A team of engineers at the University of California San Diego has developed an electronic sticker that can monitor a person’s vitamin C levels using the sweat from their fingertips — no blood draws, lab visits or batteries required. The flexible sticker, which attaches to the outside of a drinking cup, collects trace amounts of sweat as a person grips the cup. Within minutes, the system harvests enough power from the sweat to analyze it for vitamin C and wirelessly sends the results to a nearby laptop.
The device was published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics.
“By turning everyday objects like cups or bottles into smart sensors, people can gain real-time insights into their health and wellness without changing a thing about their daily routine,” said study co-senior author Patrick Mercier, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. “We’re moving toward a future of ‘unawareables’ — devices that are unobtrusive and essentially invisible so that you are unaware that you’re even using them. You just go about your day and your drinking cup can give you access to all this rich information.”
Read more about this exciting work HERE.