Making Wearable Technology More Readily Wearable

More and more fitness buffs are strapping wearable monitors onto their wrists and triceps to track their pulse and breathing rates as they run, lift, jump, and even swim. But devices such as the Fitbit or Apple Watch, despite their technical capacity, are generally clunky.

“Currently, wearable technology is not so wearable,” says Simiao Niu, a chemical engineer at Stanford Univ. “It is packed with electronic components that make it rigid and uncomfortable — and it can be difficult to get as strong of a signal as you would with conformable sensors.”

At Stanford, chemical engineers are monitoring breath rate and pulse using a soft, flexible sensor that sticks to the skin like a bandage. They say it is easy to wear and good for continuous observation. To measure physiological signals, the sensor sticker tracks changes in strain. If you press your fingers to the inside of your wrist, finding your pulse is simple — the beat shifts the skin up and down, similar to the way the abdomen moves as we breathe in and out, or the way the heart surges against the skin as it beats...