It is a small patch placed on the skin, about as thick as a temporary tattoo, but with the ability to record heartbeat, muscle contractions, and brain activity in addition to tracking body movements and delivering drugs (1).
The creation of “electronic skin” has been an area of immense interest to engineers and material scientists recently. There have been frequent attempts to develop such a product, but in late 2013 researchers from universities in South Korea, Illinois, and Texas developed the first version of electronic skin capable of storing and transmitting information about body movements, which could potentially be applied to help patients with Parkinson’s disease or epilepsy (2).
An example of the type of electrical interface that could be applied to human skin. Photo Credit: Scientific American
The “skin” was constructed by layering stretchable nanomaterials onto a material comparable to human skin. These nanomaterials consist of sensors to detect motion and temperature, microheaters, drugs, and a device for data storage. The electronic skin itself is powered by solar cells or inductive coils that can wirelessly generate current (1). These circuits are designed in a thin S-shape, to tolerate stretch and contact (1). The resulting patch is only about 0.3 mm thick (2).
According to Nanshu Lu, a mechanical engineer at the University of Texas in Austin and one of the co-creators of the device, some limitations still exist (2). Data transmission is only possible if the electronic skin patch is connected to a power supply and a data transmitter, both of which must be flexible and compact in order to be compatible for regular human use (2). Moreover, even if the data could be transmitted wirelessly, the data would still need to be converted into a readable format and transmitted over long distances while remaining portable (2).
A few years prior, a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne developed a slightly different version of electronic skin. In addition to functioning as a medical sensor, this device could be placed on the throat and used to sense spoken words (1). This technology could not only improve communication in patients with laryngeal disorders, but also enhance control of prosthetics (1). In fact, the electronic skin patch is currently sensitive enough to control a simple computer game (1).
Researchers are also developing this electronic skin in conjunction with physical therapists in order to induce muscle contractions in areas of the body that have experienced degeneration. Their goal is to develop a wearable, low-profile, high-performing electronic device that would reduce the need for bulky electrodes or other unwieldy equipment (1).
Currently, the electronic skin can only be worn for a couple of days, due to the continual shedding of skin cells, so a solution needs to be developed that would allow it to be worn for months at a time. Further areas of exploration include adding components that could powered by body movements, as well as ways to upload data and commands to the device. The creators of electronic skin concede that the technology is “still pretty far away” from being used by patients, but its potential applications are certainly far-reaching (1).
Sources:
1. Yong, E. (n.d.). ‘Electronic Skin’ Could Replace Bulky Electrodes. Nature.com. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nature.com/
2. Morrison, J. (n.d.). ‘Electronic Skin’ Equipped with Memory. Nature.com. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.nature.com/