Engineering and IT researchers from Monash University have combined nanotechnology and AI to create wearable technology for remote health monitoring.

They came up with an ultra-thin wearable patch that is worn on the neck to measure speech, neck movement and touch, as well as breathing and heart rates. It does this using a frequency/amplitude-based neural network called Deep Hybrid-Spectro, which automatically monitors multiple biometrics from a single signal.

WHY IT MATTERS

In a study, the wearable patch was found to disentangle and monitor 11 human health signals with an accuracy of 93%. According to the researchers, this technology could change how remote healthcare is delivered by detecting just five physiological activities associated with the human throat.

"Emerging soft electronics have the potential to serve as second-skin-like wearable patches for monitoring human health vitals, designing perception robotics, and bridging interactions between natural and [AI]," said Wenlong Cheng, lead researcher and Monash University professor. 

MARKET SNAPSHOT

A similar Australian invention, a lab-in-a-patch, is designed for continuous diagnostic monitoring. Developed by Nutromics, the wearable patch uses DNA sensor technology to track multiple targets in the human body, including disease biomarkers and hard-to-dose drugs.

Researchers from Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology also developed a stretchable skin patch that can pick up real-time heart rate signals that is 2.4 times stronger than a fixed silicon sensor.

Meanwhile, Indian medtech company Dozee recently announced that it is coming up with an AI-powered ECG patch for cardiac monitoring, adding to its portfolio of remote monitoring solutions.