Futuristic hydrogel bandages use sensors to deliver medicine to all the right places

By Chloe Olewitz Published December 8, 2015

A team of MIT engineers have developed the smart bandage of the future, and it’s made of tech’s new favorite polymer: hydrogel. The flexible, soft material of the bandage can be enhanced with electronics and sensors to measure vital signs or administer medication, and since hydrogel is naturally stretchy, the smart bandage is perfect for knees and elbows, where regular old Band-Aids just don’t do the trick.

Xuanhe Zhao and his MIT team have successfully embedded the hydrogel polymer with conductive wires, semiconductor chips, LED lights, and temperature sensors. The team’s most promising combination of tech capabilities allows the bandage to administer medication when the wearer’s body temperature changes. When the bandage’s sensors detect a significant change, tiny drug reservoirs and delivery pathways release medication directly to the person’s body. LED light panels embedded in the hydrogel can even be used to indicate when stores of drugs within the reservoirs are running low.

1 of 3

bandage of the future hydrogel delivers medicine automatically stretchable electronics 3 — Electronics are usually hard and dry, but these ones are soft and wet, making them better suited for use on the human body. Melanie Gonick/MIT

bandage of the future hydrogel delivers medicine automatically stretchable electronics 2 — With this system, medicine can be delivered directly to the wearer’s body through built-in drug delivery channels and reservoirs. Melanie Gonick/MIT

bandage of the future hydrogel delivers medicine automatically stretchable electronics 1 0 — The hydrogel sheet is outfitted with a set of polymer islands (red) that contain all the electronic components. Melanie Gonick/MIT

The hydrogel material itself is made of mostly water, combined with flexible biopolymers that keep the bandage flexible and soft. While maintaining this pliability, the hydrogel still forms a strong bond with surfaces as varied as human skin, titanium, silicon, glass and ceramic. The flexibility of the hydrogel enables the smart bandage to last longer, all while protecting the integrity of the bandage’s technological components. Electronic wires and heat sensors embedded in the bandage were able to withstand repeated stretching during lab testing.

Recommended Videos

Beyond the skin-level smart bandage, Zhao’s technology could also be used for internal medical applications. Implanted glucose sensors and neural probes are often rejected by the body as foreign objects, but this kind of internal monitoring would be easier than ever if electronic components were embedded in a hydrogel that mimics local human tissues. Embedding time-release medication reservoirs, heat sensors, and wires in smart implantable hydrogels would be a powerful tool for the field of medicine.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Chloe is a writer from New York with a passion for technology, travel, and playing devil's advocate. You can find out more…

Topics

Emerging Tech

Pangram, the gold standard for AI text checks, releases Image 1.0 tool to sniff fake pics and videos

It can identify AI-generated pictures with an astounding 99.96% accuracy on its own evaluation set.

AI image detector tool pangram

Pangram, one of the most widely used and trusted AI text detectors out there, is finally releasing its multimedia detection tools to the masses. Pangram Image 1.0, which was previously available as a research preview, is now widely available on the web, through the company’s API, and via its eponymous Chrome extension.

The company claims its image detector can identify AI-generated pictures with an astounding 99.96% accuracy on its own evaluation set. Pangram also notes that it has improved the model’s accuracy over the past few months, especially against edited images, low-resolution pictures, and pictures made by the most advanced AI models out there. As far as the competition goes, TruthScan achieves an accuracy of 96.33%, followed by AI or Not at 91.38% and Sightengine at 88.33%.

Emerging Tech

Scammers are using AI to fake missing pet photos, and what happens next is horrifying

Criminals are using AI-generated pet photos to convince desperate owners their missing animals have been found, before demanding money and making disturbing threats.

Brown and white cat meowing in Inzoi.

Losing a pet can be heartbreaking, and anyone who's experienced it knows how quickly you'd drop everything if someone called to say they'd found your missing dog or cat. Unfortunately, scammers have learned to exploit that desperation, and AI is making their tricks even more convincing.

A disturbing new scam is targeting pet owners across the UK, with criminals using AI-generated images to pretend they've found missing animals. They then demand money for their return, sometimes going as far as threatening to kill the pets if the owners refuse to pay. According to a BBC report, several pet owners have already experienced these attacks, with scammers using convincing photographs, emotional stories, and increasingly aggressive messages to pressure them into paying.

Emerging Tech

AI can turn your Instagram posts into scam that know a little too much about you

Your public social media posts could be helping scammers create emails that feel personal, and existing AI safeguards aren't doing enough to stop them.

Electronics, Mobile Phone, Phone

We've all received those suspicious emails claiming we've won something, missed a delivery, or need to urgently update our bank details. Most are easy enough to ignore, especially when they're full of strange wording or have absolutely nothing to do with us. But what happens when a scam email actually knows what you've been up to lately? That's where things get a little worrying.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington have found that AI can use information people share publicly on social media to create phishing emails that feel personal. And we're not just talking about knowing your name or where you work. These emails can reference things you've recently done, places you've visited, or even something you've been looking forward to. The researchers showed how widely available AI models could gather these details and turn them into targeted messages, potentially letting scammers reach large numbers of people without spending hours researching each person individually.