It is a tiny patch meant to be worn 24/7

Sep 25, 2014 08:45 GMT  ·  By

There have been many attempts at creating an exodermal layer that would be capable of complementing or supplementing our natural skin, and the activity of other organs. The invention we're about to examine doesn't quite do any of that, but it should work as a great means of physiological supervision.

The device is the result of a study conducted by scientists from Northwestern University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Essentially, it is a small square with a side of five centimeters, like a patch of artificial skin you lay on top of your actual skin and leave there for good.

The device can alert the wearers if their skin could do with a bit of moisturizer, or in more serious cases, if they are having cardiovascular problems.

How it all works

The scientists embedded, in the five-centimeter wide square, thousands of tiny liquid crystals, which change color depending on what is wrong. The crystals don't detect much on their own, but the substrate is flexible and capable of sensing and reacting to heat.

The transient temperature change at the skin's surface is used to determine blood flow rate, and though it, cardiovascular health and skin hydration. Up to 3,600 liquid crystals can be utilized, each half a millimeter square wide.

It's unclear if the “skin” patch is supposed to be removed when you need to take a quick shower, or if it can survive a dousing or two.

Knowing how much people can sweat at any given time, there should be some water resistance involved at the very least.

Either way, the device is ultrathin, comfortable and, thus, “mechanically invisible,” which is to say that you'll forget it's even there. So far, the patch has been tested on peoples' wrists, but it should work fine on other areas, like the chest.

Then again, you wouldn't be able to see the artificial skin in that case, and that's the whole point of the technology. Still good for a stint at the beach though.

Uses for the new second skin

Basic medicine is one we've already mentioned. Real-time monitoring can be a big help for various situations, and with an algorithm translating the distribution of the temperature across the patch surface, it only takes 30 seconds to get a reading (3,600 temperature points is a good number).

And with a wireless heating system that can be powered through electromagnetic waves present in the air, you can use the patch to determine thermal properties of the skin as well.