Track your health with sensor integrated into smartwatch? No sweat

(From left) Doctoral student Ananta Narayanan Balaji, wearing the pH Watch, with Assistant Professor Shao Huilin, Dr Wang Bo and doctoral student Chen Yuan, who is holding the pulse oximeter and pH sensor. The team of researchers from the National Un
(From left) Doctoral student Ananta Narayanan Balaji, wearing the pH Watch, with Assistant Professor Shao Huilin, Dr Wang Bo and doctoral student Chen Yuan, who is holding the pulse oximeter and pH sensor. The team of researchers from the National University of Singapore created the device after a year of research. ST PHOTO: MARCELLIN LOPEZ
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Less than a drop of sweat is needed for a newly developed pH sensor to tell if the user is dehydrated, low on sugar or at risk of skin infection, by measuring how acidic or alkaline the sweat is.

The device, comprising a colour-changing pH sensor that is read and interpreted by an algorithm, was created by a team of five researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) after a year of research.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on January 12, 2020, with the headline Track your health with sensor integrated into smartwatch? No sweat. Subscribe