A rapidly self-specific electronic skin (E-) which continuously collects electrophysiological bioinformation for assessment by automatic learning could improve personal monitoring of health of health.
Its development, reported in Scientific advancesCould widen the scope of e-skins, the application of which has been limited by the impact of daily wear on functionality.
The new e-skin stucks in a transparent way to the epidermis and can display results on a mobile device, allowing continuous portable monitoring which includes surface electromyography (SEMG), electrocardiography (ECG) and monitoring of movements joints.
It recovers 80% of its functionality in just 10 seconds of physical damage, without the need for external stimuli.
“Our self-careful electronic skin approaches a key barrier in portable biodetection by guaranteeing real-time and uninterrupted physiological monitoring, even after mechanical damage,” said researcher Yangzhi Zhu, PHD, director of the Biomedical Device Center ‘Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation, Interior precision medicine.
“This capacity is particularly important for personalized medicine, where continuous and reliable biometric data can improve the management of diseases specific to the patient, facilitate early intervention and optimize treatment strategies.”
The extendable skin is mainly made from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), which has been chosen for its softness, breathability and self-protective properties against unfavorable loading events.
This TPU “vertebral column” is made up of both soft and hard segments, with soft segments offering flexibility and hard segments contributing to mechanical resistance.
Its self-healing nature is crucial to deal with the turnaround, folding and stretching which leads to mechanical constraint as well as cuts and scratches that can occur accidentally.
Thermoplasticity allows high chain mobility at high temperatures that help the bond reform and support the self-healing, with robust hydrogen bonds in TPU facilitating the rapid reconnection of damaged areas without the need for external stimuli.
The integration of the disulfide of bis (4-hydroxyphenyl) in the TPU matrix gives self-healing capacities by promoting the formation of intracellular disulfide links.
The integration of the ISOPHORON (IPDI) diisocyanate in the TPU matrix has improved the flexibility and mobility of polymer channels, which still helped the self-healing.
The mild segments of polytetramethylene ether glycol (PTMEG) are incorporated to improve softness and reach a tissue type consistency, while a network of nanofils in soft silver facilitates direct contact with the skin.
The transparent incorporation of AI and algorithms integrated with wireless electronics has improved the value of the skin E to assess health and for rehabilitation therapies.
A two -layer neural network model (CNN) has been developed to learn SEMG signal models and identify the muscle state associated with fatigue, potentially offering an early alert system for the risk of injury associated with this.
Zhu summed up: “The capacity of the e-skin to resist daily wear and extreme conditions guarantees long-term clinical viability, which makes it a promising tool for precision health care, including AI diagnostics, AI, remote monitoring of patients and evaluation of fatigue in real time. ”