Credit: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University A research team at Hong Kong Polytechnic University has developed optical fibre sensors used in railway safety monitoring technologies for health monitoring. WHAT IT DOES In a statement, PolyU described the novel Side Hole Polymer Optical Fibre Sensors as "biocompatible, supple and extremely sensitive to very small pressure changes inside the human body". Professor Hwa-yaw Tam, lead researcher and head of the university's Department of Electrical Engineering, said the sensors can detect "extremely subtle changes even of a difference smaller than 1% of atmospheric pressure – sensitive enough to measure the pressure inside the lungs while breathing, which changes by just a few kilopascals".