Breakthroughs
Being able to keep people safe and independent is our future technology goal. Lost Then Found will help people with dementia lead more meaning lives for as long as possible. However, there are breakthroughs in technology that need to happen in order for our tracking patch to work. People with dementia often hide or get trapped in locations. The signals must be able to travel through all states of matter without limits.
Quantum positioning is a way to get an exact location without relying on satellites. To use quantum technology, scientists need to make the components tiny enough to be placed on a patch. We saw pictures of some of the first computers. They were huge! Today, we have small computers on our phones, and watches but a quantum patch will have to be micro-sized.
A quantum patch needs a cooling system. If Lost Then Found gets too hot, it will not work correctly. High temperatures can also cause burns on the skin according to Angel Qian Han, Ph.D. in thermal engineering. The cooling system needs to use a small amount of energy in a small space without overheating.
The cooling system is located around the edge of all the electronics.
Quantum technology is very sensitive. Magnets, heat, or even a phone could interfere with it. The patch needs to be protected from these things so it can work in everyday life without being affected. That is why we thought of using 3-D hybrid printing that seals the patch with a protective layer.
Hybrid 3-D printing will put working electrical parts and sensors into a patch. Breakthroughs need to happen to make part of our patch flexible and other parts stiff. It’s like flexible building bricks that can change shape. It has flexible parts that can bend and twist along with stiff parts to make the design strong. The printer needs to be able to do different jobs at the same time during a single print.
We need to have octopus suckers printed the size of microneedles so that the patch will stick to all skin textures. The material needs to be biocompatible. That means it won’t hurt our body or cause a bad reaction, or make a person sick.
These new technologies can not work today because of the printer speed. There are a lot of people with dementia that need this patch. It takes a long time to print just one, when we need thousands.