Wearable miniature sensors help control power

Technology is constantly evolving, and medical systems are no exception. They are becoming more sophisticated, in many cases - miniature, for the convenience of those who will use them. The other day it became known about a tiny sensor that is attached to a human tooth. This sensor allows you to control the power mode.



It was created by Biomedicine Specialist Fiorenzo Omenetto from Tufts University . According to the developer, soon such devices will become common, and will help monitor compliance with the proper diet, as well as the state of the human body.



The development results were published in Advanced Materials. The Omenetto team has been working on creating various kinds of sensors for quite some time, both for applying to the skin, teeth, and for implantation in the brain or surgical implants. As for the oral cavity, here you can place various sensors that can constantly monitor certain indicators.



The working prototype of the sensor is small, its dimensions are 2 * 2 mm. The thickness is minimal, it is a film with electronic components. Sensors are placed between two gold-plated resonators, so that the active environment of the oral cavity does not damage the device. The sensor responds to the presence of various substances with the help of specialized enzymes or antibodies. They help determine the presence of specific molecules. Bioactive sensors respond to changes in the composition of the medium, and give a signal.

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Resonators act as antennas, transmitting radio waves generated by the device itself when the chemical composition changes among. These waves are captured by a special device connected to a tablet or mobile phone. Each detected substance corresponds to a radio wave of a certain frequency. An application installed on a connected device analyzes the signal and outputs the result.



So far, the list of connections to which the sensor can react is not too extensive. This is sugar, salt and alcohol. In principle, even this is enough to control the human diet, but, of course, the developers do not plan to stop there, especially since the sensor does not know how to determine the amount of food eaten, and this is a major drawback of the system. In the future, the developers plan to ensure that the application shows - “you consumed products with a caloric content of 358.2 kcal”.



Generally speaking, thin film sensors are not a new idea. Last year, for example, miniature temperature sensors were reported that attach directly to food. Moreover, these sensors are "edible", they are completely dissolved by the action of gastric juice, without emitting any harmful substances in the process. Their thickness is less than the thickness of a human hair, only about 100 micrometers.





In 2016, the pages of Geektimes reported on the creation of a wearable device for the automatic diagnosis and correction of the blood glucose level of diabetics. She was offered a joint team of scientists from South Korea and the United States. A report on the work done is published in the authoritative edition of Nature. The device itself is a compact bracelet worn on a brush with active elements from graphene. It connects to the smartphone wirelessly.







And there are sensors created to analyze the state of the human brain. They are embedded in the brain, where they work for some time, transferring important data (temperature, electrical activity, etc.). Then the sensor dissolves without a trace, without emitting harmful substances. So far, these systems are being tested in rats. After - already begin clinical trials, but this stage will follow only after a few years. The approval of new systems by regulators of medicine is a very slow matter.



In general, such systems are becoming more common. Over time, we can expect the appearance of similar IoT sensors that transmit information constantly, keeping the state of many human organs under control. And this is not such a distant future, as is commonly believed.