Dehydration is dangerous, especially in the current extremely hot weather. A few years ago, there was a viral case of a student suffering from brain damage due to a combination of heat stroke and dehydration. Internal organs such as the kidneys can also be affected. Realizing the language of dehydration during the month of Ramadan in Saudi Arabia, researchers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have succeeded in detecting the level of dehydration in the human body using only touchscreen technology.
The touchscreen on a smartphone detects the electrical flow between the finger and the screen through a capacitive sensor. This flow changes according to the humidity of the finger and by collecting data and developing an algorithm, the level of dehydration in the body can be detected with a fairly high accuracy.
Tests were conducted on participants who fasted during Ramadan last March and athletes who did sports activities. A total of 4000 readings were collected and the study found that the level of dehydration detection using smartphone sensors in athletes had an accuracy of 92% and in fasting individuals it was 87%.
This technology is already available and does not require additional equipment such as syringes, wearable devices and laboratory tests. Smartphone screens already have a heart rate detection feature and perhaps in the near future, dehydration detection will become a common feature.