SCIENCE & HEALTH: A $1 Patch would Spot Stressed-Out Soldiers

Fitness bands and other wearable health monitors are all the rage among runners and other athletes who want to keep track of their workouts and measure vital statistics such as heart rate and calories burned. Now military personnel may soon have access to the same technology, in a patch that would be about the size and shape of a Band-Aid, and as flexible.

UMass scientists demonstrated a machine that prints

nanotechnology used in body sensors to measure stress

in military personnel

Based on research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the sensor would gauge stress and fatigue among armed services personnel.

“Any time you’ve got someone making a command decision, you want to make sure they’re in the right frame of mind, that they’re alert, that they’re well rested,” says James Watkins, a polymer scientist who is leading the UMass effort.

Jacob John, a senior research assistant at UMass Amherst,

demonstrated a machine that, using nanotechnology,

fabricates sensors that can monitory human vital signs.

Watkins and his colleagues are developing the patch in collaboration with General Electric Co. and the Air Force. The five-year, $450,000 project was announced in June and represents the first grant awarded by the Nano-Bio Manufacturing Consortium, an industry organization backed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory to turn nascent nanotechnologies into electronics that monitor human activities.

And while a store-bought Fitbit or other sports sensor could set you back $100, the goal of the UMass effort is to create a patch that costs less than $1.

Nanotechnology involves manipulating materials at a microscopic level to develop applications that can measure or perform highly specific functions that larger, bulkier devices can’t easily do.

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The UMass patch, for example, would have tiny elements that test for chemicals in the wearer’s sweat that are indicators of stress and fatigue. The data would be transmitted via a wireless connection.

The electronic structures are meant to be small enough to fit into a Band-Aid-size device — and so small that they will not interfere with the patch’s flexibility.

Also, instead of hard plastic or metal, the electronics and the device would be made mostly of flexible plastics that move comfortably with the body.

Stress is an obvious problem for military personnel, but it is not always easy to detect, especially in settings other than ground combat. Cyber-warfare operators — such as drone pilots — are prone to long-term stress that can affect performance, says Wayne Chappelle, chief aeromedical clinical psychologist at the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine.

During combat, those pilots may be called in to provide support for ground troops and witness the injury and death of colleagues.

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