Stretchy silicon sticker monitors your heartbeat

wearable heart rate monitor

This stretchy, wearable device sticks to a patient’s skin and records and stores heart rate data in binary code.

Jaemin Kim

Putting on a heart monitor could one day be as easy as slapping on a temporary tattoo. A bioengineering team from South Korea lay out their design of a wearable, stretchable array that can monitor and store heart rate data January 1 in Science Advances.

The team used gold nanoparticles and stretchy silicon circuits to power teeny tiny electrocardiogram sensors that record and monitor a patient’s heart rate. The whole ultrathin device attaches to the skin like a sticker or a temporary tattoo and performed well during exercise stress tests on people.

The flexible heart rate monitor represents a trend in wearable technology that can withstand the stretch and strain of human body movement.

Helen Thompson is the multimedia editor. She has undergraduate degrees in biology and English from Trinity University and a master’s degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University.

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