Stretchable, Wearable Sensor Created from from Chewing Gum #WearableWednesdays
Body sensors were something that you would see in a doctor’s office. The healthcare professionals would use it to track your heart rate, take ECG etc. But now it has become ubiquitous. Widely available sensors these days can not only track your heart rate but can track your sleep, steps, look for abnormal health activity and so on. Smartwatch manufacturers are loading up these devices with all sorts of health trackers.
As smartwatches are becoming popular, demand for stretchable sensors is growing. Sensors found in smartwatches today are very sensitive and detect the slightest movement, but many are made out of metal. That means when you twist or stretch them too much, they stop working. But for sensors to be able to monitor the full range of a body’s bending and stretching, they require a lot more give.
A number of research institutes have developed novel stretchable, bendable sensors that could be used on smartwatches. And now, researchers from Canada’s Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba and the University of Manitoba have developed a new, super stretchy sensor by pairing chewing gum and carbon nanotubes. The innovative elastic, attachable, and cost-efficient carbon nanotube (CNT)-based strain gauge can be efficiently used as bodily motion sensors.
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