Sequans Communications announced that Infrafon is using its Monarch cellular IoT technology to connect its award-winning Infrafon CC1 Smart Badge, an intelligent name tag introduced earlier this year at Mobile World Congress.

Related Plantiga Launches Data-Driven Membership Program Giving Athletes Access To Advanced Technology And Coaching

The Infrafon CC1 Smart Badge is a computerized name tag with smartphone functions that are fully controlled in the cloud. It can be worn as a wearable on clothing where it can ensure visual identification of the wearer through its e-paper display, and can contain a wide variety of desired information, including personalized credentials, appointment details, healthcare data, geofencing parameters, NFC credentials, and more. Sequans’ Monarch 2 GM02S LTE-M/NB-IoT module provides the cellular IoT connectivity that enables the Infrafon Smart Badge to remain always connected via the highly reliable LTE-M cellular network, according to a press release.

“The Infrafon Smart Badge is a truly innovative personal communication system with a multitude of uses, for example, in healthcare and workplace safety,” said Louis Chuang, EVP of Sequans’ Massive IoT Business Unit. “It can perform all of the advanced smartphone functions you can imagine, but without the need of a smartphone, making it one of the most interesting IoT connected devices we’ve seen this year.”

“We selected Sequans’ Monarch module to connect our Smart Badge because it is the most advanced cellular IoT connectivity solution available today, with unmatched low power consumption, highly secure iSIM, and proven reliability,” said Frieder Hanson, Infrafon founder and CEO. “The ultra-low power consumption of Monarch allows the Smart Badge to run for many days without user intervention, making it extremely simple to use, which was one of our most important design goals.”

The Infrafon CCI is a tiny CC1 smart badge device that weighs only 50g, close to credit card size, and is equipped with a high res 600×480 pixel interactive e-paper screen. All familiar smartphone functions can be managed remotely OTA and centrally by the operator. The device user can interact with multiple DataView tasks or can answer questions. Device users have no access to the device´s functional setup details. This Infrafon design principle provides stability and efficiency to the operator´s processes.  For more information, visit the Infrafon CCI web page.

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Infrafon is using Sequans’ second-generation LTE-M/NB-IoT module, Monarch 2 GM02S, that delivers ultra-low power consumption and a very high level of security. Monarch 2 GM02S is the world’s only cellular IoT module supporting an EAL5+ secure enclave for integrated SIM (ieUICC) capability that is compliant with GSMA standards. The module also supports a single rail power supply starting at 2.2 V, the lowest level in the industry, allowing for better efficiency of the internal power management unit, further reducing power consumption, and lowering battery and BOM costs.  For full product details, visit Sequans’ Monarch 2 GM02S web page.

About Sequans

Sequans Communications is a leading developer and supplier of cellular IoT connectivity solutions, providing chips and modules for 5G/4G massive and broadband IoT. For 5G/4G massive IoT applications, Sequans provides a comprehensive product portfolio based on its flagship Monarch LTE-M/NB-IoT and Calliope Cat 1 chip platforms, featuring industry-leading low power consumption, a large set of integrated functionalities, and global deployment capability. For 5G/4G broadband IoT applications, Sequans offers a product portfolio based on its Cassiopeia Cat 4/Cat 6 4G and high-end Taurus 5G chip platforms, optimized for low-cost residential, enterprise, and industrial applications. Founded in 2003, Sequans is based in Paris, France with additional offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Hong Kong, Singapore, Finland, Taiwan, South Korea, and China.

No one would ever imagine crumpling up their smartphone, television or another electronic device. Today’s displays – which are flat, rigid and fragile – lack the ability to reshape to interactively respond to users.

As part of an overarching quest to build “skin-inspired” electronics that are soft and stretchy, Stanford University chemical engineer Zhenan Bao and her research team have been developing a display to change that. Now, after more than three years of work, they show the proof of principle toward a stretchable, potentially reshapable display in a new paper published March 23 in Nature.

Related Samsung Develops Stretchable Electronic Skin for Monitoring Heart Rate

Their invention hinges on the discovery of a method to produce a high-brightness elastic light-emitting polymer, which functions like a filament in a lightbulb. The group’s resulting display is made entirely of stretchy polymers – synthetic plastic materials. The device has a maximum brightness at least two times that of a cellphone and can be stretched up to twice its original length without tearing, reports McKenzie Prillaman in Stanford News.

“Stretchable displays can allow a new way of interactive human-machine interface,” said Bao, the K. K. Lee Professor in the School of Engineering and senior author of the paper. “We can see the image and interact with it, and then the display can change according to our response.”

An illuminating discovery

Most light-emitting polymers are stiff and crack when stretched. Scientists can increase their flexibility by adding elastic insulating materials, such as rubber. But these additives decrease electrical conductivity, which requires the polymer to use a dangerously high voltage to generate even dim light.

About three years ago, however, postdoctoral scholar Zhitao Zhang discovered that a yellow-colored light-emitting polymer called SuperYellow not only became soft and pliable but also emitted brighter light when mixed with a type of polyurethane, a stretchy plastic.

“If we add polyurethane, we see SuperYellow form nanostructures,” said Zhang, the first author of the study. “These nanostructures are really important. They make the brittle polymer stretchable, and they make the polymer emit brighter light because the nanostructures are connected like a fishnet.”

Unlike adding rubber, the interconnected net of nanoscale fibers that make the SuperYellow stretchy don’t inhibit electricity flow – which is key to developing a bright display. After this discovery, the group also created elastic red, green and blue light-emitting polymers.

Stacking the layers

With stretchable light-emitting polymers now available, the group needed to layer together the remaining ingredients of an electronic display.

“It was really challenging to figure out the right materials to use,” Bao explained. “Electronically, they have to match each other to give us high brightness. But then, they also need to have similarly good mechanical properties to allow the display to be stretchable. And finally, for the fabrication, Zhitao had to figure out a way to stack the layers together so that the process will not degrade the brightness.”

The final display contains seven layers. Two outer layers are two substrates that encapsulate the device. Moving inward are two electrode layers, each followed by charge transporting layers. Finally, the light-emitting layer sits sandwiched in the center.

When electricity runs through the display, one electrode injects positive charges, called holes, into the light-emitting layer while the other injects negatively charged electrons into it. When the two types of charges meet, they bond and go into an energetically excited state. Almost immediately after, the state returns to normal by producing a photon – a particle of light.

The resulting all-polymer film can be adhered to an arm or finger and doesn’t rip during bending or flexing. This will allow wearable trackers to have their display directly attached to the skin.

Related Chinese Researchers Develop Wearable Electronic Textiles With a Large-Area Display

Bao sees a variety of additional potential uses for a stretchable display. It could be used to produce reshapable interactive screens or even form three-dimensional landscapes on a map.

“Imagine a display where you can both see and feel the three-dimensional object on the screen,” Bao said. “This will be a completely new way to interact with each other remotely.”

