Our three-person team prototyped the world’s first luminescent wearable biosensor, a now patented technology which was also awarded in the 2017 International Biodesign Challenge at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Completely biodegradable and battery-free, the biosensor was incorporated into a wristband design that glows when the wearer reaches the legal blood alcohol limit in the United States (0.08%).
In addition to working together to develop both the biosensor technology and wristband form factor, I developed and prototyped a modular platform of wristbands that combined the aesthetic and functional possibilities of the technology. We imagined a future where people could select from a variety of different biometric sensors– for example assessing insulin or calcium levels as readily as alcohol– and place them into a wristband whose appearance could be customized day to day by swapping out different cutaway frame modules.
Team: Steve Lewis, Andrew Henderson, and Jenny Filipetti
The project was also featured in the June 2017 exhibition The Future Will Be Grown at the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY. The show’s title plays on Salvador Dali’s famous proclamation that the future of architecture “will be soft and hairy.” It portrays a future where materials, garments, foods, and more will be produced with the tools of biotech and through symbiotic relationships with other species.
