Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder are developing a wearable electronic device that’s “really wearable”, stretchy and fully-recyclable circuit board that’s inspired by, human skin.
The team, led by Jianliang Xiao and Wei Zhang, describes its new “electronic skin” in a paper published in the journal Science Advances. The device can heal itself, much like real skin. It also reliably performs a range of sensory tasks, from measuring the body temperature of users to tracking their daily step counts.
“If you want to wear this like a watch, you can put it around your wrist,” said Xiao. “If you want to wear this like a necklace, you can put it on your neck.” “Smart watches are functionally nice, but they’re always a big chunk of metal on a band,” said Zhang. “If we want a truly wearable device, ideally it will be a thin film that can comfortably fit onto your body.”
The device is a little thicker than a Band-Aid and can be applied to skin with heat. It can also stretch by 60% in any direction without disrupting the electronics inside, the team reports. “It’s really stretchy, which enables a lot of possibilities that weren’t an option before,” Xiao said. The team’s electronic skin can do a lot of the same things that popular wearable fitness devices like Fitbits do: reliably measuring body temporary, heart rate, movement patterns and more.
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