Abstract
The purpose of this study is to develop a wearable sized sweating rate meter. It is known that thermal sweating rate reflects deep body temperature and dehydration. Therefore, continuous sweat measurement with a small sudorometer is expected to contribute to the prevention of heat stroke. Most of conventional sweating rate meters with superior precision consist of a small capsule placed on skin and a large, not wearable main box. By contrast, the distinctive features of developed device are wearable size, eliminated capsules and packaged functional elements such as an air pump and two humidity sensors on it. Sweating rate is determined by the conventional method that uses the humidity difference between ambient air and the air moistened by sweat. The fabricated device has an aperture instead of a capsule and flow channel on its flexible substrate. Thereby, it can be easily applied to various skin contours. It was evaluated that the device could quantify the sweating rate within precision of 15 percent by measuring water as false sweat. Also, increases in thermal sweating rate on forearm after passive heat stress were successfully measured with the developed device in all 8 subjects.
