Researchers at Harvard Medical School and MIT have created smart ink tattoos that are capable of monitoring the average person's health. The ink used in these tattoos can determine the level of dehydration or sugar intake, and change color depending on the chemistry of the body's interstitial fluid.
How does it work?
The team was able to develop biosensitive inks that have the ability to chance color depending on the amount of sugar, water, or sodium in the body, alerting the person when one of these reaches a dangerously low or high level. As glucose concentrate increases and decreases, the green ink that would monitor these levels would turn to brown. Additionally, the pH sensitive ink will change from purple to pink. The researchers at Harvard have tattooed various tests on pieces of pig skin, recording the changes in color in response to different levels of pH and glucose.
What does it improve?
These tattoos could very well replace the need for wearable health monitors in the very near future. There is always the risk of a low battery or a problem with wirelessly connecting the devices, not to mention the fact that they do not always perfectly sync with the body's chemistry. With the smart ink tattoos, there will be no issue with battery, connectivity, or an inaccurate monitor. The team at Harvard believes that they will be able to create temporary tattoos for short-term monitoring, or longer lasting, even permanent tattoos for chronic conditions. One of the lead researchers for the project, Ali Yetisen, believes that these tattoos could even be beneficial to astronauts, as these tattoos would make for much simpler heath monitoring for them.
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