3D-Printed ‘Earable’ Device Can Monitor Body Temperature in Real-Time

When it comes to wearable devices that count footsteps, monitor heart rate, and track other vital signs, your wrist is likely the first thing that comes to mind. That may soon change, though, as researchers have developed a 3D-printed sensor for the ear that continuously measures the temperature of an ear drum and thus the body’s core temperature using a special infrared sensor.

This so-called “earable” — which houses the infrared sensor, microprocessors, and a Bluetooth module inside a 3D-printed case — can indicate a variety of health conditions, such as an infection-caused fever, or even more subtle factors like fatigue or metabolic function. The device transmits data wirelessly to a smartphone app, and can run for 12 hours without recharging.

The disk-like structure covers the ear and can be customized to fit the contours of a person’s ear for a comfortable fit. As this setup interferes with normal hearing, engineers also added a bone-conducting hearing aid to alleviate the issue, consisting of a microphone, data-processing circuitry, a potentiometer for adjusting volume, and an actuator.

Perhaps sensors like this can be miniaturized in the future, allowing hearing aids to do much more than just transmit sound! For more information on this project, you can read the full research paper here.

[h/t: IEEE Spectrum]