Smart pill bottle keeps a lid on tampering

Prescription drug abuse could be curtailed with a smart pill bottle that sends wireless alerts when it detects tampering or overdose.

This is one potential application for new sensor technology being developed at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, another being the detection of unsafe storage conditions of pharmaceuticals.

Digital technology can help combat threats to human health, such as networks of tiny wearable sensors deployed in hospitals that can track influenza outbreaks in real time. But the high costs associated with electronic manufacturing means that these sensors aren't available in low-income populations that suffer disproportionately from epidemics.

Muhammed Hussain, doctoral student Sherjeel Khan and colleagues are working to make sensors more accessible using cheaper materials. To this end, they recently demonstrated that it is feasible to create temperature and humidity sensors from paper by drawing circuits with conductive ink.