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Introduction:The best method of body temperature measurement in children has been investigated for many years. It has become possible to make non-invasive continuous temperature measurement by using smartphones, to record the values and to give warning in case of fever with the technological developments in recent years. Nevertheless, there is no data on the accuracy of body temperature measurements using this method. We aimed to compare measurements made by the smartphone applications and using the axillary digital thermometers.Methods:This was a cross-sectional observational study. All patients, who were admitted to the pediatric emergency department between 1 July 2017 and 30 September 2017 with fever, were included. Demographic characteristics and the diagnosis of the patients were recorded. The body temperatures measured using smartphone applications and those using axillary digital thermometers were compared.Results:During the study period, 234 measurements were done in 53 patients. The mean age of the patients was 58±51 months. Thirty (57%) patients were male and eleven (21%) were infant. The most frequent diagnoses were upper respiratory tract infection (20, 38%) and acute gastroenteritis (12, 23%). There was no significant difference between smartphone applications and axillary digital thermometers in detecting fever (p=0.754). The mean body temperature value taken using axillary digital thermometers and smartphone applications were 37.07±0.85 °C and 37.16±0.89 °C, respectively. Both measurements were strongly correlated with each other (r=0.874, p

Skin-mounted electronics is the new frontier for unobtrusive body-centric monitoring systems. In designing the wireless devices to be placed in direct contact with the human skin, the presence of the lossy body cannot be ignored because of strong electromagnetic interactions. In this paper, the performance of epidermal antennas, for application to radio frequency identification (RFID) links in the UHF band, was investigated by means of numerical simulations and laboratory tests on fabricated prototypes. The analysis demonstrates the existence of an optimal size of the antennas (from 3 to 6 cm for loops and from 6 to 15 cm for dipoles) and of upper bounds in the achievable radiation gain (less than −10 dB in the case of 0.5 mm thick application substrates) as a consequence of the balance between the two opposing mechanisms of radiation and loss. This behavior, which is controlled by the hosting medium, does not depend on the antenna shape, even if the loop layout permits considerably minimizing the device size. Even the conductivity of the antenna trace plays only a second-order role; low-cost inkjet printable paints with conductivity higher than 104 S/m are suitable to provide radiation performance comparable with the performance of copper-made antennas. Starting from the investigation of the above cited physical phenomena, including the effect of common classes of suitable substrate membranes, guidelines are finally derived for the optimal design of real RFID epidermal antennas.

Self-powered skin sensors have attracted significant attention in recent years due to their great potential in medical care, robotics, prosthetics, and sports. More importantly, self-powered skin sensors do not need any energy-supply components like batteries, which allows them to work sustainably and saves them the trouble of replacement of batteries. The self-powered skin sensors are mainly based on energy harvesters, with the device itself generating electrical signals when triggered by the detected stimulus or analyte, such as body motion, touch/pressure, acoustic sound, and chemicals in sweat. Herein, the recent research achievements of self-powered skin sensors are comprehensively and systematically reviewed. According to the different monitoring signals, the self-powered skin sensors are summarized and discussed with a focus on the working mechanism, device structure, and the sensing principle. Based on the recent progress, the key challenges that exist and the opportunities that lie ahead are also discussed.