The team is working on adding a blood pressure checkup feature to it. It does not use electrons like a smart watch. This patch uses photons for its system. This will help healthcare professionals in the coming days.
Wearable electronic devices have advanced significantly, but their accuracy and longevity are largely limited. Alternatively, flexible and wearable optical sensing systems hold the potential to overcome such challenges while meeting user needs, said Rajan Jha, professor of physics, IIT Bhubaneswar.
Jha, who is leading such work at IIT Bhubaneswar in Nanophotonics, said, “We present a fully foldable and wearable sensor that can measure body temperature, joint bending in different directions, and limb movements, Capable of tracking facial movement, respiration and pulse rate.” and the Plasmonics Laboratory in the School of Basic Sciences.
Since the measurements are based on changes in light parameters rather than current like in electronic devices, he said, such a wearable device is very sensitive and accurate. He added that another advantage of this technique is the ability to measure multiple parameters at the same time.
“We are currently expanding the capabilities of our technology to explore a wide range of physical properties, including the structure of optical fibers, coatings on the probe area, and using biodegradable/biocompatible materials to make the system environmentally friendly and sustainable. The researchers said Prateek Mishra, Subrata Sahu and Kalipad Chatterjee.
The team published their article on this research work last week in an international journal ‘Advanced Materials Technologies’. This indigenous system will have applications in areas such as robotics, smart clothing and a variety of devices that monitor small movements due to its extreme sensitivity and robustness.
IIT Bhubaneswar Director Virendra Kumar Tewari said that these promising wearable optical devices hold scope to revolutionize healthcare services and can lay the foundation for the development of a new set of industries dedicated to commercialization of public health facilities.