Swedish Scientists Develop Multi-Purpose Sensors for Measuring Biochemical Compounds in Blood and Sweat

Multi-Purpose Sensors for Measuring Biochemical Compounds in Blood and Sweat.

The armband measures your blood and sweat and sends the information to a training app (Image credit: KTH)

Traditional wearable devices can monitor step count, heart rate, blood pressure and even blood glucose. However, these devices have limited functionality and have issues around accuracy, calibration and reliability. A team of scientists at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden want to change all that. So, they’ve developed multi-purpose electrochemical sensors to take measurements of blood and sweat.

Related Gatorade’s GX Sweat Patch Helps Athletes Keep Track of Hydration and Lost Nutrients

These sensors can be incorporated into skin-patches, woven into clothes, deployed as microneedles, or even integrated with existing sensors such as accelerometers and ECG, to provide a broad-spectrum overview of important physical parameters, reports New Atlas.

“Both technology platforms can be used in medical contexts at home or during athletic activity. They could also be tools in hospitals and clinics,” says Gaston Crespo, an Associate Professor in the Division of Applied Physical Chemistry at KTH.

What sets these sensors apart from traditional sensors is that these multi-purpose sensors are able to measure a wide range of important biochemical compounds such as sodium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, ammonium, glucose, uric acid, as well as amino acids like glycine. These sensors can also detect a range of problems. Such as dehydration, electrolyte balance and kidney problems.

“Kidney problems in particular are associated with the secretion of potassium ions for example and creatinine level in blood, which the technology can identify,” says Crespo.

The sensors can be incorporated into skin-patches or woven into clothes (Image: Wikimedia commons)

Related Sweat-Based Wearable Device to Measure Glucose

During intense physical exertion, lactic acid can build up in your bloodstream faster than you can burn it off and this is something the sensors can continuously monitor during the course of training.

“The sensors can also measure how stressed a person is, and their attentiveness,” Crespo said.

WT | Wearable Technologies Conference in San Francisco on July 9-10

The most innovative wearables event will be back on July 9-10 in beautiful San Francisco at SEMICON West to celebrate the 34th edition of the WT | Wearable Technologies Conference Series. Topics include data analytics in professional sports, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation with wearables, the future of digital health, medication and adherence, smart patches, workflow optimization and workforce safety and much more – featuring international leaders and experts of the wearables industry´s biggest names including Abbott, Autodesk, Datwyler, Kopin, Maxim Integrated, Multek, NFLPA, Omron, SharkDreams, Qualcomm, and many more. Register now to be part of #WTUS19

Sam Draper
May 20, 2019

Innovation of the Month

Do you want to discover more, visit the website
Visit Website

Other news

A Toddler Teaches Language to Artificial Intelligence

An artificial intelligence (AI) that was trained to recognize English using a toddler’s recordings.

AlterEgo: Wearable That Lets You Give Voice Command by Reading Your Unspoken Thoughts

What if Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant could read your mind...

Garmin-Lumen Partnership Launches Second Phase Integration With Metabolic Fitness Data

Lumen, the maker of metabolism measurement device through the breath, and Garmin International...

Korean Metaverse Creation Platform Obtains Patent

Redbrick has obtained a patent that enhances connectivity and scalability between metaverse platform
Discover more