With the insane popularity of wearable fitness trackers, researchers are devising ways to make them more accurate. The idea being that the closer the trackers are to your skin, the less they will shake, rattle and misread your movements.
Wearable stickers
Last month, Massachusetts company MC10 announced the BioStamp Research Connect. It looks like a high-tech Band-Aid and is packed with accelerometers, a gyroscope, and sensors to monitor a wearer’s muscles and heart. It will go on sale later this year, but will be primarily aimed at researchers, to be used in medical studies where accurate monitoring of vitals is critical. But this could lead to better exercise and performance data, if everything works as planned. Eventually, though, we’ll see these flexible stickers become more like the activity trackers we know.
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Electronic tattoos
What’s really wild, though, is that scientists are trying to get even closer to you skin. The same research group behind MC10 has been trying to make sensors that can be printed directly onto a wearer, basically an electronic tattoo. The biggest limitation right now is power. We can’t yet print a chemical-based battery onto living human skin; though, there may be ways around that challenge with piezoelectrics. Piezoelectrics are a material that can generate an electric charge when manipulated (usually squeezed or pushed). If these sensors were tucked into an area that moves a lot—perhaps the back of your knee—it’s possible that moderate activity could keep enough energy running through it to monitor your vitals.
Another way could be with thermoelectrics, which generate electricity from heat. Because our body is exothermic, perhaps the right material could tap into this energy source.
Though this may sound a bit like science fiction, researchers have already made huge strides in wearable trackers; and we look forward to new technology coming onto the market!
Curated article from:
Outside Online
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