Related With The Next Gen Of Wearables, Athletes Will Alter The Way They Fuel For Sport

“From our perspective, being an athlete is about your mindset and identity,” said Plantiga’s co-founder and CEO, Quin Sandler. We’re launching this membership to help athletes move more efficiently, helping them reduce and recover from injury to reach their competitive goals.”

Years of testing and validation from the world’s top human performance organizations, from NBA teams to the Military, have allowed Plantiga to expand access to athletes who run, jump and use impact activities in their training and competition. “Our 1:1 coaching and data analysis is core to our offering,” said Sandler. Plantiga’s movement coaches are highly credentialed biomechanists, kinesiologists, and strength and conditioning coaches. They work within an athlete’s current training and coaching team to provide an additional layer of insight into how movement plays a role in their training and racing load, says a press release.

The cost of Plantiga’s membership is $30/month plus the one-time charge for the proprietary Plantiga insoles and hardware platform. The membership launch comes after securing recent financing and adding athlete investors like Thaddeus Young of the San Antonio Spurs and Will Fuller of the Miami Dolphins to their team.

Plantiga, a movement diagnostics company, today launched its exclusive membership program designed for goal-driven athletes who use impact-based activities, such as running and jumping in their training and competition. Plantiga’s proprietary technology, data analytics, and personalized coaching allow athletes to reduce and recover from injury and reach the startline of their next event more prepared than ever before.

“We’re building much more than wearable devices. Our members join a community of athletes driven to live longer and healthier lives. We place the human at the center of everything we do through dedicated coaching so that our members not only understand their data but can apply it to their unique goals.” said Sandler.

The impressive roster of individual athletes who use Plantiga to maximize performance includes Olympians Cynthia Appiah and Andre De Grasse and professional triathlete Rach McBride.

Related How Wearables are Helping Athletes Enhance Their Performance

“Using Plantiga allows me to get feedback from my body before I notice anything is wrong. The data I receive is so robust, it helps to identify tightness, asymmetries, and changes in my gait well before I see them and before they become pathologic,” said McBride.

About Plantiga

Plantiga is a human movement health company that reduces injury risk, improves health, and boosts performance through better movement. The Plantiga membership comes with smart insoles, 1:1 coaching, education from leading human performance experts, and a community of driven athletes and high performers. Plantiga customers include professional and Olympic athletes, military organizations, NCAA programs, and teams in the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, and MLS.

Researchers from Western Sydney University, in consultation with Liverpool Hospital, have developed tools to help trainee surgeons master intricate surgical procedures.

Gough Lui, a biomedical engineer at Western’s MARCS Institute for Brain, Behavior and Development, has worked closely with Liverpool Hospital for a number of years. “We get engineers to sit in with clinicians to identify problems and inspire solutions that can really make a difference,” he says. In one of these sessions, Clinical Dean and Foundation Professor of Surgery and Colorectal Surgery, Professor Les Bokey, discussed with Lui the possibility of training surgeons in a more objective and evidence-based manner to ensure evidence-based competency.

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A big hurdle is that the surgical skills needed now are more complex than in previous decades. Surgeons must master open surgery, keyhole surgery with cameras, and robotic surgery, for instance. But while techniques have advanced, teaching methods have not greatly changed. In training, an experienced surgeon watches over the student’s shoulder, giving feedback. “Often they say, ‘that wasn’t very good,’ but can’t concretely articulate what is wrong,” says Lui. “That’s very frustrating when you’re trying to master a skill, but not seeing a way forward.”

One positive advance in training has been that students can now practice on simulators. But these are hugely expensive, and trainees in typical hospitals rarely have easy access.

To solve the problem, Lui has developed surgical gloves containing electronics to record the subtle, fast and controlled hand movements of skilled surgeons. When worn by students, the gloves can monitor how their hand motions differ from the experts’. Lui hopes that the gloves will eventually be coupled with a smartphone app, so trainees can practice tasks at home, for as little as $100 — a fraction of the cost of a simulator, reports Western Sydney University.

Creating the perfect gloves is a work in progress. At first, Lui placed electronics on the back of the glove, to detect acceleration and hand orientation, and added force-sensors in the fingertips. But experienced surgeons reported that they reduced their touch sensitivity and were too bulky, hindering movement. Lui has looked at alternatives including the use of force sensors further up the forearm and motion sensors on the back of the hand for an upgraded version.

“Now we have a tool that can assist in objectively measuring the intricate hand maneuvers,” says Bokey. Trainees who have participated in the development of the prototype can readily appreciate their potential contribution to training. Lui laughs that students even loved the clunky early version. “They are excited because they can see the promise,” he says.

Related This Smart Glove Interprets Sign Language In Real Time

Lui is working out how best to deliver useful instructions to trainees. The gloves collect motion data and relay them to a screen, where even the tiniest jitters are visualized. This can be distracting to students concentrating on difficult tasks. Alternatives include ‘haptic’ feedback — the fingertips buzz — or audio feedback to guide trainees along the right path. But Lui is cautious in case students become overly reliant on the technology. “In reality, human debriefing is always better than computer feedback alone,” he says. “This is not a replacement for trainers, but it will augment their ability to give advice.”

The plan is to do a pilot trial in mid-2020, says Lui. If successful, the gloves could have unexpected uses. “We’ve already had requests from musicians asking if these gloves could help people become more skilled performers,” says Lui. “They could have a wider impact than we ever hoped.”

Mojo Vision announced its most advanced prototype of Mojo Lens, the world’s first true smart contact lens, including an array of new, industry-first features.

The Mojo Lens prototype is a critical milestone for the company in its development, testing and validation process, and is an innovation positioned at the intersection of smartphones, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, smart wearables and healthtech. The prototype includes numerous new hardware features and breakthrough technologies embedded directly into the lens — advancing its display, communications, eye tracking, and power system.

Related: Apple Could Release Augmented Reality Glasses and Contact Lenses Within a Decade

Over the past two years, Mojo has also been investing in various software experiences for Mojo Lens. In this new prototype, the company has built foundational operating system code and user experience (UX) components for the first time. The new software will allow for further development and testing of important use cases for consumers and partners.

This new Mojo Lens prototype will further accelerate the development of Invisible Computing, a next-generation computing experience where information is available and presented only when needed. This eyes-up experience allows users to access timely information quickly and discreetly without forcing them to look down at a screen or lose focus on the people and the world around them, says a press release.

Mojo has identified initial compelling consumer uses of Invisible Computing for performance athletes and recently announced strategic partnerships with leading sports and fitness brands, such as Adidas Running, to collaborate on eyes-up, hands-free experiences. Mojo has been working with its new partners to find unique ways to improve athletes’ access to in-the-moment data or during data. Mojo Lens can give athletes a competitive edge, allowing them to stay focused on their workout or training and maximize their performance, without the distraction of traditional wearables.

“Mojo has created advanced foundational technologies and systems that weren’t possible before now. Innovating the new features in the lens is a tremendous amount of work, but successfully bringing them all together into an integrated system in such a small form factor is a considerable achievement in cross-disciplined product development,” said Mike Wiemer, VP of Engineering, CTO and co-founder of Mojo Vision. “We are excited to share our progress and can’t wait to start testing Mojo Lens in real-world scenarios.”

