image: Figure 1. Perspiration sensor developed by NIMS (left) and perspiration measurement in action (middle and right) view more
Credit: Jin Kawakita National Institute for Materials Science
NIMS (Kazuhiro Hono, President), the City of Yamaguchi (Kazuki Ito, Mayor) and Mori Urban Planning Corporation (responsible for the management of the Yamaguchi City Industrial Interchange Facility; Yasuo Yamakado, CEO) have concluded an agreement to conduct collaborative projects aiming to create a new wellbeing* industry. The three organizations will work together to create and support new healthcare and other industries using the materials and technologies developed by NIMS, thereby promoting the development of Yamaguchi City.
* According to the World Health Organization (WHO), wellbeing is a contented state in which a person is physically, mentally and socially happy and healthy. The aim of this agreement is to promote public physical and mental health and happiness (i.e., wellbeing) using materials science and technology relevant to this goal (e.g., technologies operated by the human body and sensory information).
Under this agreement, NIMS, Yamaguchi City and Mori Urban Planning Corporation will collaboratively:
• conduct usability testing of materials and technologies developed by NIMS intended to enhance public wellbeing;
• based on the usability testing results, create new industries designed to promote public wellbeing; and
• support Yamaguchi City’s efforts to develop local industries.
The first usability testing will be carried out at the Medifit Lab Sports Club located within the Yamaguchi City Industrial Interchange Facility. In this project, a perspiration (or moisture) sensor developed by NIMS (figure 1) will be used to measure the perspiration of sports club users in an effort to develop dehydration and heatstroke prevention measures. The senor was developed by Jin Kawakita (Leader of the Electrochemical Sensors Group, Research Center for Functional Materials, NIMS). Previous, small-scale studies conducted using this sensor at elderly care and other facilities found a significant correlation between the amount of sweating and changes in bodily hydration levels. This sports club project will target a larger number of people across a broader age range. The types of measurements will include changes in perspiration amounts, body temperatures, bodily hydration levels and heartbeats before and after workouts. The correlation between these parameters will be statistically analyzed and the results will be used to improve the accuracy of perspiration-based bodily hydration level estimation. The results will also be used to develop effective dehydration and heatstroke prevention measures.