Although pencils have their roots seated deep in history that’s not to say they don’t have a place in the future.
When a team of researchers wanted to explore new possibilities of wearable sensors seems they used an ordinary pencil & paper, drew a few shapes & took some measurements, obviously it wasn’t quite as simple as that.
Yue Zhang from the University of Science and Technology Beijing says
“People can use the [pencil-on-paper] technique to make devices such as wearable sensors, alarm devices or wearable rheostats which belong to them,”
The teams research followed earlier work by Jiaxing Huang in Illinois who said “Pencil-drawn devices are cheap, versatile and fast to make. They could be useful in situations where resources are limited,”
It’s known that when graphite lands on paper it can conduct electricity, when the object drawn changes shape so does the resistance.
With so many of us wanting to track our progress by measuring & monitoring heart rates, calories burnt etc. during the daily exercise regime, wearable gadgets are popular. They are also widely used in the medical industry for things like saving patients with heart conditions time & effort allowing them to be monitored at home rather than visit hospital.
With the future of wearables in 2015 & beyond set to improve with companies out to make them smarter & smaller & consumers demanding more accurate data the humble pencil could have its work cut out for many years to come.
