Logan Garbarini models the 2×2 mm sensor that monitors ingested fluids and transmits information wirelessly. (credit: Fio Omenetto, Tufts University)
With this latest wearable gadget, you could really sink your teeth into tracking your diet and health.
A tiny tooth-mounted sensor can wirelessly transmit radio frequency data about the foods you’re noshing, reporting on sugar, salt, and alcohol in real-time. The creators, led by biomedical engineer Fiorenzo Omenetto of Tufts University, hope that the dental device will someday help consumers and researchers make “conclusive links between dietary intake and health.” They report their prototype in a study that will be published next week in the journal Advanced Materials.
Omenetto’s team has long been working on such radio frequency sensors—ones for the skin, brain, and surgical implants. It made sense to move to the mouth, Omenetto tells Ars. “There are a plethora of markers in the mouth that… are very relevant to our health states,” he said. But the team was in talks with the nutrition researchers at Tufts that they thought “’gee, wouldn’t it be great if you could track your diet.’”
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