Ever looked at your smartwatch and wondered how it calculates your heart rate, steps taken, and workout performance? These devices detect and quantify specific biochemical parameters in your body to assess your health. We know this emerging form of technology as autonomous biochemical sensing. This technology has seen more success with its implementation in smartwatches and health monitoring systems, such as those for diabetes and glucose. But thanks to several breakthroughs, it’s now addressing other targets and applications.
What is autonomous biochemical sensing?
Autonomous biochemical sensing refers to systems that can detect and analyze biochemical substances such as ions, DNA, metabolites, or toxins. This technology can generate detailed data based on bodily functions, which would be useful for a wide range of applications, such as healthcare, environmental monitoring, agriculture, and food. However, as this is an emerging form of technology, achieving long-term usage remains challenging due to the lack of hardware and difficulties posed by autonomous calibration. The current form of autonomous biochemical sensing appears in smartwatches and other health-focused devices such as Fitbits and glucose monitors.
Key Innovations
Autonomous sensors have ascended beyond the space of consumer products and have leapt forward to multiple forms of technological advancement. Modern-day autonomous sensors owe their leap forward to:
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology allows materials that are too small to see with the naked eye to be analyzed and understood. Materials found at the nanoscale level are sensitive and thus prone to detection by sensors. Flexible polymer surfaces and microfluidic designs allow sensors to embed themselves in materials while remaining biodegradable. Even synthetic nano-enzymes are being used in developing autonomous sensors.
AI-Powered Processing
Machine learning solutions now allow for the easy interpretation of consistent streaming biological data. Advanced algorithms can now sift through output from sensors to spot patterns, interruptions, and anomalies in real time. In wearable devices, for instance, machine learning models can analyze real-time readings of heart rate, glucose, or sweat, and raise an emergency if the readings are critical.
Natural and Kinetic Powering Techniques
New forms of harvesting power have been hypothesized thanks to autonomous biochemical sensors. Piezoelectric and triboelectric nanogenerators harvest motion or vibrations and convert them into power. Other designs and prototypes use humidity and temperature to generate electricity. By developing new forms of harvesting power, sensors can run without the need for batteries to power them. This solves a key problem of lithium availability in the long term.
Applications in Multiple Sectors
Autonomous biochemical sensors are already finding real-world uses in healthcare, the environment, agriculture, and beyond. In medicine, wearable patches and implants can track vital signs. For example, fitness wearables measure heart rate, blood pressure, glucose, cortisol, lactate, electrolytes, or pH in sweat. Experimental “smart tattoos” (tiny implantable biosensors) have been developed for monitoring blood glucose and other chemicals inside the body. These devices enable doctors to oversee chronic conditions 24/7 and deliver personalized alerts or treatments. Autonomous sensors survey air and water quality in environmental monitoring. Networks of ground sensors or drones equipped with biochemical detectors can map pollution plumes or pathogen outbreaks in real time. For example, optical sensors have been demonstrated on drones and underwater vehicles to detect bacteria or toxins remotely. By spreading out many low-cost sensors across a region, city managers can track contamination hotspots and respond swiftly.
According to the World Economic Forum, this technology is assured to have a real impact very soon. They note that autonomous biochemical sensors monitor health or environmental changes without needing wires or people to check them and could help detect pollution or illness early, saving time and lives. In fact, many experts expect these breakthrough sensors to accomplish real-world applications within the next 3–5 years.