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India’s leading digital health platform MFine announced a groundbreaking innovation by bringing Blood Pressure and Glucose monitoring on a smartphone. These will be added to MFine’s suite of self-check health tools available on its app, eliminating the need of any external devices to measure and track these health vitals.

Related Amrita University Launches Wearable For Home Monitoring of Glucose and Blood Pressure

Launched three weeks ago in beta, the BP monitoring tool has already been used by more than 10,000 users and is clocking over thousands of readings everyday by users from across the country.

According to a press statement, these health monitoring features are built with MFine’s proprietary algorithm that measures blood pressure and glucose level by obtaining PPG signals from a user’s fingertip. A smartphone camera and flash are used to observe the changes in the red and blue wavelengths of the PPG signals and come up with a reading. The company claims its algorithm for measuring BP scores an accuracy “close to 90%”, reports MobiHealthNews.

At present, the new vital measurement features are available on the MFine app for select Android phones and will soon come to iOS devices.

“Advances in the areas of big data, artificial intelligence and mobile technology have opened new opportunities for monitoring health, detecting and preventing diseases using smartphones,” said Ajit Narayan, CTO of MFine. Mr. Narayan believes this would help make basic health assessments universal, easy and free to use for millions of people in India.

India is currently experiencing a massive increase in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and bears a higher burden than most nations, particularly in cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases, hypertension and diabetes. There are more than 200 million diagnosed hypertension patients in the country who have limited access to BP (blood pressure) measuring tools for use at home.

Related Penn State Researchers Develop Wearable Non-Invasive Glucose Monitor

Similarly, there are over 80 million diabetes patients and 200 million pre-diabetic people in India who primarily monitor their glucose levels by using invasive and time-consuming blood tests.

One in five people worldwide is affected by chronic pain. Back pain is particularly common. This pain is often treated with medication – with the risk of severe side effects. Auricular vagus nerve stimulation (aVNS) can be used to treat pain without these side effects. How it works? The aVNS relieves pain without the well-known side effects of medication. The minimally invasive method works with three small needle electrodes that a doctor places in the auricle. The vagus nerve is electrically stimulated via these electrodes. The stimuli are transmitted directly to the brain, where they stimulate the body's own mechanisms for pain relief. The aVNS therapy using VIVO allows the treatment to be adjusted depending on personal pain perception and thus promises lasting results. By using three small needle electrodes in the auricle, aVNS therapy using VIVO is minimally invasive and well tolerated compared to medication.  

Want to learn more about Aurimod? Visit their website or meet them at the WT | Wearable Technologies Pavilion at MEDICA 2022!  

Singapore brand BUZUD, Fosun Trade Medical Device, a leading manufacturer of medical appliances, has announced its next-generation smartwatches DM01 and DM02 that can detect blood oxygen levels and monitor sleep quality with its SpO2 technology.

The feature-rich smartwatches have highly sensitive sensors that provide accurate health data insights, for both consumers actively seeking to manage their wellness and health conditions, and for fitness enthusiasts, according to a press release.

SpO2 Oximeter Sensor detects sleep apnea

Developed together with medical professionals, the DM01 and DM02 have been validated in clinical studies and tested on 3,000 people in a clinical trial conducted by doctors. The SpO2 oximeter sensor measures oxygen saturation levels while the user is still or sleeping. The measurement of the percentage of oxygen in the blood, and sleep patterns help to determine if there is a dip in oxygen levels during sleep—which can mean a condition called sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder where breathing is interrupted briefly and repeatedly.

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“Our DM01 and DM02 smartwatches enable the optimal monitoring of consumers’ health, unlocking the innovative ability to alert users that they might have sleep apnea, paving the way to help people better track and manage their health,” said Mr. Frankie Fan, founder, CEO and CTO of BUZUD, Fosun Trade Medical Device.

“These feature-rich smartwatches place powerful monitoring capabilities in a small form factor accessible on a wrist. Our innovations strive to help even more people manage their wellness and reach their fitness goals faster,” added Mr. Fan.

Feature-rich smartwatches in a sleek silhouette

Both watches showcase a sleek silhouette, with a variety of looks that allow users to express their unique individuality. The watches provide comprehensive health insights by monitoring in real-time blood pressure, blood oxygen level, heart rate, body temperature, and sleep pattern data. Other features include measuring the number of steps done, the distance covered and calories burned.

Designed with health and fitness in mind, the watches support 24 different sports modes to provide additional opportunities for fitness activities, with customizable functions that include training workouts, social apps support, and other information prompts.

Health and workout tracking

The DM02 smartwatch is the brand’s most advanced health and fitness tracker with a high-definition, 1.69” IPS (in-plane switching) full-color touchscreen and customizable watch face and strap colors.

The DM01 smartwatch is an affordable and versatile smartwatch for users who want an easy-to-use device with key features. Equipped with a color screen and responsive button, the stylish and customizable watch face allows consumers to stay focused on their health and fitness goals.

Both DM01 and DM02 provide insights into wellbeing through a Health Metrics dashboard by transmitting data via a Bluetooth 4.0 connection to a mobile app on both Android and iOS. This dashboard provides insights into health data and can help identify any changes in sleep patterns that can be caused by a lack of sleep or increased stress levels.

Through the Bluetooth connection, the DM01 and DM02 smartwatches support the receiving of text messages and call alerts from the mobile phone.

Related Withings Launches New ‘ScanWatch’ with ECG and Sleep Apnea Detection at the CES 2020

“The growing global drive for healthier lifestyles amid this Covid-19 situation is prompting many to better manage stress and improve health. As a result, these smartwatches are part of our focus on introducing products that empower people to take proactive steps to be healthy both physically and mentally,” said Mr Fan.

Pricing and availability

Both DM01 and DM02 smartwatches are now available with the DM01 priced at S$94.16 and the DM02 priced at S$243.96 (GST included).

About BUZUD

BUZUD, Fosun Trade Medical Device is a Singapore-based medical appliance brand. The brand carries a variety of high-quality medical products of the latest and best technologies. Visit the showroom of BUZUD, Fosun Trade Medical Device, at Raffles Hospital to view the brand’s top-of-the-line medical appliances.

Zebra Technologies is demonstrating new industrial solutions that improve communications and efficiencies. The company has introduced its first all-in-one Android-based wearable computer, the new WS50, and its first RFID sled designed for industrial usage, the RFD90. In addition, Zebra is also showcasing its recently announced Fetch FlexShelf autonomous mobile robot (AMR) solution as well as several other in-booth demos focused on optimizing the fulfillment process and streamlining workflows.

Read more Zebra Technology Announces New Warehouse Solution to Increase Worker Productivity

Zebra’s innovative, all-in-one WS50 Android wearable computer is half the size of traditional wearables and includes a small display, WiFi and an imager or camera, eliminating the need for multiple devices supporting hands-free workflows, such as picking, sorting, loading, and put away. With powerful data capture capabilities and an integrated speaker and microphone, the WS50 supports task management and communication in warehouse, manufacturing, and retail environments. With the option of three different wearable styles including back of hand, wrist, or on the fingers, the ergonomic WS50 wearable computer provides users with the flexibility they need that’s right for the job, according to a press release.

