These wristbands are actually tiny laboratories capable of monitoring various health issues that the wearer might have, while also being able to detect blood diseases only seen in the House TV series. Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM are developing them from highly disposable materials, which they call “smart plastics,” making these inventions extremely useful and affordable.

The gadgets in talk will run on bio chips, which are very small plastic circuits connected with micrometer thick sensors capable of interpreting chemical reactions, thus being able to tell information about the body's temperature, user's skin moisture and even electromagnetic radiation levels. From a single drop of blood, these highly portable medical laboratories can even detect deep vein thrombosis.

"This example shows clearly the possibilities for polytronics. In a networked world, oriented towards people, inexpensive, multifunctional systems are needed - for example in Assisted Living. In order to build up the infrastructure necessary for this, electronic systems have to be produced in large quantities, in a cost-effective manner on large substrates. And with polymer electronics, this would be perfectly possible," says Prof. Karlheinz Bock, head of the "Polytronic Systems" division at IZM.

The German researchers say that these labs-on-a-chip could be very well built out of cheap reel-to-reel or sheet plastics, so that they practically become disposable medical gadgets. "In this manner, we can construct small, handy and easy-to-use systems that for the most part make life easier for the sick and elderly," explains Bock.

Though still not ready for mass production, these wristband-laboratories could be available sooner than we think, thanks to the fact that eight more EU countries have joined the Germans at IZM in studying and developing the plastic chips. This is all part of the DVT-Imp project. More info on engadget and physorg


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