Modded iPhone May Be Able To Track Oxygen, Sodium And Glucose In The Blood

A team of medical researchers is working on a really cool way for people that need to track certain vital statistics about their body. They are working on a system that uses an iPhone to monitor things like the sodium in the blood, blood glucose, or the amount of oxygen in their blood. The modified iPhone would work in conjunction with a nanosensor "tattoo" on the person's skin.

Heather Clark and a team of scientists in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Northeastern University are working on the project to make the tech work. The process includes the injection of selected nanoparticles under the skin. The particles leave no mark on the skin that is visible, but they fluoresce when the particles are exposed to a target molecule like sodium or glucose.

The modified iPhone can then determine the level of florescence and can then determine the amount of sodium or glucose present in the blood. This method of reading glucose is particularly appealing to those that have diabetes because it doesn't involve having to stick fingers with needles to draw blood. The process might be able to track the amount of oxygen in the blood as well.

[via TechnologyReview]