[Weekly_Wearable] Breakthrough Tech : 3rd Week of July 2025
"Innovative Patch that Adhesives Stronger by Eating Sweat: The More You Sweat, the Stronger Your Adhesion"
1. Research Background
Wearable medical devices (e.g., blood glucose monitors, heart rate monitors) are essential to users, but existing adhesives can cause skin irritation (redness, inflammation, itchiness). In response, researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a new water-based adhesive system. It is based on polyelectrolyte composite (PEC), which is safe for the skin and has adhesive properties that are enhanced by sweat.
2. Adhesion Mechanism and Characteristics
Water-based PEC Composition: Softer and less irritating than existing solvent-based adhesives.
Interaction with Sweat: Salt in sweat strengthens the PEC membrane structure, so the adhesive strength increases with more moisture. It is a unique characteristic that the more sweat there is, the stronger the adhesive strength, unlike the commonly used absorbent that weakens in water.
Adhesion Strength at the Level of 3M Tegaderm: The researchers reported that PEC has the same adhesive strength as 3M Tegaderm, a commercial medical patch, while causing much less skin irritation.
3. Research Team and Support Information
Lead Investigator: Dr. Jaime Grunlan (Texas A&M)
Research Collaboration: Fingerprint is the result of collaboration with full-time PhD students and bioengineering experts.
Research Support: Consultation with PATHS‑UP Engineering Research Center and US Department of Defense SBIR Phase II (Army) research grant
Publication: Published in Macromolecular Rapid Communications.
4. Prospects for Field Applications
Wearables for Chronic Disease Patients: Stable, Long-Term Medical Device Attachment for Diabetic and Cardiovascular Patients Without Concerns about Skin Irritation
Overcoming Limitations of Existing Water-Soluble Adhesives: Strong Adhesion Even in Sweat-Reliant Industrial/Sports Environments
Commercialization Expectations: Still in Early Research Stage, but Potential for a Major Change in the Commercial Medical Patch Market in the Future
5. Conclusion
This new PEC-based adhesive patch defies the conventional wisdom that sweat heat → adhesive strength increases, minimizing skin irritation while maintaining adhesive strength comparable to 3M Tegaderm. This is a groundbreaking invention that will elevate the convenience and effectiveness of wearable medical devices to the next level.
While there are challenges ahead, including clinical trials, mass production technology, manufacturing costs, and regulatory approvals, if this technology becomes commercially viable, it could dramatically improve the user experience of medical wearables.
For more details, check out the original article.
OhmBody Wearable Neurostimulator: Revolution in Menstrual Pain Relief
1. Product Overview
Purpose: Alleviate various discomforts experienced during the menstrual cycle, such as menstrual pain, excessive bleeding, fatigue, and mood swings, without medication
Form: Designed as a compact earpiece that can be worn on the ear, very discreet and practical
2. Operating Principle
Regulating sympathetic and parasympathetic responses: Simultaneously stimulating the vagus nerve and trigeminal nerve
Inducing autonomic nervous system balance: Inducing the body's nervous system to a stable mode—i.e., from stress response to 'calm mode'
Scientific Basis: Stabilizing the autonomic nervous system through nerve stimulation is effective in pain relief and emotional regulation
3. Clinical Results
Clinical Trial: Most participants reported positive responses, such as reduced menstrual pain complaints, reduced bleeding, and mood stabilization
Clinical Implications: Presenting a new alternative to relieve menstrual symptoms in a non-hormonal, non-analgesic way
4. Key Trends and Industrial Implications
1) Strengthening pain management without medication
Among consumers Movements to reduce drug dependency are on the rise
Wearable neurostimulation technology is gaining attention as a representative solution to realize this
2) Expansion of wearable therapy devices
Beyond the diagnosis and fitness stage, therapeutic wearables are emerging as an important axis of the medical device market
Expansion as a non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical treatment method for personal health management
3) Personalized femtech
Providing personalized management of menstrual cycles
Expansion from traditional medicine-centered to data-based personal solutions
5. Industrial scalability and strategic implications
Femtech: One of the healthcare markets that manage women's menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause, with increasing demand for technology-driven innovation
Wearable health tech: Devices with biosignal detection and stimulation functions are becoming closer to medical devices
Alternative medicine and digital therapeutic devices (DTx): Adoption of digital and physical approaches is increasing due to concerns about drug side effects or long-term use
✅ Conclusion
Oumbody's neurostimulation wearable has high potential in that it relieves menstrual pain and related symptoms in a non-pharmaceutical manner.
In particular, the user-friendly design and clinically proven effects can emerge as a new option for consumers who have been relying on existing treatments. This can be a turning point leading to innovation in healthcare in a wide range, not just in the Femtech market.
For more details, check out the original article.
The Wearable Revolution: The Advent of Flexible Electrochromic Technology
The recent rapid growth of smart wearables has driven the development of electrochromic (EC) technology that is flexible, offers fast color switching, and implements various colors.
Researchers in China summarize these latest findings in a review paper published in KeAi's journal 'Wearable Electronics'.
Wearable systems require flexibility, energy efficiency, and responsiveness, and EC devices provide dynamic visual feedback while meeting all these requirements.
Key advances include the combination of novel low-dimensional EC materials such as WO3 nanowires and V2O5 nanosheets with flexible conductors such as silver nanowires and carbon networks, which enhance mechanical flexibility and optical performance. In addition, the development of solid and gel polymer electrolytes plays an important role in increasing flexibility and stability despite the challenges of conductive and interfacial integration.
The device architecture has also evolved from multilayer stacks to thinner planar and reflective designs, simplifying fabrication and improving performance under various lighting conditions.
