Wearable technology is nothing new. Perhaps you or someone you know wears a smartwatch. Many of these can monitor certain health matters such as heart rate, but at present they cannot measure chemical signatures which could be useful for medical diagnosis. Smartwatches or more specialized medical monitors are also relatively bulky and often quite costly. Prompted by such shortfalls, a team comprising researchers from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Tokyo sought a new way to sense various health conditions and environmental matters in a noninvasive and cost-effective manner.

"A few years ago, I came across a fascinating method for producing robust stretchable electronic components from another research group at the University of Tokyo," said Limei Liu, a visiting scholar at the time of the study and currently a lecturer at Yangzhou University in China. "These devices are spun from ultrafine threads coated with gold, so can be attached to the skin without issue as gold does not react with or irritate the skin in any way. As sensors, they were limited to detecting motion however, and we were looking for something that could sense chemical signatures, biomarkers and drugs. So we built upon this idea and created a noninvasive sensor that exceeded our expectations and inspired us to explore ways to improve its functionality even further."