Sensor that tracks your health

Researchers at the University in Illinois and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have built a patch made of flexible electronics that sticks to human skin and could calculate body temperature, monitor blood circulation and even tell you when you need to wear sunscreen.

It´s made of plastic and thousands of tiny liquid crystals, which change color in response to body heat, and since there are around 3,600 of them, they can actually depict a heat map.

The device could reveal problems such as poor circulation in the extremities, which can be a symptom of diabetes, or an early sign of heart disease. It could also be used to detect some types of injuries in the skin and tissue just underneath the sensor; and all data would be presented in a very useable format. A device like this that could be attached to a person´s skin, and since it is so unobtrusive that people forget they are wearing it, it would be a great help to physicians, researchers say.

The device is so small that it doesn't need a battery. There's a wireless and flexible power system on the back, which can run on power from a remote source. The most important part is that the cost of the device should be relatively low, since the sensor doesn't use any exotic materials or parts. We would be talking about a few dollars.

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