Smart Underwear

The expenses attributed with hospital treatments has generated a growing demand for “home based healthcare management”. As a result Joseph Wang and his colleagues at the University of California San Diego, have developed underwear that uses piezoelectric power  to monitor a person’s blood pressure, heart rate, and other vital signs. This allows 24/7 at-home surveillance thus reducing the load on hospitals and reducing one’s expenses.

In order to form the sensors, the scientist placed “screen-printed carbon electrode arrays directly onto the elastic bands”. Thus the skin tight pressure on the skin, from the elastic bands, allows hydrogen peroxide and the enzyme NADH to be monitored.

Similar Products 

In 2009 Canadian scientists created underwear that deliver mild electrical currents to paralyzed muscles in order to prevent ulcers and other similar problems. They will contain sensors that detect increased pressure and lack of oxygen in the buttocks muscles of people bound to a wheelchair. When the pressure gets to a certain level, the electric underwear will emit a jolt of electricity for seven to 13 seconds that will clench the muscles as in exercise and recirculate the blood. In addition another major problem many adults suffer from is the issue of incontinence. Incontinence is the problem of involuntary urination, but with revolutionary underwear one could receive a text  message to warn wearers if their incontinence protection is leaking.

Plans for the Future 

In the future Professor Wang hopes to develop more advanced sensors in order to detect alcohol levels in drivers or stress levels in soldiers and athletes. The designers also hope that one day the underwear can release drugs to relieve pain and treat wounds. Wang goes on to say, “We envision all the trend of personalized medicine for remote monitoring of the elderly at home, monitoring a wide range of biomedical markers, like cardiac markers, alerting for any potential stroke, diabetic changes, and other changes related to other biomedical scenario,’ said Wang. Wearable biosensors can also provide valuable information to athletes or even measure blood alcohol levels.”

Richard Compton at the University of Oxford, UK comments, ‘electrochemical sensors are widely used in niche applications and it is timely for a greater diversity of sensors to emerge, given the sensitivity and low cost of electrochemical measurements. I have full confidence in this idea coming to fruition.’

FOR MORE INFO 

Biosenors in Briefs – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs9R3JJ6LjM

SOURCES

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/jun2010/bw20100622_476361.htm

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemTech/Volume/2010/05/biosensors_in_briefs.asp