Digitize the Human Body by Backscattering Based Nano-Tattoos: Battery-Free Sensing

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) lead a new era in remote health monitoring and preventive care, by making wearable electronics, specifically electronic skin, monumental in the future of healthcare. However, remote data collection from these sensors still largely relies on external circuits such as amplifiers, analog to digital converters, and batteries. This extra layer of circuity results in bulky systems, which greatly limits the application of these sensors and forces them to only work at certain places on the human body for limited time, such as only wrist. Here, we present an original technique for producing ink-based nano-tattoos that can be applied anywhere on the human body in various shapes and sizes and transmit data without requiring any external circuit elements, including batteries, by utilizing backscattering communication principles. Ink of nano-tattoos based on ZnO nanowires embedded in graphene aerogels can analyze and track quality of human body movements anywhere there is an ambient wireless signal and a smart phone. This method turns every surface into a potential sensor, digitizing the human body.