Also, the fact that they used paper doesn’t seem to have limited the type of wearables they could create. The team says there is a possibility of creating devices that monitor things like a person’s temperature and glucose level. Furthermore, sensors can operate in real time and provide robust data.
The benefits of a pen and paper based health monitor are twofold. The first is that the materials needed to create them are inexpensive and easily accessible. Unlike plastic and some of the other stuff we currently make medical wearables from, they also degrade quickly. Researchers see a future in which people use technology to get personalized care at home. It could also help with remote research, especially during a crisis like the one we now see with the coronavirus pandemic.
The usual caveats that accompany any recent research project apply here. It may be years before the team that invented the technology finds a way to commercialize it. They say their next step is to do more tests of the biomedical components.
