Care You Can Wear: Wearable Disease-Hunting Sensor In Development

Like it or not, wearable technology is going to be more and more of a presence in the future. Soon, our gadgetry may be able to directly help humanity in a new and very useful way: wearable tech that can identify diseases.

According to phys.org, a team at the University of Michigan has been developing a wearable vapor sensor that interacts with the body's chemical elements to identify issues like high blood pressure, diabetes, anemia or lung disease. Chemical signatures of compounds like acetone or nitric oxide could tip the wearer off to impending health issues.

Using graphene, the sensors can detect anomalies in molecular quantities as small as a few parts per billion. This could be useful not only for disease threats, but also for monitoring chemical leaks in a lab environment, or assessing a location's air quality.

Team member Zhaohui Zhong, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, said, "With our platform technology, we can measure a variety of chemicals at the same time, or modify the device to target specific chemicals. There are limitless possibilities."

As for your healthcare a'la carte, such devices may soon become ubiquitous. The wearable tech market, including devices like Google Glass, is expected to surge to $14 billion dollars' worth of revenue in the next four years.

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