"Electronic skin" will be able to observe the functions of the organism in online mode
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Follow the heart, brain and muscles can be without cumbersome electrodes and power systems. "Electronic skin" is the name of a new device that can monitor the functions of the organism in the online mode.
"Measuring portable devices attached to the surface of the skin have been in the focus of attention of scientists and engineers for over eighty years," researchers from research centers in the US and China write. "In 1929, the first portable device appeared that removes the encephalogram with electrodes attached to the skin."
After the first encephalograph, there were many, including space, technologies that allow you to monitor vital functions in the online mode.
For example, to detect a site of the heart with arrhythmia, physicians use a portable electrode system that does not overlook any part of the blood pump. The fact is that even a sick heart does not always mess. Therefore, in order to find and neutralize the site that knocks the whole organ off the rhythm, doctors need to follow the patient's heart for several hours, a day or even months.
"The concept and design of such devices are very outdated," the researchers continue, who developed a fundamentally new package for electrodes and a measuring system. - They are attached to the skin with adhesive tapes or patches, contain bulky batteries and communication components. Moreover, many patients develop allergic reactions in response to glue or gels that are used to attach the electrodes to the skin. "
Scientists led by John Rogers (John Rogers) from the University of Illinois (University of Illinois) packed the electronic measuring system not in a plastic box, but in a laminate. The result is an elastic thin module that can be bent without damaging the system itself. Such a system is "glued" to the skin by Vann-der-Waals forces - the patient does not feel anything unpleasant or uncomfortable, there are no reasons for developing the allergy either. Familiar batteries and wired systems, scientists replaced solar cells. The result of such transformations is a transparent sparkling sticker, bending in any direction.
The authors have already tested a high-tech sticker-tattoo. Results inspire - the device works 24 hours or more, located on the cheek, neck, temechke and chin. Biologists also compared the readings of the new device and the usual systems used to measure the electrical activity of muscle fibers. In experiments with the heart and muscles of the legs, the parameters of the new system did not differ from those of the well-tested bulky electrodes.
"We think that such a system can replace devices used in clinical practice to diagnose pathologies of the brain, heart and other organs," conclude the inventors. The article with its description is published today in Science.