Zebra’s new RFD90 RFID sled offers industrial-grade IP65 and 67 sealing and 6-foot drop specifications to concrete, making it ideal for use in extreme weather and tough environments. The RFD90 sled supports packaging and baggage tracking, cycle counting, cold chain, and item locating as well as raw materials inventory, work in progress (WIP) tracking, and returnable transport object (RTO) tracking. Featuring a long-lasting battery for lengthier shifts and industry-leading read rates, the RFD90 optimizes workflows and reduces task completion time resulting in greater productivity and a better user experience.

At MODEX 2022, Zebra will also be showcasing its recently announced fulfillment solution, featuring dynamic orchestration of equipped workers augmented by the latest FlexShelf series of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), including the FlexGuide and RollerTop Guide. Both AMRs are purpose-built for maximizing pick productivity in e-commerce and wholesale operations where speed and accuracy are critical to meeting the increasing demand of customers. New FetchCore fulfillment software optimizes the human workforce and robot fleet, while intelligent safety features leveraging cloud-based machine learning algorithms help front-line workers, robots, and even forklifts work safely side-by-side.

In April 2022, Zebra will launch a new specialization track in its award-winning PartnerConnect program for experienced mobile robotics partners. Zebra’s Mobile Robotics specialization program will feature partners with deep mobile robotics, manufacturing, and warehouse expertise to provide businesses with the best possible automation solution.

Read more ProGlove Unveils MARK Display Wearable Scanner and ProGlove Cloud Analytics Solution

“The global pandemic created exponential growth in the industrial automation sector as businesses worked to scale their operations and stay on time with shipping demands, all while addressing labor shortages and high turnover rates,” said Mark Wheeler, Director of Supply Chain Solutions, Zebra Technologies. “Zebra’s solutions help businesses confidently accelerate their automation efforts through a single vendor, helping them address needs ranging from the movement of pallets from trucks to put-away locations, to the movement of pickers and cobots in diverse picking environments. By addressing these needs, companies are seeing increased productivity and worker satisfaction, reduced costs, and improved safety.”

Fitbit’s parent company Google is seeking US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for Fitbit’s passive heart rate monitoring algorithm.

Related Fitbit Wearables Will Soon Detect Your Snoring At Night

The technology was built using data collected from a study of US Fitbit users launched in May 2020. The Fitbit Heart Study aimed to detect atrial fibrillation (AFib), also known as irregular heart rhythm.

AFib is common in the US, affecting around 12.1 million people, with advancing age, high blood pressure and obesity all common risk factors for the condition. One out of every four people will experience AFib at some point in their lifetime.

Currently, Fitbit can only periodically check for irregular heart rhythm; Fitbit users must decide to check it. Fitbit’s new feature, however, could run in the background and notify people if they’re exhibiting symptoms of atrial fibrillation. This would help Fitbit better compete with the Apple Watch’s EKG feature, which also checks heart rhythms and alerts users of irregularities.

Fitbit launched a study in 2020 to test its passive heart rhythm technology. Nearly half a million Fitbit users participated in the study, and it flagged around 1 percent of participants (just under 5,000 people) as having an irregular heart rhythm, according to data presented at the 2021 American Heart Association meeting. Those people were asked to set up a telehealth consultation so they could get an EKG patch, and around 1,000 did so. Of that group, a third had the diagnosis confirmed — giving the tech a positive predictive value for atrial fibrillation of 98 percent, reports The Verge.

“These results are extremely promising and we think will have a real impact on early detection and treatment of this important condition,” Tony Faranesh, a research scientist at Fitbit, said in a press briefing.

Related Fitbit Patent Suggests Smart Ring With Clinical-Grade SpO2 and Blood Pressure Tracking

Post-FDA approval, Fitbit devices will come closer to the Apple Watch in terms of passive heart monitoring capabilities and give it the much-needed ability to send out a warning in the event of atrial fibrillation.

For the first time, researchers demonstrate an artificial organic neuron, a nerve cell, that can be integrated with a living plant and an artificial organic synapse. Both the neuron and the synapse are made from printed organic electrochemical transistors.

Read more Scientists Develop World’s First Artificial Neurons to Cure Chronic Diseases

On connecting to the carnivorous Venus flytrap, the electrical pulses from the artificial nerve cell can cause the plant’s leaves to close, although no fly has entered the trap. Organic semiconductors can conduct both electrons and ions, thus helping mimic the ion-based mechanism of pulse (action potential) generation in plants. In this case, the small electric pulse of less than 0.6 V can induce action potentials in the plant, which in turn causes the leaves to close.

“We chose the Venus flytrap so we could clearly show how we can steer the biological system with the artificial organic system and get them to communicate in the same language,” says Simone Fabiano, associate professor and principal investigator in organic nanoelectronics at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Linköping University, Campus Norrköping.

In 2018 the research group at Linköping University became the first to develop complementary and printable organic electrochemical circuits — that is, with both n-type and p-type polymers, which conduct negative and positive charges. This made it possible to build printed complementary organic electrochemical transistors. The group has subsequently optimized the organic transistors, so that they can be manufactured in printing presses on thin plastic foil. Thousands of transistors can be printed on a single plastic substrate. Together with researchers in Lund and Gothenburg, the group has used the printed transistors to emulate the neurons and synapses of the biological system. The results have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

“For the first time, we’re using the transistor’s ability to switch based on ion concentration to modulate the spiking frequency,” says Padinhare Cholakkal Harikesh, post-doctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics. The spiking frequency gives the signal that causes the biological system to react.

“We’ve also shown that the connection between the neuron and the synapse has a learning behavior, called Hebbian learning. Information is stored in the synapse, which makes the signaling more and more effective,” says Simone Fabiano.

The hope is that artificial nerve cells can be used for sensitive human prostheses, implantable systems for relieving neurological diseases, and soft intelligent robotics.

Read more MIT’s New ‘Liquid’ Neural Network Learns From Experience So Robots Can Adapt to Changes

“We’ve developed ion-based neurons, similar to our own, that can be connected to biological systems. Organic semiconductors have numerous advantages — they’re biocompatible, biodegradable, soft and formable. They only require low voltage to operate, which is completely harmless to both plants and vertebrates” explains Chi-Yuan Yang, post-doctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics.

Electronic Caregiver (ECG), a digital health technology and services company, is debuting Addison the Virtual Caregiver at HIMSS22. The company describes Addison as a highly intelligent, engaging, and scalable platform to deliver value-based care. With seamless vitals monitoring, threshold alerts, care plan management, and electronic health record integrations, Addison provides clinical providers and public health stakeholders resources to proactively manage patient care, enhance treatment adherence, and improve outcomes.

