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Researchers are working to create skin-like electronics that use artificial intelligence to identify any potential emerging health issues.
The study's title, Intrinsically stretchable neuromorphic devices for on-body processing of health data with artificial intelligence, appeared in the journal Matter.
Although they are more and more prevalent, flexible, wearable electronics have not yet reached their full potential. This technology may soon allow for the application of precise medical sensors to the skin for health monitoring and diagnostics. It would be like always having access to a state-of-the-art medical facility.
A project involving the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory is creating a skin-like device (PME). Sihong Wang, an assistant professor in the UChicago PME programme with a joint appointment in the Nanoscience and Technology division of Argonne, is in charge of the research.
Future wearable electronics may be able to identify potential health issues, such as heart disease, cancer, or multiple sclerosis, even before overt symptoms manifest. Along with personalising the analysis of the tracked health data, the device could reduce the necessity for wireless transmission. According to the person's age, medical history, and other factors, the diagnosis for the same health measurements may vary, Wang said. "Such a diagnosis, with medical details
Even the greatest smartwatches today cannot collect and analyse the quantity of data that such a gadget would need to. Additionally, it would have to perform this data processing in a very small area while using very little power.
The researchers turned to neuromorphic computing to meet that demand. By using historical data sets and experience-based learning, this AI system simulates how the brain works. Its benefits include being compatible with stretchy materials, using less energy, and moving more quickly than other types of AI.
The team's struggle to incorporate the electronics into a flexible material that resembled skin was another significant obstacle. Any electronic gadget needs a semiconductor as its main component. This is often a solid silicon chip in modern stiff electronics used in computers and cell phones. Stretchable electronics require a semiconductor made of a material that is both incredibly flexible and electrically conductible.
The flexible gold nanowire electrodes and a thin plastic semiconductor layer make up the team's skin-like neuromorphic "chip." Their gadget performed as intended even when stretched to two times its regular size without developing any cracks.
For one test, the team created an AI device and trained it to differentiate between four different electrocardiogram (ECG) signals indicative of health issues and healthy signals. Following training, the machine was more than 95% accurate in recognising the ECG signals.
The plastic semiconductor was also subject to investigation on Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne, on beamline 8-ID-E. The molecules that make up the skin-like device material undergo reorganisation upon doubling in length, as demonstrated by exposure to a strong X-ray beam. These findings offered molecular-level knowledge to comprehend the characteristics of the substance.
According to Argonne physicist Joe Strzalka, the APS improvement will enhance the brightness of its X-ray beams by up to 500 times. We are eager to investigate the device material's interactions with charged particles and how the electrical potential of its surroundings changes when it is used under normal working settings. We'll have more of a movie of the material's structural reaction at the molecular level rather than a picture of it. It will be possible to assess how soft or hard the material gets in reaction to external effects thanks to the improved detectors and increased beamline brightness.
"Our device could one day change the game by allowing everyone to obtain their health status in a much more efficient manner, even though it still needs further development on a number of fronts.
