Wearable electronics combined with AI might one day process massive amounts of health information in real time.
(Image provided by UChicago)
New wearable electronics paired with artificial intelligence could transform screening for health problems.
Flexible, wearable electronics are making their way into everyday use, and their full potential is still to be realized. Soon, this technology could be used for precision medical sensors attached to the skin, designed to perform health monitoring and diagnosis. It would be like having a high-tech medical center at your instant beck and call.
Such a skin-like device is being developed in a project between the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME). Leading the project is Sihong Wang, assistant professor in UChicago PME with a joint appointment in Argonne’s Nanoscience and Technology division.
Worn routinely, future wearable electronics could potentially detect possible emerging health problems — such as heart disease, cancer or multiple sclerosis — even before obvious symptoms appear. The device could also do a personalized analysis of the tracked health data while minimizing the need for its wireless transmission. ?“The diagnosis for the same health measurements could differ depending on the person’s age, medical history and other factors,” Wang said. ?“Such a diagnosis, with health information being continuously gathered over an extended period, is very data intensive.”
“While still requiring further development on several fronts, our device could be a game changer in which everyone can get their health status in a much more effective and frequent way.” — Sihong Wang, assistant professor in UChicago’s PME with joint appointment in Argonne’s Nanoscience and Technology division
Such a device would need to collect and process a vast amount of data, well above what even the best smartwatches can do today. And it would have to do this data crunching with very low power consumption in a very tiny space.
To address that need, the team called upon neuromorphic computing. This AI technology mimics operation of the brain by training on past data sets and learning from experience. Its advantages include compatibility with stretchable material, lower energy consumption and faster speed than other types of AI.
The other major challenge the team faced was integrating the electronics into a skin-like stretchable material. The key material in any electronic device is a semiconductor. In current rigid electronics used in cell phones and computers, this is normally a solid silicon chip. Stretchable electronics require that the semiconductor be a highly flexible material that is still able to conduct electricity.
The team’s skin-like neuromorphic ?“chip” consists of a thin film of a plastic semiconductor combined with stretchable gold nanowire electrodes. Even when stretched to twice its normal size, their device functioned as planned without formation of any cracks.
Researchers from the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory and UChicago’s PME are developing skin-like electronics paired with AI for health monitoring and diagnosis. Such new wearable electronics paired with AI could transform screening for health problems. (Image by Wang Research Group.)
As one test, the team built an AI device and trained it to distinguish healthy electrocardiogram (ECG) signals from four different signals indicating health problems. After training, the device was more than 95% effective at correctly identifying the ECG signals.
The plastic semiconductor also underwent analysis on beamline 8-ID-E at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne. Exposure to an intense X-ray beam revealed how the molecules that make up the skin-like device material reorganize upon doubling in length. These results provided molecular level information to better understand the material properties.
“The planned upgrade of the APS will increase the brightness of its X-ray beams by up to 500 times,” said Joe Strzalka, an Argonne physicist. ?“We look forward to studying the device material under its regular operating conditions, interacting with charged particles and changing electrical potential in its environment. Instead of a snapshot, we’ll have more of a movie of the structural response of the material at the molecular level.” The greater beamline brightness and better detectors will make it possible to measure how soft or hard the material becomes in response to environmental influences.
“While still requiring further development on several fronts, our device could one day be a game changer in which everyone can get their health status in a much more effective and frequent way,” added Wang.
This research was published in Matter in a paper titled ?“Intrinsically stretchable neuromorphic devices for on-body processing of health data with artificial intelligence.”
Original Article: Skin-like electronics could monitor your health continuously
More from: Argonne National Laboratory | Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago
The Latest Updates from Bing News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Stretchable neuromorphic devices
- Stretchable e-skin could give robots human-level touch sensitivity
A stretchy electronic skin could equip robots and other devices with the same softness ... deal of precision and control of force. The new stretchable e-skin, developed by researchers at The ...
- Rubber-like stretchable energy storage device fabricated with laser precision
During laser ablation of EGaIn and graphene layers, the underlying stretchable SEBS substrate was not damaged, which maintained the flexibility of MSC device. The areal capacitance of the ...
- Rubber-like stretchable energy storage device fabricated with laser precision
The advent of wearable technology has brought with it a pressing need for energy storage solutions that can keep pace with the flexibility and stretchability of soft electronic devices.
- Intel reveals world's biggest 'brain-inspired' neuromorphic computer
Intel has created the world’s largest neuromorphic computer, a device intended to mimic the operation of the human brain. The firm hopes that it will be able to run more sophisticated AI models ...
- The best at-home microcurrent devices to lift and firm skin, according to experts
While a regular visit to an aesthetician or dermatologist for a treatment might not be in the cards, the best microcurrent devices offer a way to smooth, lift and firm skin — all without having ...
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Skin-like electronics
- Withings Scanwatch 2 Review: Extra Long Battery Life And Classic Style
Looking for a smartwatch that looks like a regular watch? Read the Withings Scanwatch 2 review to see whether this hybrid device is worth your dollar.
- If it's too late to ship gifts, these gift cards can save Mother's Day
Stila is beloved for its high-quality cosmetics, from sparkly eye shadow palettes and bronzers to silky-smooth lip glosses and more. Makeup and skincare are the ideal gifts for beauty junkies, and ...
- The Trash and Treasures of Temu
The site is also saturated with facsimiles of popular makeup and skin-care products, like a Tarte Shape Tape look-alike ($ ... While Evans had spoken highly of the electronics, the wireless earbuds ...
- EV batteries could last much longer thanks to new capacitor with 19-times higher energy density that scientists created by mistake
Electric cars and laptop batteries could charge up much faster and last longer thanks to a new structure that can be used to make much better capacitors in the future.
- Stretchable E-Skin Boosts Robot Touch To Human Levels
This represents a breakthrough in the field of robotics and could potentially transform how machines interact with their environment.