New Innovation: Stickers That Analyze Your Health - The Future Of Fitness Trackers

"Health Trackers" and "Fitness wearables" have become quite popular in the last few years.
These wristbands or watches tell you how many steps you've taken today, how fast your pulse is, when you will reach your fitness goal and much more.
But now, scientists from the Northwestern University have actually developed something much more unobtrusive, and with highly advanced technology:

They have developed a small sensor that analyzes the contents of your sweat, and can tell a lot about your health through that data!

They are soft, adhesive silicone stickers, and send data wirelessly to your smartphone where you'll be able to interpret the results. They are extremely thin and lightweight, and about the same size as a Quarter Dollar Coin!
It's designed for a one-time use only, and doesn't need any additional batteries.

What can you tell from a person's sweat?

Sweat is actually a lot more complex than most people think.
The contents of the different molecules and proteins inside can reveal a lot about the subject.
It can tell the scientists about the level of physical activity, drug use, pH levels, glucose levels, or could even be used to diagnose specific illnesses.
In fact, sweat contains so much data that sometimes, a Doctor can just analyze a sweat sample instead of a blood sample - which is obviously a lot less invasive and more comfortable for the patient.

What could these stickers reveal about the wearer?

The new sensors could tell if the person is dehydrated, how much exercise they need and how much they've achieved already, if their body needs more electrolytes, etc.
It will even be able to test the skin on symptoms of cystic fibrosis.

How does it work?

The stickers work with a technology called "microfluidics": they contain many microscopically small channels, through which the sweat flows.
Then, it accumulates in 4 different compartments.
These contain different chemicals that analyze 4 different components of the sweat: levels of fluoride, glucose and lactate, as well as pH levels.
Depending on the concentration of those molecules, the compartments change color.
When you come close to the device with a smartphone, the data in form of a picture gets transferred to the phone, where you'll be able to look at the detailed results then.

Although the technology is not ready for commercial use yet, the developers said that this would be their aim, and that they'd like to seel the stickers for about $1.50 each - a reasonable price for a one-time product.

The device was tested on 2 different groups of athletes:

The first group was cycling in a fitness center, while the other group was participating in the El Tour de Tucson, a challenging outdoor bicycle race.
Although the conditions were very different and a lot harder in the second group, the stickers still performed exactly as they should, according to the researchers.
Also, the athletes stated that it didn't affect their performance or hinder their movements (the devices were placed on their arms and backs).

Personal Opinion

Although this technology is not quite ready for commercial use yet, I think it provides many benefits.
It's simplicity is definitely the biggest one - this could become an important device for professional athletes, workout coaches and more. It's especially fascinating to me how the developers managed to equip such a tiny device with so many functions!
I'm excited to see in which ways this could be used in the future!

Images: 1, 2, 3, Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

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