Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) announced a working prototype of an elastic OLED skin patch that acts as a fitness tracker. It can be attached to the wrist, which acts as a replacement for the fitness band and also integrates a pair of sensors.
The patch is placed on the inside of the wrist so that movement of the wrist itself does not affect the performance of the screen. Samsung used a polymer compound with high elasticity and a modified elastomer. It can withstand skin elongation of up to 30%, and the prototype remained stable after 1,000 stretches. The company says it is the first in the industry, and even with the current technical advances, scientists were able to integrate most of the known sensors using existing semiconductor manufacturing processes.
Unfortunately, there is still a long way to go before this becomes an end-user product. Researchers need to work more on the OLED resolution, the extensibility of the connection and the measurement accuracy of the sensor. Once they reach it, the technology can also be used in the medical field to help monitor patients with certain diseases and infants.
