Safe sex has always been ingrained as an important aspect of engaging in sexual activity. In an effort to further promote protected intercourse, these teenage students created a condom to help others make better choices.
Created by Muaz Nawaz, Daanyaal Ali and Chirag Shah, the condom called "S.T.EYE" glows in a certain color to indicate if it has detected a sexually transmitted infection, or STI.
The students from London's Isaac Newton Academy sought to "make detecting harmful STIs safer than ever before" sans the lab tests.
"We wanted to make something that make detecting harmful STIs safer than ever before, so that people can take immediate action in the privacy of their own homes without the invasive procedures at the the doctors," Daanyaal Ali explained.
The 14-year-old added, "We've made sure we're able to give peace of mind to users and make sure people can be even more responsible than ever before."
The condom is essentially coated with a layer of antibodies that are able to recognize the virus or bacteria. The color it changes into is dependent on the type of STI that it detected. Not only that, the condom not only detects infections from the wearer, but for the other partner as well.
The students claim that green indicates chlamydia, yellow for herpes, blue for syphilis, while a purple color change would determine human papillomavirus. The science behind the new invention is similar to that of a litmus test.
S.T.EYE helped the group of 13- and 14-year-old students grab the top health innovation award at the TeenTech Awards. The event aims to "promote science, engineering, and technology in schools."
The boys won the £1,000 prize. It also includes an expedition to Buckingham Palace where the group "will be presented with their award.
However, it might take some time before consumers can actually find the product on the market. A TeenTech spokesperson revealed to the Daily Dot that the condoms are "very much a concept and... not a finalized design."
But the invention is probably the best anyone's heard of in years. A condom manufacturer has already approached the group of young boys for the innovative idea. However, no further details are yet to be expected on this alleged deal.
