Why this $10 spectrometer chip could bring real-time chemical sensing to wearables
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-spectrometer-chip-real-chemical-wearables.htmlOpen linkView original on mander.xyzSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on mander.xyz
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-spectrometer-chip-real-chemical-wearables.htmlOpen linkView original on mander.xyz
2 replies
It took way too long to get to this info in the article. But anyway, this would be quite useful.
The glucose monitoring alone will be super useful.
There's been some Chinese wearables that have toured glucose monitoring - and to be fair, in anecdotal testing circumstances they've been somewhat precise (not precise enough to replace blood testing completely, but good enough as an early warning system for pre-diabetic people to do a blood test) - but they're still not up to par for the stringent requirements for a medical device in most modern countries.
As for the anecdotal evidence. My mum has been using such a cheap smartwatch that touts a glucose monitor, and she kept testing its results alongside an approved blood test monitor (she's not diabetic but has a thyroid condition that messes with her blood sugar, so monitoring is required), and the watch has always been within 3-4% of the blood test. Which obviously isn't good enough for medical certification... but for pre-monitoring, lance-free quick checks, it helps.