新型可穿戴傳感器通過檢測汗液判斷人體健康狀況
Breaking a sweat? Researchers are creating a skin patch that can test those droplets while people exercise and beam results to their smartphones, possibly a new way to track health and fitness.
大汗淋漓？研究人員正在研製一種皮膚貼片，可以檢測人們鍛鍊時流出的汗滴，並將結果傳到他們的智能手機上，這可能是追蹤健康和健身狀況的一種新方法。
"Sweat has biochemical components within it that tell us a lot about physiological health," said John A. Rogers, who directs Northwestern University's Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics and led the new research.
西北大學生物集成電子中心的負責人約翰·羅傑斯表示：“汗液中含有生化成分，可以告訴我們很多關於生理健康的信息。”
Today's wearable technology helps people track their calories, activity and heart rate. A wearable biosensor would be "radically different".
目前市場上的可穿戴技術可以幫助人們追蹤他們的熱量、活動和心率。不過這個可穿戴生物傳感器將變得“截然不同。”
For simple fitness purposes, it could give an early warning that it's time to replenish electrolytes before someone starts to feel dehydrated.
對於簡單的健身目的，它可以在人們開始感到脫水之前，事先提醒人們補充電解質。
But eventually with additional research, Rogers envisions more sophisticated use of such devices, such as real-time monitoring of how the body adjusts during military training, or even to screen people for diseases such as diabetes or cystic fibrosis.
但是最終通過額外的研究，羅傑斯爲這樣的設備設想了更復雜的使用方法，如實時監測身體在軍事訓練中如何做出調整，或者甚至檢測出人們所患的疾病，如糖尿病或囊性纖維症。
Rogers, who did much of the research while at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has long worked to develop electronic devices that can stretch and twist with the body. The patch adds a capability called microfluidics, capturing and analyzing tiny amounts of body fluid.
羅傑斯在伊利諾伊大學做過很多研究，長期以來一直致力於開發能隨着身體而伸展和彎曲的電子設備。這種貼片增加了一種名爲微流體的功能，能夠捕獲和分析少量體液。
How it works: Stick the patch on the skin and start moving. Tiny channels collect perspiration and route it to different compartments where it interacts with chemicals that change color to reflect sweat loss, the perspiration's acidity level, and concentrations of glucose and lactate.
其工作原理是：將貼片貼在皮膚上，然後開始移動。貼片用微小的通道來收集汗液，並將汗液發送到不同的隔間，汗液與化學物質相互作用後，會改變顏色以反映汗液流失情況、汗液的酸度以及葡萄糖和乳酸的濃度。
The patches worked even in the challenging outdoor race, and the patches' biochemical test results agreed with the indoor bikers' conventional sweat tests, the researchers reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
研究人員在《科學轉化醫學》雜誌上報告稱，這些貼片即使在極具挑戰性的戶外賽事中也能發揮作用，貼片的生化檢測結果與室內騎自行車的人的常規汗液檢測一致。
