South Korean researchers have created an electronic tattoo that will allow patients to track their health.
This means that South Koreans may soon be able to wear the device inside their bodies in the form of a custom-made tattoo that automatically alerts them to potential health problems if a scientific team’s project becomes successful.
Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in the city of Daejeon, southwest of Seoul, developed an electronic tattoo ink made of liquid metal and carbon nanotubes that works as a bioelectrode.
Connected to an electrocardiogram (ECG) device or another biosensor, it can send a reading of a patient’s heart rate and other vital signs, such as glucose and lactate, to a monitor.
The researchers hope to finally be able to dispense with biosensors.
“In the future, what we hope to do is connect a wireless chip embedded with this ink, so that we can communicate, or we can send signals between our body and an external device,” said project leader Steve Park, a professor of science and materials engineering.
Such monitors could, in theory, be located anywhere, including in patients’ homes.
The ink is non-invasive and is made from gallium-based particles, a soft silvery metal that is also used in semiconductors or thermometers. Platinum-decorated carbon nanotubes help conduct electricity and provide durability.
“When applied to the skin, even with rubbing, the tattoo doesn’t come off, which isn’t possible with just liquid metal,” Park said.
This is a welcome innovation! Hopefully, in the coming days, researchers will address questions on cancer and other skin issues.
