Right now fitness wearables can track a variety of things, like calories burnt, our heart rate, how far we’ve run, the number of steps we’ve taken, and etc. However in the future, don’t be surprised if your fitness wearables will soon be able to take into account your bodily fluids, thanks to flexible sweat sensors developed by researchers at UC Berkeley.
As the name implies, these are sweat sensors that have been designed to be flexible, meaning that they can be worn strapped around your wrist, or even worn around your head like a headband. The sensor will be able to measure skin temperature, electrolytes, and metabolites in your sweat.
It could also potentially be used to track your chemical levels in your bodily fluids, which might come in handy as it could potentially notify you if it detects that there is something wrong, like a chemical imbalance, for example. However the downside to these sensors is that right now, the prototype is rather bulky and not exactly discreet.
However the researchers claim that they should be able to shrink it down to a smaller and less-obvious chip. When exactly that will happen remains to be seen, but it does sound like the future of health wearables just got a bit more exciting.
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