An octopus-inspired patch reads your pulse in shifting colours — no battery, no wires

It looks like a clear plaster with a rainbow sheen, and it borrows its grip from an octopus. At the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Angelos Xomalis, Torjus Steffensen and colleagues built a silicone patch whose tiny suction-cup underside clings to skin while its patterned top stretches with each pulse wave and changes colour. Any smartphone camera can read those colour shifts to measure both pulse and blood-vessel stiffness — a warning sign for heart disease that today needs wired hospital equipment. Because the patch reads movement, not light absorbed by skin, it works equally well on every skin tone, unlike the green-light sensors in smartwatches. Published in Advanced Materials, it needs no power of its own — a deliberate design for clinics far from specialist kit.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation