|
Using a soupedup kids temporary tattoo,doctors and researchers can now painlessly monitor metabolic problems.It can be made in any shape from Superman to Disney princesses Mumbai Mirror Bureau mirrorfeedback@timesgroup.com Amedical sensor that attaches to the skin like a temporary tattoo could make it easier for doctors to detect metabolic problems in patients and for coaches to fine-tune athletes training routines.And the entire sensor comes in a thin,flexible package shaped like a smiley face. We wanted a design that could conceal the electrodes, says Vinci Hung,a PhD candidate at University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC),who helped create the new sensor. We also wanted to showcase the variety of designs that can be accomplished with this fabrication technique. The new tattoo-based solid-contact ion-selective electrode (ISE) is made using standard screen printing techniques and commercially available transfer tattoo paper,the same kind of paper that usually carries tattoos of Spiderman or Disney princesses. In the case of the smiley face sensor,the eyes function as the working and reference electrodes,and the ears are contacts to which ameasurement device can connect. Hung contributed to the work while in the lab of Joseph Wang,a distinguished professor at the University of California San Diego. It was a wonderful opportunity, Hung said.She worked directly with Wang,who is well-known for his innovations in the field of nanoengineering and is a pioneer in biosensor technology. Kagan Kerman,assistant professor of bioanalytical chemistry and Hungs PhD supervisor at UTSC,is co-author of an article describing the work which has been accepted for publicationintheRoyalSocietyofChemistrysjournal,Analyst. The sensor Hung helped make can detect changes in the skins pH levels in response to metabolic stress from exertion.Similar devices,calledion-selectiveelectrodes (ISEs),arealready used by medical researchers and athletic trainers.Theycangivecluestounderlyingmetabolic diseasessuchasAddisonsdisease,orsimplysignalwhetheranathleteisfatiguedordehydrated during training.The devices are also useful in the cosmetics industry for monitoring skin secretions. But existing devices can be bulky,or hard to keep adhered to sweating skin.The new tattoobased sensor stayed in place during tests,and continued to work even when the people wearing them were exercising and sweating extensively.The tattoos were applied in a similar way to regular transfer tattoos,right down to using a paper towel soaked in warm water to remove the base paper. To make the sensors,Hung and her colleagues used a standard screen printer to lay down consecutive layers of silver,carbon fibremodified carbon and insulator inks,followed by electropolymerization of aniline to complete the sensing surface. By using different sensing materials,the tattoos can also be modified to detect other components of sweat,such as sodium,potassium or magnesium,all of which are of potential interesttoresearchersinmedicineandcosmetology. 
Researcher Vinci Hung helped create the smiley face sensor shown here in the box at upper right |
Smiley tattoo hides new medical sensor
Virtual-Reality Helmet Gives 360-Degree View
t's about as glamorous as wearing an old-style TV set on your head, but the dome-shaped headgear from Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp.
isn't meant to be fashionable.
It's designed to show images in a 360-degree view — synched with the motion of the wearer's head to deliver the illusion of being someplace else: a cityscape at night, for example, or outer space.
• Click here for FOXNews.com's Patents and Innovation Center.
The still experimental 6-pound bubble-headed helmet has infrared sensors
on top that detect which way the wearer's head is moving.A projector in the back of the helmet displays corresponding images on a 16-inch screen right before the user's eyes.
Although the headgear looks bulky, it's actually smaller than older versions of the same technology, Toshiba spokeswoman Kaori Hiraki said.
But Toshiba has no plans yet to turn the helmet into a commercial virtual-reality
product.Eventually, Toshiba believes, it will come in handy for computer games or enhancing the impact of movies.
Voyager 1 still has two to three years to travel before reaching the boundary that separates the solar system from the rest of space.
|
SET TO CROSS THE BOUNDARY
Voyager 1 explores unknown region Journeys To The Edge Of Solar System Before Entering Interstellar Space Los Angeles: The unstoppable Voyager 1 spacecraft has sailed into a new realm of the solar system that scientists did not know existed.Voyager 1 and its twin,Voyager 2,have been speeding away from the Sun toward interstellar space,or the space between stars. Over the summer,Voyager 1,which is farther along in its journey,crossed into this new region where the effects from the outside can be felt.We do believe this may be the very last layer between us and interstellar space, said chief scientist Ed Stone of the Nasa jet propulsion laboratory,which manages the spacecraft. Stone presented Voyager 1s latest location at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.Voyager 1 is on track to become the first manmade object to exit the solar system.Exactly when that day will come is unknown,partly because theres no precedent.Stone estimated Voyager 1 still has two to three years to travel before reaching the boundary that separates the solar system from the rest of space. Scientists were surprised to discover the unexpected region at the fringes of the solar system.For the past year,the team has seen tantalizing clues that heralded a new space environment.The amount of high-energy cosmic rays streaming in from outside the solar system spiked.Meanwhile,the level of lower-energy particles originating from inside the solar system briefly dropped.Because there was no change in the direction of the magnetic field lines,scientists were confident that Voyager 1 had not yet broken through.They have dubbed this new zone a kind of magnetic highway. The Voyagers launched 35 years ago on a mission to tour the outer planets.Though Voyager 2 currently 9 billion miles from the Sun launched first,Voyager 1 is closer to leaving solar system behind.PTI 
|
International [Next]
Copyright © 2012 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. All rights reserved.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)