2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Development of a new wearable perspiration measurement system using the latent heat of evaporation of sweat.

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	19K22958
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Review Section	Medium-sized Section 90:Biomedical engineering and related fields
Research Institution	Kanazawa University
Principal Investigator	TANAKA Shinobu 金沢大学, フロンティア工学系, 教授 (40242218)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	野川雅道公立小松大学, 保健医療学部, 准教授 (40292445) 内藤尚金沢大学, フロンティア工学系, 准教授 (40392203) 鈴木郁斗公立小松大学, 保健医療学部, 助教 (10880768)
Project Period (FY)	2019-06-28 – 2023-03-31
Keywords	発汗計測 / 皮膚温 / 蒸発潜熱 / 赤外センサ / 発汗部位マッピング / 精神性発汗 / 温熱性発汗
Outline of Final Research Achievements	Requirement for ambulatory measurement of perspiration is increasing from the viewpoint of physical condition management in hot environments and prevention of heat stroke in elderly. Based on this social background, portable perspiration meters have also been marketed, but due to the principle of measurement, an air pump is required, making it difficult to miniaturize, and there are problems such as the need to adjust the flow rate according to the perspiration level. Therefore,in this study,we devised a new method for perspiration measurement that is expected to be compact,simple in structure,and wearable,focusing on the decrease in skin temperature due to evaporation of sweat.In addition, we devised a new perspiration mapping method that replaces the conventional Minor method, and experimentally verified the validity of its measurement principle.
Free Research Field	生体医工学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	本研究課題によりメカ部分を全く含まず2個の赤外センサのみで発汗量を推定可能なプロトシステムが開発された．その原理は皮膚表面に汗の蒸散を許す部分と許さない部分を設け，各部の皮膚温の差と水の蒸発潜熱の値から発汗量を推定するもので，市販品では必須のエアポンプが不要などの特徴がある．また発汗部位を可視化（マッピング）する新規方法を考案し，原理の妥当性を実験的に検証した．その結果，スマホ等に装着可能な廉価で汎用のサーモカメラと温風装置という簡便な装置構成により身体各部位の発汗箇所がマッピング可能であり，神経内科領域等の臨床医学分野のみならず，ヘルスケアやコスメティクス分野等への応用が期待される．