Tuesday, january28, 2014 | Wm

 

CZST continues with epidermal electronic demonstration

Scott Michael Stone
TECHNEWS WRITER

Imagine for a moment that you receive
a text message on your phone: a common
occurrence. You open up your phone to see
your brand new BodyBandage app saying “Your
wound is at fifty percent completion. Estimated
time until complete healing is ten hours.”

The message came from a thin
bandage on your arm. This isn’t a normal
bandage, but one fitted with electronics that
monitor skin temperature, muscle movement,
and cardiovascular activity. This isn’t science
fiction. It isn’t just around the corner. This
technology is now, and all that’s missing is the
app.

Last semester on November 12, the
Chicago Council on Science and Technology
presented “Body 8r Machine: Epidermal
Electronics,” a scientific event featuring the
research being conducted by Dr. John Rogers
and his colleagues at University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign.

Their research focuses on the
development of epidermal electronics: electronic
devices that possess the same mechanical
properties as human skin, meaning they can
stretch, flex, contort, bend, just as our skin does.

Cold, dreary

Although wearable electronics such as
pedometers have existed for decades, only now
are seamless connections to the skin’s surface
possible. The issue with normal electronics
is that they are composed of a base layer, or
substrate of silicon. Silicon is hard, and rigid,
unlike skin. Rogers’ solution was to stop using
silicon substrate and try a different method.

His team tried several different
materials, such as electrical polymers, before
discovering an interesting phenomenon. Using
silicon but making it extremely thin helps
maintain its properties, while allowing increased
flexibility. It isn’t stretchable though. To make it
stretch like skin, you have to stretch your own
mind a little.

Placing the silicon wires on top of a
piece of pre-stretched rubber makes the silicon
coil up like an accordion as the rubber relaxes,
and allows it to handle being stretched. Giving
the wires a snake—like structure allows them to
be contorted and bent like pinched skin. The
resulting product produces a strange effect.

It requires no adhesive as it connects
to the skin using Van der Waals forces, just as a
gecko can stick to a wall. There is no adhesive
to discomfort the skin, and the electronics peel
off with little pain or effort. But how do they
stay secure and in one piece before they’re

applied? The team turned to a common concept:
temporary tattoos.

Using a temporary tattoo, or its
backing, allows the electronics to be placed,
wetted, and bonded cleanly to the surface. It also
provides another nice effect. A temporary tattoo
can be placed over the electronics, hiding and
protecting them. Who doesn’t want a tattoo of
a pirate that’s also monitoring blood pressure?

Rogers was wearing several versions
of the device during the presentation.

The devices have numerous
applications, as a sensor adhered directly to
the body can monitor many important factors.
Sensors can pick anything up from muscle
movement to brain activity to pulse rate. They
can also detect signals that normal methods,
like a medical electrode, can’t easily detect.

Placing a sensor on the neck could
help detect speech. Rogers showed, through
several methods, that they are as effective as
conventional methods of monitoring currently
in use, but more comfortable, and at a fraction
of the cost.

Other possibilities were also
demonstrated, including monitoring body
temperature for sports and health, observation
of babies in neonatal intensive care, and
movement recording to control robotics. A

student of Rogers’ tested this concept, flying a
remote controlled helicopter around using only
his hands and forearms.

The uses of this technology are clear,
and it is quickly entering the market. Reebok has
started to integrate it into headgear and clothing
to detect trauma.

Reebok’s new Checklight system
is being used by both little league teams and
the Indianapolis Colts quarterbacks Matt
Hasselbeck and Andrew Luck. Other companies
are quickly getting involved as well. Perhaps
we’ll soon be seeing bandages that monitor
wounds, and inform patients about infections.

CZST is a major promoter of these and
other scientific topics. They help develop events
all around the city with the hope of promoting
scientific education and involvement. Their
topics include energy, technology, astronomy,
and many others.

Becoming a member, especially as
a student, has notable perks. Being informed
on current movements in science as well as
attending events provides networking options,
and news on technological innovations can help
inform students of new interests and focuses.

Visit c25t.org/membership for more
information, and c25t.org/media for video
coverage of their events.

winter weather here to stay

 

Photos by Nick Caldwell