Wearable Devices and the Human Skin: Future Opportunities or a Challenge for Personal Care?

Research on Wearable electronic devices is a rapidly growing field of Biomedical engineering. These devices have diverse applications – monitoring health, delivering drugs and for providing a “skin” which imparts haptic sensation for robots etc. Bio-mimetic second skins that draw inspiration from human skin has progressed from Robotic to human applications with the aim of imparting and even surpassing some of the sensory functions of skin.

Biomedical engineers have exploited an array of piezoelectric polymers, nano-technology for generating ultrasound, magnetic and electric field – and even energy-independent e-skins for continuous operational efficacy. While I am eminently unqualified to discuss the technology behind these e- skins, I will discuss potential impact of this technology on the human skin, based on our current knowledge of skin biology, skin barrier, and the skin’s dynamic interactions with the environment. The outermost layer of skin- the Stratum corneum (SC), recognized as a “smart material” In itself is our interface with the environment, receiving signals from outside and transmitting (mechano-transduction) to the viable layers of epidermis to elicit appropriate adaptive responses. The e-skins are in fact inserted between the SC and the external world, purportedly for improving the skin functions. Possibly some of the devices could prove to be very beneficial, and may even have anti-aging effects. For the personal care industry, they could start a new trend (or a fad), with as yet unknown benefits. However, we may be trying to outsmart the smart material (SC) which has evolved over several millions of years. The possibility of some undesirable side effects on skin functions cannot be ignored at this point. This presentation will examine some of these unknown unknowns (borrowing from Rumsfeld) within the limited time, and stress the need for enough clinical studies.