonds to the skin, somewhat like a temporary tattoo, flexing and bending in sync with your skin the way you wish a Band-Aid would. How? Researchers at the University of Illinois, Dalian University of Technology in China, and the University of California at San Diego made it really, really small.<\/p>\n
With a thickness of 0.8 micrometers at the widest \u2014 around one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair \u2014 the thin mesh of silicon actually nestles in to the grooves and creases in your skin, even the ones too small to see. Being small helps, but it\u2019s also important that the silicon is laid out in a serpentine pattern and bonded to a soft rubber substrate, allowing the stiff material to flex, a little bit like an accordion.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough electronics, over the years, has developed into an extremely sophisticated form of technology, all existing commercial devices in electronics involve silicon wafers as the supporting substrate,\u201d says John Rogers, who led the study\u00a0published this week<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Advanced Materials<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Those wafers are mismatched to the body\u2019s mechanics and geometry, he says. The goal here was to develop a system that matches the body more naturally.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy doing that, you can much more easily integrate electronics, either onto the surface of the skin, or on internal organs like the heart and the brain,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The epidermal electric system is either stamped onto the skin using a silicon wafer, or glued there with a water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol layer. Then it\u2019s covered with spray-on bandage to keep it protected and watertight. After a couple of weeks, the layer will peel off as the underlying skin particles naturally exfoliate.<\/p>\n
But aside from natural skin shedding, it\u2019s actually quite robust, says Rogers. To test its durability, they stretched and compressed subjects\u2019 skin, over and over, to see how much the device could take. It lasted easily through 500 cycles, and through washings.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot more convenient than the electrodes that scientists used to connect to skin via a conducting gel. And it can offer more data, too, from high-resolution electric biopotential measurements, like electrocardiograms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try to design not just point-contact electrodes, but full integrated circuits on platforms that have physical properties matched to the skin,\u201d says Rogers. \u201cThey really can laminate on the surface of the skin, conform to all the microscale roughness that\u2019s kind of intrinsic and natural to the surface of the skin, to provide a completely different class of interface between electrodes and electronics and the skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such a technology has many potential uses, from continual electrocardiogram readings, to precise measurements of temperature and hydration, to many other health and wellness readings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat could be relevant for advanced surgical procedures, implantable devices, or even systems that are designed to do continuous health and wellness monitoring or to track the progress or accelerate the wound healing process,\u201d Rogers says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re interested not only in demonstrating concepts and an underlying scientific foundation around new measurement modalities through the skin, but also in their ultimate commercial realization,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But the tool could offer more than self-measurement. Because of the detail in the signal received, it could be used as a human-machine interface \u2014 for example, a videogame or drone controller \u2014 based on signals from the user\u2019s muscles. It\u2019s really marrying fully integrated electronics to the skin, a non-permanent bionic interface.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nA magnified view of the epidermal electric system.\u00a0Photo: Courtesy of Hong Yeo and John Rogers<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n\nNathan Hurst is learning how to make some things, knows how to fix some others, and is already pretty good at breaking everything else. He has written for\u00a0Outside\u00a0and\u00a0Wired, traveled in Africa, and tweets as @NathanBHurst.<\/p>\n
Read more by Nathan Hurst<\/a><\/p>\n
Follow\u00a0@NathanBHurst<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Between this and Google’s contact lens, there won’t be many places for glucose in your blood to hide… http:\/\/www.mc10inc.com\/ http:\/\/www.wired.com\/design\/2013\/02\/skin-printed-electrodes\/ This Electronic Temporary Tattoo Will Soon Be Tracking Your Health BY\u00a0NATHAN HURST 02.28.13 The silicon electronic apparatus, glued to a forearm, after one week\u2019s use.\u00a0Photo: Courtesy of Hong Yeo and John Rogers FitBit too … Continue reading Electronic temporary tattoo bio-tracker<\/span>
- 02.28.13<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n