A new flexible oximeter has been introduced in the markets that is able to measure blood oxygen levels on different parts of the body could aid in wound monitoring and organ transplants.
This Typical oximeters rely on reading transmitted light, which means they can only be used on areas of the body that are partially translucent.
To overcome this limitation, the team from the University of California Berkeley drew from previous research involving printed organic LEDs and a method of determining blood oxygen levels by reading reflected light. By combining these two technologies, the team created an oximeter made up of a flexible sheet printed with an alternating array of photodiodes, red LEDs and near-infrared LEDs.
However, This device can be applied to any part of the body, regardless of translucency, to map blood oxygen levels in real time.