Read more Orbita Launches AI-Powered Virtual Bedside Assistant To Improve Patient Care

Built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) using a serverless architecture incorporating microservices, Addison is ECG’s platform-as-a-service (PaaS) which powers all patient-facing and provider-facing applications. Addison incorporates 24 services from Amazon, including Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC), AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS), and AWS Lambda. Addison offers 10x reliability improvements and 100x scalability through automation, responsiveness, and flexibility to meet the surging demand for telehealth, remote patient monitoring (RPM), and hospital-at-home models of care, according to a press release.

“We were customer-centric in our development of Addison and that wasn’t easy because we have multiple types of customers that are all looking for different features in a telehealth solution,” says ECG Chief Technology Officer Dr. David Keeley. “Being able to take feedback across all those strata in our customer ecosystem and design a solution with the flexibility and scalability to meet these diverse needs makes me really proud of what we’re delivering with Addison. It’s a solution for patients, family caregivers, health care organizations, physician practices, home health agencies, care management firms, and senior housing providers.”

ECG is now a technology solution provider within the AWS Partner Network (APN) working with public and private sector health care providers and payors across the globe.

“To have the world’s foremost authority on best practices in the industry review, approve, and validate what we are taking to market with our modernization of Addison is significant. This means that ECG has enhanced automation and improved privacy and security to provide features and functionality that our customers have been demanding. Addison is HIPAA, GDPR, and FHIR compliant,” Keeley notes.‍

“I am proud that our Partner, Electronic Caregiver is transforming the model of care for patients, families, and caregivers by leveraging the capabilities and scalability of AWS technology services and cloud,” said Sandy Carter, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector Partners and Programs, AWS. “Given the profound impact possible, we are eager to see more clinical providers and public health stakeholders use Addison to proactively manage patient care, enhance treatment, and improve health outcomes overall.”

ECG works with non-profit health providers, academic medical centers, universities, and federal, state, and local programs to deliver impactful health care solutions. Customers include MD Revolution, Methodist Health System, Memorial Medical Center, MountainView Regional Medical Center, Paracelsus Medical University (Austria), Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine, New Mexico State University, Zia Healthcare Services, and Medicaid-funded providers in Oregon, Idaho, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Iowa, and Michigan.

Partnering with a rural hospital system in Mississippi, a 47% decrease in hospital readmissions through use of ECG’s telehealth services was achieved. Collaborating with regional public health officials, hospital systems, and universities in New Mexico to address a surge in Covid cases, hospital bed capacity was expanded by 77% using RPM at 1/50th of the cost of inpatient care.

“Public health and private sector stakeholders came together to implement a COVID-to-Home program. Had this program not existed, many of those people would not have received any care,” said Dr. John Andazola, Program Director of the Southern New Mexico Family Medicine Residency Program at Memorial Medical Center. “They were at risk for terrible outcomes. Building a structure where we can successfully treat people at home using telehealth and remote patient monitoring so that inpatient capacity can be optimized for all health care needs is really what this program has demonstrated.”

Read more How Amazon Expanded Its Healthcare Aspirations in 2021

About Electronic Caregiver

Electronic Caregiver is a privately held, 11-year-old digital health technology and services company headquartered in Las Cruces, NM (USA). ECG’s mission is to design and deliver innovative, impactful telehealth products and services that bridge the chasm between the doctor’s office and patient’s home to improve outcomes, expand access, and optimize resource allocation. ECG has been qualified as a technology solution provider in the AWS Partner Network (APN). The company’s solutions are available through health care organizations, physician practices, care management firms, homecare agencies, and senior housing providers to deliver hospital-at-home, chronic care management, and remote patient monitoring programs.

In recent years, we’ve seen a significant amount of investment in the telehealth space—$3 billion this year and projected to reach $25 billion by 2025. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with its widespread quarantines and lockdowns, has given telemedicine its moment to shine after years of under-fulfilled promise.

Read more: How AI-Enabled Wearables Are Changing the Way Healthcare Diagnoses Are Conducted

Telehealth, or remote monitoring, refers to healthcare services provided through wearable devices, apps, videos, artificial intelligence, videos, and, of course, telephones. Telehealth profoundly expands the functionalities of Care Management. In healthcare, remote monitoring provides more thorough and efficient interaction, which is also more relaxed and intimate.

According to the Pew Research center, 92% of American adults now have a smartphone and they depend on it. Many prefer sending health data via this device to their healthcare provider rather than visiting the doctor’s office. On the other hand, the remote providers find this exchange of data very helpful in improving health outcomes for their patients.

Remote monitoring enables healthcare providers to care for more patients at a lower cost while also experience less burnout.

With the rising popularity of remote care comes the need for more effective remote monitoring solutions. And, that’s when we need consumer wearable devices, reports MedTechIntelligence.

Wearable sensors for remote care

In recent years, we’ve seen a proliferation of high-quality consumer-grade sensors that can gauge health data such as heart rate and blood pressure and are incorporated into wearables like smartwatches, smart glasses, earbuds, and smart rings. These devices can accumulate patient’s physiological data, which is then transmitted to a data repository, where it is stored and checked for any abnormality. Thus, any detection of disorder in a patient’s vitals will be reported to the patient’s doctors and/or hospital in real-time to act on quickly and prevent a number of problems, such as a sudden heart attack. Technologies are capable of providing patients physiological data from their locations to physicians anywhere in real-time, therefore, enabling remote remediation. For example, data such as blood oxygen saturation, heart rate, and blood pressure can be measured via wearable devices and transmitted from the patient’s locations to their doctors in real-time.

Medical-Grade lifestyle devices

Traditional medical devices, due to complex setup, fall short of inspiring the kind of passion that can drive patient adoption and adherence. It is possible to make medical-grade lifestyle devices by mixing the capabilities of both medical and consumer-grade manufacturers. These devices can be used in remote care, where caregivers can keep track of their patients in real-life to improve the quality of care, while patients are empowered to improve their health.

Read more: Wearable Medical Devices Market Expected to Experience Huge Growth by 2030, Says Market Industry Reports

To build devices that meet the needs of remote care and make them popular among both patients and providers, manufacturers must focus on 4 main areas: Integrity, distribution, privacy, and adherence.

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Researchers from China’s Tsinghua University and East China Normal University have created a transistor with the smallest gate length ever reported. This milestone was made possible by using graphene and molybdenum disulfide and stacking them into a staircase-like structure with two steps.

Read more Fast-Charging Bendable Graphene-Based Supercapacitor Could Power Wearables

Transistors have a few core components: the source, the drain, the channel, and the gate. Electrical current flows from the source, through the channel, past the gate, and into the drain. The gate switches this current on or off depending on the voltage applied to it.

On the higher step, there is the source, and on top of the lower step, there is the drain. Both are made of a titanium palladium alloy separated by the surface of the stairs, which is made of a single sheet of a molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), itself resting on a layer of hafnium dioxide that acts as an electrical insulator, reports GrapheneInfo.