A key breakthrough has been the development of electrochromic fibers that can be produced in long lengths and seamlessly integrated into textiles, opening up the possibility of truly wearable displays.
Beyond simple color changing, some EC materials now offer energy storage capabilities and broad spectrum modulation for applications such as camouflage and thermal regulation, making them powerful tools for future soft and intelligent wearables.
For more details, check out the original article.
Wearable Sensors Keep You Safe in the Hot Sun: Atlanta Researchers Develop Innovative Technology to Prevent Heatstroke
Researchers from Emory University and Georgia Tech have developed an innovative wearable sensor that could help outdoor workers stay safe in extreme heat. The two-inch patch, worn on the chest, monitors the effects of heat on the body and collects relevant data to help reduce the risk of heat-related illnesses.
The device tracks physical activity, oxygenation, respiration, heart rate, and skin temperature, alerting the wearer to rest and rehydrate. It connects to the wearer’s phone via Bluetooth and uses machine learning to analyze the data collected from the sensor and predict heat-related health risks, particularly those associated with intense physical labor and high-temperature environments, such as dehydration and acute kidney injury.
The idea for the sensor came from a community-based study conducted by Emory University School of Nursing Professor Roxana Chikas with farm workers in Florida and Georgia.
The researchers were funded by a five-year, $2.46 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to conduct this project. The study found that wearing a cool bandana around the neck helped reduce heat more effectively than a cooling vest, and that workers who drank five liters of water with electrolytes did not show signs of dehydration, while workers who drank the same amount of plain water did.
This technology is expected to contribute greatly to improving the health and safety of workers working outdoors.
For more details, check out the original article.
Apple's Innovation: Event-Based Camera Sensor and In-the-Air Gesture Technology for Mac Control
Apple has filed a new patent for an event-based camera sensor that can detect and interpret in-the-air gestures on Mac computers in real time. The technology aims to address the problem that conventional frame-based cameras have with accurately recognizing rapid hand movements.
Traditional frame-based cameras have difficulty accurately and efficiently recognizing fast-moving hand gestures due to their slow frame rates. In contrast, event cameras capture data as events occur at each pixel, providing a much faster data capture rate.
However, event cameras also have their challenges. The vast amount of irrelevant event data generated in the physical environment can hinder fast and accurate gesture identification. Apple has come up with a solution that combines event-based and frame-based cameras to address this issue.
In this system, the frame-based camera helps identify 'regions of interest', such as the user's hand, allowing the event camera to focus on relevant data. The system also uses infrared (IR) light to reduce noise and adopts a 'block-based tracking' approach that groups events into blocks instead of tracking individual points, improving accuracy.
This collaborative approach is expected to overcome the limitations that arise when the two types of cameras are used alone, and provide Mac users with a more intuitive and efficient control method.
For more details, check out the original article.
Self-charging ion sensor: Driving innovation in wearable technology
As wearable devices become increasingly smaller and more powerful, heat management is emerging as a key challenge. Existing sensors have limitations in that they depend on external power and lack flexibility, and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) also have problems with their performance deteriorating at high temperatures.
However, a groundbreaking self-charging ion nanogenerator sensor, the 'iTS-TENG', has now emerged to solve these problems. The sensor uses a composite ionic elastomer composed of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and ionic liquid to generate an electrical signal based on temperature changes without an external power source. This innovative design allows the iTS-TENG to monitor temperature in real time up to 70°C, and it is transparent, flexible, and stretchable, making it ideal for integration into smart textiles or skin-attached health monitors.
The iTS-TENG's outstanding performance stems from the properties that change as TPU approaches its glass transition temperature. During this process, free ions are released and an electric double layer is formed, which significantly enhances the capacitance and output of the sensor. This provides a scalable and autonomous platform for next-generation electronics, and has the potential to open up the future of wearable technology.
Of course, challenges such as uneven mechanical input energy remain, but future designs aim to stabilize performance by incorporating improved mechanical structures or AI-based signal processing. This technology is expected to bring about significant changes in the wearable device field in the future.
For more details, check out the original article.
Opening the Future of Wearable AI Sensors: DorsaVi Confirms RRAM Technology Suitability
dorsaVi's self-developed DVL resistive random access memory (RRAM) technology has proven to be the optimal solution for embedded, wearable, and AI-based devices due to its high-speed and low-power characteristics. Compared to other industrial technologies at the 40nm node, RRAM has shown superior performance in terms of speed, data retention, and endurance. Its high-speed switching of up to 200ns and ultra-low energy consumption make it an attractive alternative in edge computing.
By integrating RRAM into wearable sensors, DorsaVi expects to dramatically reduce latency, improve power efficiency, and enable more autonomous decision-making in edge devices. The technology operates in both binary and analog modes to support memory and neuromorphic computing, opening up possibilities for future fields such as robotics, adaptive sensing, and advanced edge-AI systems. This will make RRAM a key technology in Dolsabi’s embedded intelligence roadmap, enhancing sensor responsiveness, power efficiency, and on-device computing for real-time biomechanics and motion monitoring.
Gernot Abel, President of Dolsabi, said that this evaluation supports the company’s goal to deliver a next-generation, ultra-efficient AI-based sensor platform. He emphasized that integrating RRAM into edge-AI platforms is a key step in the evolution of intelligent, low-power motion systems, enhancing existing solutions and creating new commercial and technical opportunities.
Dolsabi plans to continue testing RRAM’s long-term stability, software integration, and miniaturization for commercial deployment and expansion into new markets. RRAM, a next-generation non-volatile memory, stores data through resistive state switching and is a leader in the convergence of conventional memory and adaptive learning, making it an essential technology for applications that require power efficiency and real-world adaptability, such as medical wearable sensors, IoT, neuromorphic processors, and advanced robotics systems.
For more details, check out the original article.
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