– Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, August 20: A scientist and his group at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, are working on developing wearable sensors that can retract information from human body using the skin.
Dr. Saurabh Kumar from the Centre for Nanoscience and Engineering (CeNSE) at the IISc, a recipient of the INSPIRE Faculty Fellowship instituted by the central government Department of Science & Technology, who is heading the group, said the skin conformal tattoo sensor would have the ability to perform non-invasive and continuous monitoring of vital health parameters like pulse rate, respiration rate, UV rays exposure, skin hydration level, glucose monitoring, surface electromyography and many others and have the potential to replace rigid and bulky health monitoring devices without interfering with the daily activities of the user.
Giving the information in his recent work published in the journal ‘ACS Sensors’, said his group had fabricated the skin conformal tattoo sensor which promises to be inconspicuous and continuous monitoring of vital health parameters of an individual. The sensor serves as a single conduit for sensing respiration rate and pulse, dispensing with the need of mounting multiple sensors. Its remarkably high sensitivity with a gauge factor (GF) has been ascribed to the development of nano-cracks and their propagation through the film upon application of strain. The fast response and highly repeatable sensor follows easy fabrication steps and can be patterned into any shape and size using a laser.
Active research in the field of epidermal electronics had spawned an important class of wearable sensors that aim to deliver point of care diagnostics with comfortable and robust user experience. Conventional medical devices are bulky, rigid, and non-practical because they do not allow continuous monitoring of vital health parameters while continuing day to day life schedule. The researchers believed that the soft and curvilinear shape of human body needed skin like sensors that could be tattooed on the human body with an easy transfer process.
Figure: Skin conformal tattoo sensor for wearable application
Apart from pursuing his research on sensors, Dr. Kumar is also training students in cutting-edge research in biosensor technologies while actively engaging them in the development of tools for bio-research and clinical diagnosis.
[Publication link: (https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.0c00647)
For more details, contact Dr. Saurabh Kumar
(Email: saurabh2203@iisc.ac.in, sau2203.inspire@gmail.com).]