Photo credit: UCSD
Engineers at the University of California, San Diego have created a thin electrical patch, a smart sticker if you will, that attaches to the rim of a coffee mug or water bottle. This turns the whole thing into a health tracker. Grip the cup as usual and it will draw in a small amount of sweat from your fingertips to measure your vitamin C levels.
The patch works because your fingertips sweat more than most other parts of your skin. Hundreds of tiny glands there provide enough moisture to keep things going without you breaking a sweat. A soft gel layer on the patch soaks up the liquid. Inside a small fuel cell converts the natural molecules in sweat into electricity for the rest of the device. That energy powers a sensor that detects vitamin C and sends the info to your laptop via Bluetooth in a few minutes. Drink some OJ, then hold the cup again and it will detect the difference in your levels almost immediately.
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They tested it on cheap plastic cups filled with juice. People held them, drank, and then held again. The patch detected an increase in vitamin C every time. These tests ran for over 2 hours on nothing but sweat and the results matched a lab test. One grad student tested it with a boba tea cup, pressed his fingers down while talking and the data flowed normally.
It’s inexpensive (a few cents) because it prints like a label, and each sheet of flexible plastic contains everything: sweat gel, a fuel cell with black arches, and a little board for signal transmission. Throw it away after use, or peel it off the next day. In locations where a single vitamin test costs $50, this provides alternatives for anyone who can’t afford testing.
Vitamin C deficiency affects people all around the world, causing them to heal slowly or have weakened immune systems. Standard techniques of detection require blood draws, which can be frightening or prohibitively expensive for routine use. Instead, this patch measures sweat, which your body produces for free. Add another sensor to track more than just vitamin C. Sugars, salts, and even stress markers may fit in the same configuration. Connect it to your phone, and the readings appear on the screen as you scroll. Hold a water bottle at the gym to monitor how your hydration levels fluctuate. Pour tea in the evening to see if you need a boost.
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