The interior of the higher step is a sandwich of aluminum covered in aluminum oxide, which rests on top of a graphene sheet. The aluminum oxide acts as an electrical insulator, except for a small gap in the vertical wall of the higher step, where the graphene sheet is allowed to contact the molybdenum disulfide. The entire staircase structure rests on a thick layer of silicon dioxide.

The trick to this design is that the edge of the graphene sheet is used, which means that when the gate is set to the “on” state, it’s only 0.34 nm wide—essentially the width of the graphene layer itself. Another notable feature of this “side-wall transistor” is its negligible current leakage due to higher off-state resistance. Manufacturers could leverage this quality for low-power applications. Best of all, it would be relatively easy to make, although many of the prototypes required quite a bit of voltage to drive.

The research team believes going smaller than 0.34 nm for the gate size is almost impossible.

Read more Flexible Graphene Photodetectors Accurately Measure Health Data in Wearables

The researchers behind the new transistor managed to prove that a functional transistor could be made using one-atom thin materials without inventing a new process for precision positioning of the required layers. However, reliably building billions of these side-wall transistors is still a major challenge.

In the meantime, many companies are working on making gate-all-around (GAA-FET) transistors a reality and standardizing interconnects for chiplet designs.

Amrita University in Tamil Nadu, India, has developed a device for home-monitoring of glucose and blood pressure. Amrita Spandanam, as the device is called, will be sold online and through pharmacists across the country. The Tamil word ‘Spandanam’ means ‘beat’ in English.

Read more University of Arizona Researchers Develop Inexpensive Blood Pressure Monitoring System Using Pulse Wave Velocity

Developed and patented by the varsity’s Centre for Wireless Networks and Applications, it is a wearable, six-in-one device that is an excellent replacement for a bedside monitor. It can be used to measure six body parameters including blood glucose, blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen, respiratory rate, and 6-lead ECG, according to a press release.

“Amrita Spandanam is a revolutionary device that has bagged several US patents, with results published in top scientific journals. It offers a quick, easy, affordable and non-invasive way to monitor and detect diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, sleep apnea and allergy attacks from the comfort of one’s home. The product was extensively tested on 1000 patients at Amrita Hospital in Kochi and various remote clinics in Kerala. Last year, these devices were successfully deployed at Amrita Hospital to remotely monitor the progression of severity in COVID-19 patients,” said Dr Maneesha V Ramesh, the Provost of Amrita University who led the team of researchers.

Amrita Spandanam is connected to the patient’s smartphone. The data is sent to a secure hospital cloud which enables any doctor authorized by the patient to access the vital parameters remotely from any location. The product also integrates multiple -learning models that can predict the potential deterioration of patients’ health and provide early warning decision support to doctors for acute hypotensive episodes, sepsis, sleep apnea, and atrial fibrillation.

Read more Penn State Researchers Develop Wearable Non-Invasive Glucose Monitor

About Amrita University

Amrita partners with academic, industry and governmental institutions across the world to accomplish human-centered, translational, and groundbreaking research. Some of Amrita’s partners include Harvard University, Columbia University, King’s College London, KTH – Royal Institute of Technology, VU Amsterdam, the British Geological Society, University of Oxford, Italian National Research Council, Deakin University, and the University of Tokyo. Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma), a world-renowned humanitarian leader is the founder, Chancellor, and guiding light of Amrita University.

MIT’s Rosalind Picard and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Paola Pedrelli are united by the belief that artificial intelligence may be able to help make mental health care more accessible to patients.

In her 15 years as a clinician and researcher in psychology, Pedrelli says “it’s been very, very clear that there are a number of barriers for patients with mental health disorders to accessing and receiving adequate care.” Those barriers may include figuring out when and where to seek help, finding a nearby provider who is taking patients, and obtaining financial resources and transportation to attend appointments.

Read more Mind Cure Releases iSTRYM: A Digital Platform for Mental Health and Psychedelic Research

Pedrelli is an assistant professor in psychology at the Harvard Medical School and the associate director of the Depression Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). For more than five years, she has been collaborating with Picard, an MIT professor of media arts and sciences and a principal investigator at MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health (Jameel Clinic) on a project to develop machine-learning algorithms to help diagnose and monitor symptom changes among patients with major depressive disorder, reports MIT.

Machine learning is a type of AI technology where, when the machine is given lots of data and examples of good behavior (i.e., what output to produce when it sees a particular input), it can get quite good at autonomously performing a task. It can also help identify patterns that are meaningful, which humans may not have been able to find as quickly without the machine’s help. Using wearable devices and smartphones of study participants, Picard and Pedrelli can gather detailed data on participants’ skin conductance and temperature, heart rate, activity levels, socialization, personal assessment of depression, sleep patterns, and more. Their goal is to develop machine learning algorithms that can intake this tremendous amount of data, and make it meaningful — identifying when an individual may be struggling and what might be helpful to them. They hope that their algorithms will eventually equip physicians and patients with useful information about individual disease trajectory and effective treatment.

“We’re trying to build sophisticated models that have the ability to not only learn what’s common across people, but to learn categories of what’s changing in an individual’s life,” Picard says. “We want to provide those individuals who want it with the opportunity to have access to information that is evidence-based and personalized, and makes a difference for their health.”

Machine learning and mental health

Picard and Szymon Fedor, a research scientist in Picard’s affective computing lab, began collaborating with Pedrelli in 2016. After running a small pilot study, they are now in the fourth year of their National Institutes of Health-funded, five-year study.

To conduct the study, the researchers recruited MGH participants with major depression disorder who have recently changed their treatment. So far, 48 participants have enrolled in the study. For 22 hours per day, every day for 12 weeks, participants wear Empatica E4 wristbands. These wearable wristbands, designed by one of the companies Picard founded, can pick up information on biometric data, like electrodermal (skin) activity. Participants also download apps on their phone which collect data on texts and phone calls, location, and app usage, and also prompt them to complete a biweekly depression survey.

Every week, patients check in with a clinician who evaluates their depressive symptoms.

“We put all of that data we collected from the wearable and smartphone into our machine-learning algorithm, and we try to see how well the machine learning predicts the labels given by the doctors,” Picard says. “Right now, we are quite good at predicting those labels.”

Empowering users

While developing effective machine-learning algorithms is one challenge researchers face, designing a tool that will empower and uplift its users is another. Picard says, “The question we’re really focusing on now is, once you have the machine-learning algorithms, how is that going to help people?”

Picard and her team are thinking critically about how the machine-learning algorithms may present their findings to users: through a new device, a smartphone app, or even a method of notifying a predetermined doctor or family member of how best to support the user.

For example, imagine a technology that records that a person has recently been sleeping less, staying inside their home more, and has a faster-than-usual heart rate. These changes may be so subtle that the individual and their loved ones have not yet noticed them. Machine-learning algorithms may be able to make sense of these data, mapping them onto the individual’s past experiences and the experiences of other users. The technology may then be able to encourage the individual to engage in certain behaviors that have improved their well-being in the past, or to reach out to their physician.

