Wearable tattoo sensors as a way to understand human water needs and heat stress.

Wearable tattoo sensors as a way to understand human water needs and heat stress.

Project Team
Asher Rosinger, Associate Professor, Biobehavioral Health

Project Funding
Level 3 – Interdisciplinary Seed Grant Opportunities across Partnerships in OSVPR

Project Description

This proposal brings together an interdisciplinary team across colleges and institutes at Penn State to develop, validate, and deploy a wearable, non-invasive tattoo sensor which will measure skin and core temperature, blood flow, heart rate, cortisol, hydration, sweat rate and sodium loss, as micro-level weather exposures to ambient conditions for 7-10 days and be transmitted through Bluetooth to aid in our understanding of human water needs in extreme heat conditions. The use of a wearable can aid in tracking environmental exposures and water needs – which are challenging to assess in remote, extreme settings. This presents a significant opportunity to leverage the expertise of co-PI Cheng’s lab to develop a customized tattoo sensor to monitor one of humanity’s most pressing needs – water and hydration in a warming climate – and leverage co- PI Rosinger’s field site in Northern Kenya, one of the hottest sites in the world to field test it and couple it with an ongoing longitudinal study examining water insecurity, thirst perceptions, heat stress, hydration, and kidney function. As heat stress increases water needs, risk of dehydration, and reduces cognitive performance, monitoring of water needs in extreme environments is paramount. This project will allow us to examine how the continuous physiological data generated by the tattoo sensor predicts behavioral and cultural perceptions of water needs, thirst, and hydration strategies and will help justify external funding.