New Chem-Phys Patch Tracks Both Biochemical And Electrical Signals In The Body

Are we close to the day when a real life Tony Stark will have to monitor the biochemical reactions inside his body to maintain his brain-body combo as Ironman? Researchers from the University of California San Diego might be on the verge of implementing a very distinct section pertaining to Jarvis, the mechanic's right hand. A research group at the same university has for the first time, developed a wearable flexible monitoring system that could completely scan the biochemical reactions and electrical signals running inside one’s body.


The tiny wearable circuit can track electrocardiogram (EKG) heart signals and measures a biochemical compound, lactate in real-time that could provide a detailed diagram of physical functions performed by the body. Amusingly, the device could be worn in the middle of the chest, just like Iron man's arc reactor. The device works wirelessly with most of the gadgets like smartwatch, smartphone and laptop. In fact, it can literally transmit data from the body's biochemical and electrical signals using Bluetooth technology.

The team consists of engineers from both the Nano engineering and electrical engineering department. Electrical engineering Professor, Patrick Mercier explained that the tiny electrical board encompassing numerous sensors is the primary design of a system which screens every single chemical, physical and electrophysiological signals that pass through the human body. Interestingly, most devices keep track of one / two, however here it would track as many known to us until now. There is no such confirmed depiction of any self-modification/ upgrading concept. Also it is not clear whether it would only track or also do something about new-found oddities, in case the user is incapable.

Physician Dr Kevin Patrick, Director of the "Centre for Wireless and Population Health Systems" at UC San Diego marked the invention as a phenomenal effort to target ranges of areas together. The team explained that the main challenge was to avoid any interaction based effects of two or more signals, which were achieved using a number of tests and flawless instrumentation.

Named as Chem-Phys patch, the main electronic component to be placed on the skin has a flexible polyester sheet fixed at the bottom, which points to the chest in order to directly measure the lactate content. Two EKJ measuring sensors are placed at 4 centimetres to result in the optimized performance with no error factor. When the perfect value is achieved in terms of orientation and design, the patch was connected to the electronic board already powered by a micro-controller and Bluetooth chip set which ultimately works, as the interfacing supports to transmit data from patch to laptop/smartphone/smartwatch.

During the testing phase, the instruments were placed in three men specimens for a period of 15 to 30 minutes while they were subjected to physical exercise. The data gathered regarding their fitness closely matched with commercial smart wears, validating their functionality. The team replied that the device would be further improved to suit the commercial standards. The research was published in the‘Nature Communications’ journal and will be funded by the NIH/National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Samsung, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.

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