Swiss scientists have created nanotech-based electronic chips that are so flexible they can be wrapped around a hair strand. Based atETH Zürich, the researchers were able to accomplish this feat by creating thin layers of stacked polyvinyl that is topped with an electronic circuit. When submerged in water, two of the polyvinyl layers dissolve, leaving a tiny circuit embedded on a sheet ofparylene that is one micrometer thick. The researchers found that the transistors still function when wrapped around a human hair. The flexible electronics can adhere to a range of materials. Potentially suited for wearables and a whole range of medical applications, the chip has already been used in an artificial eye and in a glaucoma monitor.Folk says, “The whole wearables space, you know, FDA's offered some good and clear guidance on phone apps. Where we are right now, wearables are generally a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes and compasses. This is current technology; a lot of it is determined by the price point. There's actually a lot more that you can do, in terms of measuring things in a lot more sensitive fashion, but we're waiting for the price point to come down.”
“Wearables are the area everybody's talking about now., Folk continues. “There's some cynicism understandably, but I think the capabilities of wearables are going to increase pretty rapidly. Then there are a lot of technologies that have been incubating for a long time. I think we'll start to see those roll out here over the course of the next few years. Some really cool, really different things are on the way. I think it's an area of tremendous innovation right now: I think that's really exciting.”
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