If implemented incorrectly, it’s possible that this type of technology could have adverse effects. If an app alerts someone that they’re headed toward a deep depression, that could be discouraging information that leads to further negative emotions. Pedrelli and Picard are involving real users in the design process to create a tool that’s helpful, not harmful.

Read more Sentio Raises $4.5M, Launches Feel to Expand Access to Mental Health Care

“What could be effective is a tool that could tell an individual ‘The reason you’re feeling down might be the data related to your sleep has changed, and the data relate to your social activity, and you haven’t had any time with your friends, your physical activity has been cut down. The recommendation is that you find a way to increase those things,’” Picard says. The team is also prioritizing data privacy and informed consent.

Artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithms can make connections and identify patterns in large datasets that humans aren’t as good at noticing, Picard says. “I think there’s a real compelling case to be made for technology helping people be smarter about people.”

This month we have selected a brilliant safety wearable device for the utilities and energy distribution industry. Daily routines carried out in dangerous areas can lead to careless mistakes even after years. For this reason, PEEK has developed a wearable that automatically warns every employee working on the power grid if dangerous situations occur.

Their solution is a wearable device that operators use in close proximity to high-voltage lines. PEEK’s proprietary technology is able to analyse and identify data from the surrounding environment.

In case the user is too close to a high voltage equipment, PEEK will notify him with a warning signal. In doing so PEEK makes the invisible visible and ensures an extra layer of security avoiding fatal mistakes.

Thanks to a user-centric approach, PEEK manages to encapsulate high-performance sensor fusion (PEEK fusion array) and AI technologies (PEEK AI Stack) in a solid, compact, and easy-to-use wearable device. PEEK is already available in the US and Europe.

For further information visit PEEK´s website www.peek-solutions.com

Using the movement of a body to charge electronic devices such as phones may soon become a reality, thanks to the work done on triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). But most current TENGs are not breathable, making them uncomfortable to wear. Now, researchers have developed a multilayered TENG made from electrospun fibers, silver nanowires, and a polystyrene charge storage layer that not only has a high electrical performance, but also has superior wearability.

Read more Purdue Engineers Develop Washable Wi-Fi-Powered Smart Clothes That Monitors Health

The triboelectric effect is a phenomenon where a charge is generated on two dissimilar materials when the materials are moved apart after being in contact with each other. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) use this effect to convert mechanical motion into electrical energy. The compactness of TENGs allows them to be used as wearable devices that can harness the motion of the body to power electronics. Being wearables, the emphasis is placed on the fabric properties (such as the comfort of the material) and the charge-carrying capacity of the nanogenerators. Generally, the triboelectric materials chosen for the nanogenerator should be safe, compatible with the human body (biocompatible), flexible and breathable while being able to maintain a high electrical output performance.

Among the many materials considered for TENGs, electrospun fibers are a promising candidate as they are lightweight, strong, and have desirable electrical properties. Electrospinning is a technique by which solutions of polymers are drawn into fibers using electrical charge. There are ongoing efforts to add metals to electrospun fibers to improve the electrostatic potential and charge-trapping capabilities. But this has led to compromises being made between the comfort and the output performance of the material, reports University of Fukui.

In a recent study published in Nano Energy, researchers from the University of Fukui, Japan and Nanjing University, China have developed an all-fibrous composite layer TENG (AF-TENG) that can easily be integrated with normal cloth. “With our work, we are aiming to provide a new point of view towards wearable energy harvesters and smart textiles,” says Dr Hiroaki Sakamoto, the corresponding author for the study.

The AF-TENG contains a triboelectric membrane made of two layers of electrospun fibers – one of a material called polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and the other of a type of nylon. Silver nanowires cover these layers. The researchers further added a layer of electrospun polystyrene fibers between the silver nanowires and the triboelectric membrane.

The mechanical motion of the body while walking or running causes the triboelectric layers to gain a charge. This way, the mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy, which can be used to power electronic devices.

Read more Smart Fabrics With Bioactive Inks Monitor Health Of the Wearer By Changing Color

Normally, the charge buildup on the triboelectric surface is gradually lost or dissipated, reducing the surface charge density and the output performance of the nanogenerator. However, in this case, the added polystyrene membrane collects and traps the charge, retaining the surface charge density of the AF-TENG. The researchers used the AF-TENG to light up 126 commercial LEDs each rated at 0.06 Watt, demonstrating the feasibility of the nanogenerator. Moreover, according to Dr. Sakamoto, “The power generation device has flexibility and breathability since all components are composed of fiber materials. This device shows great potential in harvesting the static electricity from our clothes.”

While TENGs are currently limited to power low-powered devices such as LEDs and calculators, improvements to the wearability and output performance are integral steps towards future wearable technology.

Engineers at UC Berkeley have developed a new technique for making wearable sensors that enables medical researchers to prototype test new designs much faster and at a far lower cost than existing methods.

The new technique replaces photolithography — a multistep process used to make computer chips in clean rooms — with a $200 vinyl cutter. The novel approach slashes the time to make small batches of sensors by nearly 90% while cutting costs by almost 75%, said Renxiao Xu (Ph.D.’20 ME), who developed the technique while pursuing his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Berkeley.

Related Stretchable Sensor Provides Skin-Like Sensation to Robots, AR/VR

“Most researchers working on medical devices have no background in photolithography,” Xu said. “Our method makes it easy and inexpensive for them to change their sensor design on a computer and then send the file to the vinyl cutter to make.”

A description of the technique was published Jan. 25 in ACS Nano. Xu, who now works at Apple, and Liwei Lin, professor of mechanical engineering and co-director of the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, were the lead researchers.

Wearable sensors are often used by researchers to gather medical data from patients over extended periods of time. They range from adhesive bandages on skin to stretchable implants on organs, and harness sophisticated sensors to monitor health or diagnose illnesses.

These devices consist of flat wires, called interconnects, as well as sensors, power sources and antennas to communicate data to smartphone apps or other receivers. To maintain full functionality, they must stretch, flex and twist with the skin and organs they are mounted on — without generating strains that would compromise their circuitry, reports Alan S. Brown at UC Berkeley.

To achieve low-strain flexibility, engineers use an “island-bridge” structure, Xu said. The islands house rigid electronics and sensor components, such as commercial resistors, capacitors and lab-synthesized components like carbon nanotubes. The bridges link the islands to one another. Their spiral and zigzag shapes stretch like springs to accommodate large deformations.

In the past, researchers have built these island-bridge systems using photolithography, a multistep process that uses light to create patterns on semiconductor wafers. Making wearable sensors this way requires a clean room and sophisticated equipment.

The new technique is simpler, faster and more economical, especially when making the one or two dozen samples that medical researchers typically need for testing.

Making sensors starts by attaching an adhesive sheet of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to a Mylar (biaxially oriented PET) substrate. Other plastics would also work, Xu said.

A vinyl cutter then shapes them using two types of cuts. The first, the tunnel cut, slices through only the top PET layer but leaves the Mylar substrate untouched. The second type, the through cut, carves through both layers.

