Apps and wearable technology for health, fitness and wellness were popping up all over the place this past summer. And the trend isn’t expected to stop. The entire health industry is going through a tech-revolution and with more startups and makers focusing efforts to build stronger intelligent products consumerism in healthcare will follow the upward trajectory.
Graphene is about to do to material science what Nike fuel bands have done for wearable fitness tracking. Researchers from Trinity College Dublin and the University of Surrey in the UK have transformed traditional and highly elastic rubber bands with grapheme into a sensor that provides electromechanical responses to movement when deformed – called the G-band.
In a world where activity monitory hasn’t shown the consumerism of products that flex to the forms of a complex human body, the G-band opens the door to some revolutionary possibilities. According to study co-author, Professor Jonathan Coleman from Trinity College, Dublin:
“This stretchy material senses motion such as breathing, pulse and joint movement and could be used to create lightweight sensor suits for vulnerable patients such as premature babies, making it possible to remotely monitor their subtle movements and alert a doctor to any worrying behaviors.”