Engineers Made a Medical Wearable Using a Paper and a Pencil
As we all know, a pencil is considered to be among the most significant technologies that humans have invented. For centuries, it’s being used by people all around the world to record their ideas and thoughts and to share them with the world. But now, we might get much more advantage from it than just writing or drawing down our thoughts. According to the latest study by engineers at the University of Missouri, a medical wearable can be made by just using a pencil and paper.
Yes, what you read is right! Shockingly, the combination of pencils and paper can be used to create devices that might be used to monitor personal health.
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How Medical Wearable Works?
The study says that the pencils with cores made from more than 90% graphite conduct a remarkable amount of energy. When you write with it on an office supply paper. Moreover, the graphite can double as a sensing electrode. While the paper seems to be a good supporting structure. The engineers in the team also revealed that pencils with 93% graphite content worked the best.
Along with that, the fact they used paper wouldn’t limit the type of device they could create. The study also says that pencils and paper together have the potential to make devices that monitor things. Also, the sensors can work in real-time and provide robust data.
The typical approach for developing an on-skin biomedical medical wearable is usually complex. Also, it is often expensive to produce. In contrast, our approach is low-cost and very simple. We can make a similar device using widely available pencils and paper.
The advantages of a pencil and paper-based health monitors are many. One of them is that the materials needed to create them are cheap and readily available. Unlike plastic and other materials we currently make health devices from, they also degrade quickly. The engineers see a future in which personalized home care can be attained by using this technology. The latest medical wearable technology can also play a major role in remote research like during the COVID-19.
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Another benefit of such a device is that the paper can decompose in just a week. Not like the devices nowadays, that is made of components that cannot be broken down easily.
Via: Engadget
