A group of students at Tufts University's engineering school have created a a new sensor-based device which could be worn on the tooth to sense calories consumed and wirelessly transmit the data to a smartphone application.

As per a paper published in the journal Advanced Materials, the sensor will be made up of a porous silk film or a hydrogel that responds to changes in pH or temperature. The sensor’s middle layer detects chemicals and nutrients, reacting to different inputs with a shift in its electrical properties further sending radio frequency waves to the app. The sensor could easily detect the amount of sugar, salt, and alcohol. After planning a diet chart for a user the sensor would then help in deciding the quantities of the food serving.

The sensor adds up to the multiple fitness wearables like Fitbit which would count the number of footsteps you took the per day calorie intake. Such applications are slowly altering the attitude of the people towards adopting preventive than curing attitude in terms of health problems.