Smartening up vaginal infection diagnosis with high-tech underwear

Anyone who has a vagina, whether they're a woman, girl, non-binary or trans person, may experience the discomfort of a vaginal infection at some point in their life. Until now, there's been little or no innovation to help identify these conditions.

Enter: ALMA. It's smart underwear that can empower accurate home diagnosis without an awkward trip to a clinic. How does it work?

The age of smart underwear

From thinking fridges to talking watches, 'smart' tech (also known as the internet of things) has exploded in recent years. But there's nothing like this intelligent underwear. Created by four friends as part of the Re-FREAM research project, ALMA is a non-invasive wearable device that monitors vaginal discharge to help those who suffer from vaginal infections to identify the problem earlier.

Vaginal infections – such as bacterial vaginosis and candidal vulvovaginitis (vaginal thrush) – are a common problem. Stigma or the inconvenience of making an appointment with a health professional often prevents sufferers seeking early diagnosis. But fast treatment can reduce the infection duration and severity of the symptoms. That's where ALMA aims to help – the low-cost, reusable undergarment gathers data to monitor vaginal health.

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Making robots understand their surroundings

Young Bright Minds improve everyday life

If you are one of the lucky people who own a robotic vacuum cleaner, you may have wondered, about how easy they float around your living room without falling off the stairs or getting stuck somewhere inconvenient. For the second episode of our latest web series Young Bright Minds we spoke to the experts from Swiss company Sevensense Robotics about the challenges of making robots not just see their surroundings, but also understand them, and how humanity may benefit from intelligent robotic helpers in the future.

Teaching a drone to create street art

Young Bright Minds eliminate human risk

When hearing "drones", most of us think of amazing drone photography or videos showing us how spectacular places look from above - or even surveillance drones. But this is just a tiny part of what drones can actually do.

In the first episode of our new web series Young Bright Minds, we talk with the experts from Voliro Airborne Robotics who use drones as hands in the sky to eliminate human risk in hard to reach places, and that also can spray on walls - please don't try it on your neighbor's walls!