Students Invent Temporary Biometric Tracking Tattoo

Wichita State University students Jared Goering, Ryan Becker and Spencer Steinert are working together to positively impact lives through wearable technology. Together they created a product called Cyfive and have been perfecting it for the past three years.
 
Cyfive is a biometric tracking temporary tattoo that lasts around three days after being applied to the skin, and it is able to track a person’s heart rate. The tattoo transfers the heart rate information to an app on the user’s smartphone. The product’s simplicity beats any biometric tracking device that is on the market, Goering said.
 
“It’s like a regular tattoo that you put on with water; the only difference is the ink,” said Goering. “It resonates under radio frequencies, and then we can pick up that signal that it resonates through algorithms which is then converted into heart rate.”
 
Cyfive has already garnered a lot of interest. In April, the team won fourth place in the Shocker New Venture competition. And this month, Goering and Becker were among only three college teams nationwide invited to participate in Red Bull’s Innovation Summit in New York City. The event was highlighted in a recent article by Forbes.
 
The product appeals to anyone looking to track their heart rate. Athletes, for example, only two options in the current market: a wristband or a chest strap.
 
“Most athletes who are serious about tracking their heart rate do not use a wristband due to the inaccuracy, so they resort to a chest strap,” said Becker. “It’s accurate enough to be valuable, but it constricts breathing, which is an obvious problem when running a marathon.”
 
The athletic market is always looking to be more efficient, giving the Cyfive team the perfect customer base to market toward.
 
Two of the co-founders of Cyfive, Goering, and Steinert, are about to begin their third year of the Master of Innovation Design program at WSU with professor Jeremy Patterson. Goering and Steinert worked with each other previously on other projects, as well.
 
Becker has two bachelor’s degrees, one in biology and another in biomedical engineering. He has been working with WSU biomedical engineering professor Kim Cluff for about three years on this technology.
 
The team would like to expand to measuring a variety of biometrics, including intracranial pressure, glucose, blood pressure, blood gas, lactic acid, breast cancer, skin cancer and bone density. 
 
The Cyfive team decided to start with a measuring heart rate because it is widely known and would easily allow them to get their product on the market.
 
“People are really enjoying wearable technology. It’s becoming more and more a part of our everyday lives,” said Becker.
 
Cyfive aims to change the way people think about their bodies and how doctors will diagnose different health issues.