A bioengineering breakthrough: Electronic circuits that are integrated with your skin

A team of engineers announced recently a discovery that could change the face of electronics drastically, called the "epidermal electronic system" (EES). It is an electric circuit that can be mounted on the skin and will bend, stretch and twist, along with take input from the movements of your body. This thing has potential applications ranging from medical diagnostics to video game control and accelerated wound-healing. Engineers John Rogers and Todd Coleman who worked on the discovery say that it's a huge step towards erasing the divide that separates machine and human. 

One of the most promising applications for a device such as this is medical use. Rogers says, "Our paper demonstrates our ability to monitor ECG (as a monitor of heart disease and metabolism), EMG (as a measure of, among other things, gait during walking) and EEG (as a measure of cognitive state and awareness). We have also shown that these same devices can stimulate muscle tissue to induce contractions. When combined with sensing/monitoring, such modes of use could be valuable in physical rehabilitation. We also have interest in sleep monitoring (for sleep apnea), and neo-natal care (monitoring premature babies, in particular)."

Coleman (who co-led the project with Rogers)  also says, "Within the realm of biomedical applications, one can imagine providing benefits to patients with muscular or neurological disorders like ALS. For example, in the Science article, our research group used the device…to control a computer strategy game with muscles in the throat by speaking the commands. In principle, the same function could have been achieved by simply mouthing commands rather than speaking them out loud. As such, this capability could be provided to ALS patients so that they could "speak" through an epidermal electronics system that is un-noticeable to them, and invisible to other observers."

Outside the context of biomedicine, the EES's inconspicuous nature opens up a whole world of possibilities. The patches are already barely noticeable, but when mounted directly onto a temporary tattoo, for example, any evidence of electronic circuitry disappears. 

You can find the entire report as seen in Science, here.