Your adhesive bandage might soon also be a painkiller

The humble adhesive bandage hasn’t changed much since it was introduced; the glue has gotten a little less painful to remove, the materials have gotten better, but there hasn’t exactly been a massive technological leap in bandage technology.

Thimble Bioelectronics

Until, possibly, now.

Being developed by Thimble Bioelectronics, the idea of a band-aid/painkiller is based around transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, or TENS for short. TENS is controversial within the scientific community, and honestly it’s a little hazy as to whether or not TENS actually works, and if it does, why, precisely, it does. But it’s common enough that people swear by it and to be fair, Thimble was founded by a guy with chronic back pain.

The patch or bandage Thimble is working on would make it easy to simply slap a patch on, get the jolt you need, and get back to whatever you were doing. This is a good idea, since most TENS devices now require you to use a belt with some batteries on it.

So, in the future, your band-aid may not only help heal you, but make that paper cut a little less annoying.

Thimble Bioelectronics [Official Site]