Engineers develop a wired skin cooling device

Engineers at the University of Missouri have developed a waterproof, skin cooling wearable device that can prevent fatigue or heat stroke through passive cooling, to provide maximum user comfort. Moreover, in the ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ it has been suggested that the device has multiple health care apps including the capability to analyse the user’s skin hydration, blood pressure and heart electrical activity. In the future, the engineers are planning to create a wireless version so that it can be used in smart textiles.

An Assistant Professor at the College of Engineering and corresponding author, Zheng Yan, stated: “Our device can reflect sunlight away from the human body to minimise heat absorption, while simultaneously allowing the body to dissipate body heat, thereby allowing us to achieve around 11 degrees Fahrenheit of cooling to the human body during the daytime hours. We believe this is one of the first demonstrations of this capability in the emerging field of on skin electronics. Eventually, we would like to take this technology and apply it to the development of smart textiles. That would allow for the device’s cooling capabilities to be delivered across the whole body. Right now, the cooling is only concentrated in a specific area where the patch is located.