This is enough to produce island-bridge sensors. First, tunnel cuts are used in the upper adhesive PET layer to trace the path of the interconnects; then the cut PET segments are peeled off, leaving behind the pattern of interconnects on the exposed Mylar surface.

Next, the entire plastic sheet is coated with gold (another conductive metal could be used as well). The remaining top PET layer is peeled away, leaving a Mylar surface with well-defined interconnects, as well as exposed metal openings and contact pads on the islands.

Sensor elements are then attached to the contact pads. For electronic devices, such as resistors, a conductive paste and a common heat plate are used to secure the bond. Some lab-synthesized components, such as carbon nanotubes, can be applied directly to the pads without any heating.

Once this step is done, the vinyl cutter uses through cuts to carve the sensor’s contours, including spirals, zigzags and other features.

A stretchable “smart mesh” made from the two-mode cutting fabrication process. This device could be applied in skin-mounted sweat extraction and sensing.

A stretchable “smart mesh” made from the two-mode cutting fabrication process. This device could be applied in skin-mounted sweat extraction and sensing.

To demonstrate the technique, Xu and Lin developed a variety of stretchable elements and sensors. One mounts under the nose and measures human breath based on the tiny changes in temperatures it creates between the front and back of the sensor.

“For a breath sensor, you don’t want to something bulky,” Lin said. “You want something thin and flexible, almost like a tape beneath your nose, so you can fall asleep while it records a signal over a long period of time.”

Another prototype consists of an array of water-resistant supercapacitors, which store electrical power like a battery but release it more rapidly. Supercapacitors could provide power for some types of sensors.

“We could also make more complex sensors by adding capacitors or electrodes to make electrocardiogram measurements, or chip-sized accelerometers and gyroscopes to measure motion,” Xu said.

Related University of Waterloo Engineers Develop Durable, Flexible Sensor for Wearables

Size is sensor cutting’s one key limitation. Its smallest features are 200 to 300 micrometers wide, while photolithography can produce features that are tens of micrometers wide. But most wearable sensors do not require such fine features, Xu noted.

The researchers believe this technique could one day become a standard feature in every lab studying wearable sensors or new diseases. Prototypes could be designed using high-powered computer-aided design (CAD) software or simpler apps made especially for vinyl printers.

Other study authors are Kamyar Behrouzi, Peisheng He, Tao Jiang, Guangchen Lan, Ashley Lee, Yu Long, Yande Peng and Dongkai Wang.

Semiconductors are moving away from rigid substrates, which are cut or formed into thin discs or wafers, to more flexible plastic material and even paper thanks to new material and fabrication discoveries. The trend toward more flexible substrates has led to fabrication of numerous devices, from light-emitting diodes to solar cells and transistors.

Read more Stanford Researchers Develop Ultrathin, Flexible Circuits for Wearables

Georgia Tech researchers have created a material that acts like a second skin layer and is up to 200% more stretchable than its original dimension without significantly losing its electric current. The researchers say the soft flexible photodetectors could enhance the utility of medical wearable sensors and implantable devices, among other applications.

Photodetectors today are used as wearables for health monitoring, such as rigid fingertip pulse oximeter reading devices. They convert light signals into electrical ones and are commonly used on wearable electronics.

Stretchable like a Rubber Band

Given that conventional flexible semiconductors break under a few percentages of strain, the Georgia Tech findings are “an order-of-magnitude improvement,” said Olivier Pierron, professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, whose lab measures the mechanical properties and reliability of flexible electronics under extreme conditions, reports Georgia Tech.

“Think of a rubber band or something that’s soft and stretchable like human skin yet has similar electrical semiconducting properties of solid or rigid semiconductors,” said Canek Fuentes-Hernandez, a co-PI formerly in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and now an associate professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston. “We’ve shown that you can build stretchability into semiconductors that retains the electrical performance needed to detect light levels that are around hundred million times fainter than produced by a light bulb used for indoor illumination,” he said.

Extraordinary Tenacity and Teamwork

Bernard Kippelen, vice provost for International Initiatives and an ECE professor, oversaw the work of Youngrak Park, the study’s first author and a Ph.D. candidate in ECE.  Following two-and-a-half years of research, Park uncovered the right combination of chemical compounds that produced a super-soft material with the ability to generate and conduct electricity when exposed to light.

Park found the perfect ratio for all parts of the semiconductor layer to maintain high performance in the photodetector. But it was painstaking work to prove the materials’ stretchability, especially given that a single layer was 1,000 times thinner than a human hair.

Park relied on Kyungjin Kim, then a Georgia Tech Ph.D. mechanical engineering student, to test the material’s reliability. He continued to provide Kim with larger, thicker samples until one with a thickness of 500 nanometers worked.

“It was still super thin. Under dry conditions, it would just crumble. We had to use a water reservoir to keep its shape,” recalled Kim, now an assistant professor in the University of Connecticut’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.

To test for electrical signals coming out of the device under illumination, electronic terminals had to be embedded on it. Yet, those terminals had to be deformable, too, or the entire device would become rigid.

“Fabricating stretchable electronic terminals was a major challenge in and of itself,” said ECE PhD graduate Felipe Andres Larrain, who worked closely with Park and focused on the embedded components.  He is now an assistant professor at Adolfo Ibáñez University in Chile.

While this breakthrough material has been initially integrated into a photodetector and tested for electrical functionality, more testing and optimization is needed to show the materials’ stretchability under multimodal loads and its shelf stability.

“What’s exciting is what these materials and the devices will enable us to develop―namely, the concept of intelligence systems. You have functional surfaces that combine sensors that monitor all kinds of physical properties,” said Graham, former chair of the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and now Dean of Engineering at the University of Maryland.

“This is a very good example of interdisciplinary research — none of this work would have been possible without the collaboration between electrical and mechanical engineers,” Kippelen said. “In the lab we didn’t have any prior experience with stretchable materials. Figuring out how to measure this took a lot of perseverance, creativity and hard work.”

New Smart Applications Possible

The researchers are most excited about the potential of the material to enhance medical wearables. Typically, wristwatches that use rigid biosensors have limitations since flexing the wrist can completely change the sensor’s measurements. They are subject to “motion artifact,” or degraded image quality, caused when a person moves.

The research team foresees rich applications for the soft and stretchable polymer blend beyond wearables for health monitoring. “The soft device also could be attractive for implantable electronics for bio-electronic applications since the interfaces comply with the dynamic motion of the soft biological tissues, reducing the foreign body reaction,” said Kim.

Read more Stretchable System Can Power Wearables By Harvesting Energy From Wearer’s Breathing and Motion

“The potential is fantastic,” added Larrain. “In the long-term, you could develop sensors that could enhance or even replace the human eye or be applied to robotic eyes.”

Fuentes sees the material working in smart agriculture applications, where farmers could attach light sensors into fruits or other produce to monitor growth, disease and to better time harvesting.

Kippelen believes the rubber-like photodiodes that detect ultralow light levels could find applications in detecting, identifying, and characterizing ionizing radiation for nuclear fuel cycle monitoring.