Tokyo researchers created an LED e-skin that can display and assess user vitals in real-time. If further refined, the skins could replace fitness trackers and hospital sensors.
Forget getting mobile updates on your watch. What if you could get text messages and calls on your skin? That’s what one team of researchers from the University of Tokyo is working on. And the team has already developed a pretty cool prototype.
Led by Takao Someya, the team of University of Tokyo researchers developed an LED e-skin that can be applied to the skin to give users real-time data on bodily processes, such as oxygen levels in the blood. The e-skin is 3 micrometers thick – a full order of magnitude thinner than the epidermal layer of skin – and is flexible enough to withstand the normal muscle expansion and contraction.
The prototype has the longest life span of any device of its kind. The LEDs used on the e-skin last for several days at a time, and require less power to operate. By placing the e-skin on the fingers, users are able to see pulse and blood oxygen concentration. When placed on the forearm or other areas, the device works as a kind of LED screen to display information.
The device has a long way to go before it can really replace fitness trackers or smartphones, but researchers have high hopes. They believe the e-skins can be used on hospital patients to keep tabs on pulse and other vitals, while athletes can use the skins to track heart rate. If the e-skin is refined further, it could potentially function as a smart device that transmits health data to an app or hospital monitor, and/or receive data from a mobile phone or device (like calls or text messages).
The current prototype uses flexible, organic diode that can emit light. The substance can display three colors, and works in tandem with a seven-segment LED for display. The team plans to continue its research to expand the display of the device.
The research findings can be found in this month’s edition of Science Advances.
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