Wearable acoustic sensor ‘could offer heart monitoring capabilities’

A tiny, soft and wearable acoustic sensor that measures vibrations in the human body has been developed by US researchers, offering a wide variety of medical applications.

The stretchable device captures physiological sound signals from the body, offering physical properties that are well-matched with human skin, meaning it can be mounted on nearly any surface of the body.

Developed by researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder and Northwestern University, the device weighs less than one-hundredth of an ounce and can gather continuous physiological data, potentially giving it a wide range of uses.

For example, it could be used to monitor the opening and closing of heart valves, vibrations of the vocal cords and even movements in gastrointestinal tracts, before transmitting this data wirelessly for analysis by clinicians.

Jae-Woong Jeong, an assistant professor at the department of electrical, computer and energy engineering of the University of Colorado at Boulder, said: "While other skin electronics devices have been developed by researchers, what has not been demonstrated before is the mechanical-acoustic coupling of our device to the body through the skin."

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