Saturday, August 6, 2016

New Tattoo Skin Patch Measures Alcohol Levels

A team of researchers at University of California San Diego has designed a “temporary tattoo” with an electronic sensor that allows drinkers to measure their alcohol levels.


      We depend on our phones for everything else, now we can have them tell us when we are to drunk to drive or just plain its time to go.   I do like the  simplicity of this device, in that it is not a huge bulky unit.  If the person wearing it will listen to what it is telling them and call a cab or uber to get home, then this will be a huge help in keeping the intoxicated off of the road.  I fell that the less cumbersome the devices are, the more apt that people will use them.  This only takes a patch and a smartphone.  I only hope that the people that use this are smart enough to listen to the device when it is time to stop.

     The new alcohol sensor skin patch could measure alcohol levels within 15 minutes.   The University of California San Diego researchers have created a wearable skin sensor that can accurately and quickly measure a person’s blood alcohol level from sweat and transmit the data wirelessly.   The tattoo releases a drug called pilocarpine, which generates sweat on the surface of the skin, allowing the device electrochemically detects the alcohol level. The portable electronic board then transmits the information to a mobile device via Bluetooth.