Wearable Strain Sensing Textiles for Human Motion Monitoring

There is a rapidly growing demand for flexible and wearable strain sensors to monitor human motions and physiological conditions. However, most reported sensors for wearable electronics are usually fabricated in two-dimensional strip configurations, which cannot be properly integrated into textile structures and thus greatly degrade intrinsic properties and aesthetic feeling of clothing.

A new one-dimensional weavable strain sensing yarn with unique multilayer structure has been designed and fabricated through an easily manipulated protocol. The strain sensor not only exhibits excellent sensing performance but also possesses good weavability. Consequently, such yarn sensor has been directly integrated into various textile structures by using existing textile technologies for fabricating sensing textiles. The sensing textiles demonstrate their strong capability for real-time monitoring of human motions.

Some potential application areas for this technology include research on human biomechanics for health care and clinic medicine, outdoor activity for healthy and fitness, athletic training, functional clothing for the measurement of strain/pressure distribution and garment design and garment fitting evaluation.