How To Detect Stress Level: A New Wireless Sensor

Ever wonderd if it's possible to quantify how much stressed you are? What if I told you that you actually can, or at least in a not so remote future?

Actually there's been some methods to measuring stress so far: the common method for years has consisted of a stress questionnaire. The main alternative to the questionnaire, a blood test, can provide quantitative data but requires a trained professional to draw the blood, and the stress of the procedure itself—being poked with a large needle—can skew the results of a lot of people.

Now there's maybe a third, better way.

Wei Gao, assistant professor of medical engineering at Caltech, has produced a wireless sweat sensor that can accurately detect levels of cortisol, a natural compound that is commonly thought of as the body's stress hormone. Gao and his fellows researchers talk about it in the next video:

The development of an inexpensive and accurate device for measuring cortisol could allow for more widespread and easier monitoring of stress but also of other conditions including anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression—all of which are correlated with changes in cortisol levels.

The Sensor Gao and his team made of graphene, a sheet-like form of carbon. A plastic sheet is etched with a laser to generate a 3D graphene structure with tiny pores in which sweat can be analyzed. Those pores create a large amount of surface area in the sensor, which makes it sensitive enough to detect compounds that are only present in very small amounts in sweat. In the new sensor, those tiny pores are coupled with an antibody, a type of immune system molecule, specifically sensitive to cortisol, thus allowing it to detect the compound.

Though Gao's sensor may find many uses in typical medical applications here on Earth, it is also being vetted for potential off-world applications. In October, NASA announced that Gao is one of six researchers selected to participate in studies of the health of humans on deep-space missions. Gao will receive funding to develop the sensor technology into a system for monitoring the stress and anxiety of astronauts as part of the program, which is being administered by the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH).