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Trainwear: A real-time assisted training feedback system with fabric wearable sensors |
PerCom |
2017 |
| B. Zhou; G. Bahle; L. Fürg; M. S. Singh; H. Z. Cruz; P. Lukowicz |
| In this demonstrator, we present Trainwear, a wearable garment that utilizes fabric pressure sensing for sport exercise activity recognition and feedback. The shirt emphasizes on design for public users using our developed sensing technology. A video of the demo is linked at the end of this technical paper. |
DOI
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Fabrication and Comparative Study on Sensing Characteristics of Soft Textile-Layered Tactile Sensors |
IEEE Sensors Letters |
2017 |
| S. K. Kirthika; G. Ponraj; H. Ren |
| The physical interaction of robots with its environment requires a touch sensory system to function effectively. This sensory system measures the robot-environment interactive force and pressure information that can be converted to electrical signals. We fabricated and compared a series of of electronic textile (e-textile) tactile sensors using flexible piezoresistive materials and two types of conductive textile materials with varying layer constructions. Compared with conventional rigid counterparts, the tactile sensors have advantages in terms of light weight, flexible simple design, high sensitivity, low power consumption, and stretchability and thus is operable at varying curvy surfaces and dynamic forces. |
DOI
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A Fully Fabric-Based Bidirectional Soft Robotic Glove for Assistance and Rehabilitation of Hand Impaired Patients |
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters |
2017 |
| H. K. Yap; P. M. Khin; T. H. Koh; Y. Sun; X. Liang; J. H. Lim; C. H. Yeow |
| This letter presents a fully fabric-based bidirectional soft robotic glove designed to assist hand impaired patients in rehabilitation exercises and performing activities of daily living. The glove provides both active finger flexion and extension for hand assistance and rehabilitative training, through its embedded fabric-based actuators that are fabricated by heat press and ultrasonic welding of flexible thermoplastic polyurethane-coated fabrics. Compared to previous developed elastomeric-based actuators, the actuators are able to achieve smaller bend radius and generate sufficient force and torque to assist in both finger flexion and extension at lower air pressure. In this letter, experiments were conducted to characterize the performances of the glove in terms of its kinematic and grip strength assistances on five healthy participants. Additionally, we present a graphical-user interface that allows user to choose the desired rehabilitation exercises and control modes, which include button-controlled-assistive mode, cyclic movement training, intention-driven task-specific training, and bilateral rehabilitation training. |
DOI
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Hybrid Tele-Manipulation System Using a Sensorized 3-D-Printed Soft Robotic Gripper and a Soft Fabric-Based Haptic Glove |
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters |
2017 |
| J. H. Low; W. W. Lee; P. M. Khin; N. V. Thakor; S. L. Kukreja; H. L. Ren; C. H. Yeow |
| This paper presents a hybrid tele-manipulation system, comprising of a sensorized 3-D-printed soft robotic gripper and a soft fabric-based haptic glove that aim at improving grasping manipulation and providing sensing feedback to the operators. The flexible 3-D-printed soft robotic gripper broadens what a robotic gripper can do, especially for grasping tasks where delicate objects, such as glassware, are involved. It consists of four pneumatic finger actuators, casings with through hole for housing the actuators, and adjustable base. The grasping length and width can be configured easily to suit a variety of objects. The soft haptic glove is equipped with flex sensors and soft pneumatic haptic actuator, which enables the users to control the grasping, to determine whether the grasp is successful, and to identify the grasped object shape. The fabric-based soft pneumatic haptic actuator can simulate haptic perception by producing force feedback to the users. Both the soft pneumatic finger actuator and haptic actuator involve simple fabrication technique, namely 3-D-printed approach and fabric-based approach, respectively, which reduce fabrication complexity as compared to the steps involved in a traditional silicone-based approach. The sensorized soft robotic gripper is capable of picking up and holding a wide variety of objects in this study, ranging from lightweight delicate object weighing less than 50 g to objects weighing 1100 g. The soft haptic actuator can produce forces of up to 2.1 N, which is more than the minimum force of 1.5 N needed to stimulate haptic perception. The subjects are able to differentiate the two objects with significant shape differences in the pilot test. Compared to the existing soft grippers, this is the first soft sensorized 3-D-printed gripper, coupled with a soft fabric-based haptic glove that has the potential to improve the robotic grasping manipulation by introducing haptic feedback to the users. |
DOI
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Fabric-Based Wearable Dry Electrodes for Body Surface Biopotential Recording |
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering |
2016 |
| M. A. Yokus; J. S. Jur |
| A flexible and conformable dry electrode design on nonwoven fabrics is examined as a sensing platform for biopotential measurements. Due to limitations of commercial wet electrodes (e.g., shelf life, skin irritation), dry electrodes are investigated as the potential candidates for long-term monitoring of ECG signals. Multilayered dry electrodes are fabricated by screen printing of Ag/AgCl conductive inks on flexible nonwoven fabrics. This study focuses on the investigation of skin-electrode interface, form factor design, electrode body placement of printed dry electrodes for a wearable sensing platform. ECG signals obtained with dry and wet electrodes are comparatively studied as a function of body posture and movement. Experimental results show that skin-electrode impedance is influenced by printed electrode area, skin-electrode interface material, and applied pressure. The printed electrode yields comparable ECG signals to wet electrodes, and the QRS peak amplitude of ECG signal is dependent on printed electrode area and electrode on body spacing. Overall, fabric-based printed dry electrodes present an inexpensive health monitoring platform solution for mobile wearable electronics applications by fulfilling user comfort and wearability. |
DOI
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A High-Fidelity All-Textile UWB Antenna With Low Back Radiation for Off-Body WBAN Applications |
IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation |
2016 |
| L. A. Yimdjo Poffelie; P. J. Soh; S. Yan; G. A. E. Vandenbosch |
| A novel all-textile UWB antenna with full-ground plane and high on-body fidelity is presented in this work. Due to the combined requirements of backward radiation reduction in WBANs and high-fidelity prerequisite for UWB pulse transmission/reception, a multilayered structure is implemented. The structure consists of two patches and a ground plane implemented on two layers of 2-mm-thick substrate. The full ground plane on the lower layer shields users against on-body radiation. Numerical and experimental evaluations both in free space and on human body prove the antenna operation within the FCC UWB bandwidth of 3.1-10.6 GHz. Its high-measured on-body system fidelity values of between 95% and 97% at a distance of 1 m show that the textile UWB antenna is suitable for body-worn UWB impulse radio communication. |
DOI
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A WiFi tracking device printed directly on textile for wearable electronics applications |
IMS |
2016 |
| B. Krykpayev; M. F. Farooqui; R. M. Bilal; A. Shamim |
| Despite the abundance of localization applications, the tracking devices have never been truly realized in E-textiles. Unobtrusive and flexible integration of tracking devices with clothes is difficult to achieve with standard PCB-based devices. An attractive option would be direct printing of circuit layout on the textile itself, negating the use of hard PCB materials. However, due to high surface roughness and porosity of textiles, efficient and reliable printing of electronics on textile has remained elusive. In this paper, an interface layer is first printed on the textile to facilitate the printing of a complete localization circuit and antenna for the first time. The tracking device utilizes WiFi to determine the wearer's position and can display this information on any internet-enabled device, such as smart phone. The device is small enough (55 mm × 45 mm) and lightweight (22g with 500 mAh battery) for people to comfortably wear it and can be easily concealed in case discretion is required. The device operates at 2.4GHz with communication range of up to 55 meters, and localization accuracy of up to 8 meters. |
DOI
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Fully Textile, PEDOT:PSS Based Electrodes for Wearable ECG Monitoring Systems |
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering |
2016 |
| D. Pani; A. Dessì; J. F. Saenz-Cogollo; G. Barabino; B. Fraboni; A. Bonfiglio |
| Goal: To evaluate a novel kind of textile electrodes based on woven fabrics treated with PEDOT:PSS, through an easy fabrication process, testing these electrodes for biopotential recordings. Methods: Fabrication is based on raw fabric soaking in PEDOT:PSS using a second dopant, squeezing and annealing. The electrodes have been tested on human volunteers, in terms of both skin contact impedance and quality of the ECG signals recorded at rest and during physical activity (power spectral density, baseline wandering, QRS detectability, and broadband noise). Results: The electrodes are able to operate in both wet and dry conditions. Dry electrodes are more prone to noise artifacts, especially during physical exercise and mainly due to the unstable contact between the electrode and the skin. Wet (saline) electrodes present a stable and reproducible behavior, which is comparable or better than that of traditional disposable gelled Ag/AgCl electrodes. Conclusion: The achieved results reveal the capability of this kind of electrodes to work without the electrolyte, providing a valuable interface with the skin, due to mixed electronic and ionic conductivity of PEDOT:PSS. These electrodes can be effectively used for acquiring ECG signals. Significance: Textile electrodes based on PEDOT:PSS represent an important milestone in wearable monitoring, as they present an easy and reproducible fabrication process, very good performance in wet and dry (at rest) conditions and a superior level of comfort with respect to textile electrodes proposed so far. This paves the way to their integration into smart garments. |
DOI
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Fabric interface with proximity and tactile sensation for human-robot interaction |
IROS |
2016 |
| V. A. Ho; S. Hirai; K. Naraki |
| Human-in-the-loop task involving soft contact has become common in robotic application, especially in physical human-robot interaction. In this task, it is required that robot would sense interactions with human by touching, as well as assess possibility of human approaching by proximity sensation. In addition, it is also essential to fabricate an interface so that human does not feel uncomfortable during physical interaction with robot. This paper presents an attempt on fabrication of sensing elements that can be utilized for construction of a soft interface (or a robotic skin). Each element is made from fabrics and soft materials that can sense both proximity and applied force from human's touch. In addition, each sensing element can sense the relative distance of conductive object (or human body) that is approaching the sensing element's surface, and the 2×2 contact force distribution when the object makes contact with the sensing element. By exploiting simultaneous measurement of capacitance, each fabric sensing element can smoothly switch the proximity mode and tactile mode based on position of the object. We also constructed a model that can predict variation of capacitance measurement of proximity and tactile modes during operation for further analysis. The methods and results presented in this paper can be extended to construct a larger scale of robotic skin for robot's body, and act as a platform for study human-robot interaction. |
DOI
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A flexible inkjet printed inverted-F antenna on textile |
MECAP |
2016 |
| M. A. Karimi; A. Shamim |
| This is an era of wearable gadgets which demands flexible and wearer friendly wireless components. This paper presents a modified inverted-F antenna (IFA) which has seamlessly been integrated with the fabric through inkjet printing. Surface roughness of the textile has been reduced using a rapid UV curable flexible interface layer. Smooth interface layer helps achieving very fine features which may be required for complicated antenna and circuit traces. |
DOI
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A fabric-regulated soft robotic glove with user intent detection using EMG and RFID for hand assistive application |
ICRA |
2016 |
| H. K. Yap; B. W. K. Ang; J. H. Lim; J. C. H. Goh; C. H. Yeow |
| This paper presents a soft robotic glove designed to assist individuals with functional grasp pathologies in performing activities of daily living. The glove utilizes soft fabric-regulated pneumatic actuators that are low-profile and require lower pressure than previously developed actuators. They are able to support fingers and thumb motions during hand closure. Upon pressurization, the actuators are able to generate sufficient force to assist in hand closing and grasping during different manipulation tasks. In this work, experiments were conducted to evaluate the performances of the actuators as well as the glove in terms of its kinetic and kinematic assistance on a healthy participant. Additionally, surface electromyography and radio-frequency identification techniques were adopted to detect user intent to activate or deactivate the glove. Lastly, we present preliminary results of a healthy participant performing different manipulation tasks with the soft robotic glove controlled by surface electromyography and radio-frequency identification techniques. |
DOI
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An e-textile antenna for body area network |
APSURSI |
2016 |
| C. G. Bartone; L. Moore; M. Kohli |
| This paper provides details on an e-textile spiral antenna used in a Body Area Network application. The system senses heart rate, has provisions for fall detection using an inertial measurement unit, and measures ambient temperature. An Arduino microcontroller collects and processes the data and interfaces with a low-energy Bluetooth (BLE) transceiver to transmit data via an e-textile antenna. Data is received via BLE on a custom built Android application running on a Nexus 5 Smartphone. Power received measurements were performed to compare the e-textile spiral antenna with a traditional inset-fed patch antenna. |
DOI
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Adaptive wearable smart fabric based on body posture and temperature |
ICACCA |
2016 |
| G. K. Durbhaka |
| Wearable computing evolved and intertwined with devices such as goggles, watches, necklaces and bands. Prominent applications envelop the areas such as health, fitness and business alerts. Fashion designers are one of the early adopters of this technology by incorporating ready-to-wear health care aspects in garments and accommodating comfort, and aesthetics. This paper proposes improved design with the addition of a couple of more monitoring parameters such as body temperatures and posture ergonomics. The objective of this study is to provide an adaptive wearable smart fabric where in the transducers and actuators shall be integrated within the fabric so as to acquire the data parameters and enable smart decision support analysis. The data parameters considered are, different postures of the person together with the internal and external temperature of the body. This adaptive fabric shall have the intelligence to get inflated on its own by identifying the posture and movement of the person during the sleep hours. This also provides an adaptive insulation to the user based on varying weather conditions. |
DOI
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A Wearable Fabric-based display for haptic multi-cue delivery |
Univ. of Pisa |
2016 |
| M. Bianchi; E. Battaglia; M. Poggiani; S. Ciotti; A. Bicchi |
| Softness represents one of the most informative haptic properties, which plays a fundamental role in both everyday tasks and more complex procedures. Thus, it is not surprising that much effort has been devoted to designing haptic systems able to suitably reproduce this information. At the same time, wearability has gained an increasing importance as a novel paradigm to enable a more effective and naturalistic human robot interaction. Capitalizing upon our previous works on grounded softness devices, in this paper we present the Wearable Fabric Yielding Display (W-FYD), a fabric-based tactile display for multi-cue delivery that can be worn by user's finger. W-FYD enables to implement both passive and active tactile exploration. Different levels of stiffness can be reproduced by modulating the stretching state of a fabric through two DC motors. An additional vertical degree of freedom is implemented through a lifting mechanism, which enables to convey softness stimuli to the user's finger pad. Furthermore, a sliding effect on the finger can be also induced. Experiments with humans show the effectiveness of W-FYD for haptic multi-cue delivery. |
DOI
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Fully direct-write dispenser printed dipole antenna on woven polyester cotton fabric for wearable electronics applications |
Electronics Letters |
2015 |
| Y. Li; R. Torah; S. Beeby; J. Tudor |
| A novel technique of direct-write dispenser printing on fabrics is introduced which is applied to realise a dipole antenna for wearable electronic applications. The challenge of digitally printing a conductive layer of <;20 μm thickness on polyester cotton, which has a surface roughness of the order of 150 μm, is met using only direct-write dispenser printing. An interface paste, which was originally developed for screen printing, is dispenser printed in selected areas of the fabric to smooth its surface before printing the conductive layer on top of it. Neither screen nor photolithographic masks are needed for any deposition stage, so dispenser printing offers a direct-write technique for electronic functions on fabrics. Fully dispenser printed dipole antennas have been fabricated on standard polyester cotton fabrics and the measured results from a vector network analyser are discussed. |
DOI
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Optimisation of a novel direct-write dispenser printer technique for improving printed smart fabric device performance |
DTIP |
2015 |
| Z. Ahmed; R. Torah; J. Tudor |
| Common fabrics such as cotton and polyester cotton have a rough and high porosity surface compared to typical printed electronics substrates such as FR4 and Kapton. This surface type adversely affects uniformity and performance of printed electronic layers. This paper reports for the first time, an optimisation process for a dispenser printable ink on 65% polyester 35% cotton blend woven fabric for printed smart fabric applications. In this work, the ink is an interface layer material, (Fabinks-IF-UV-1004) which is printed directly on the untreated fabric to provide a smooth homogenous platform allowing the printing of subsequent electronic ink layers. This work makes use of dispenser printing, a direct-write process where an electrically functional ink is directly deposited on the areas of substrate defined by a computer pattern. It is a novel state of the art process which has been developed for use in printed smart fabrics by the University of Southampton. It offers features of: custom digital patterning, the ability to print multi-layered and multi-material structures and is a rapid prototyping process. The optimised interface layer reduced the surface roughness of the fabric (characterised by surface roughness parameter Ra) by 74%. The optimisation of interface layer on the polyester cotton, detailed in this work, can be replicated on most types of fabrics. |
DOI
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Evaluation of novel textile electrodes for ECG signals monitoring based on PEDOT:PSS-treated woven fabrics |
EMBC |
2015 |
| D. Pani; A. Dessì; E. Gusai; J. F. Saenz-Cogollo; G. Barabino; B. Fraboni; A. Bonfiglio |
| Despite surface electrodes technology for biopotential recording is well established, different researches are aimed at overcoming the limitations exhibited by the available solutions. In this paper, a proposal for the low-cost development of textile electrodes based on woven fabrics treated with polymer poly-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene doped with poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), is presented. Compared to other approaches, the proposed one can be exploited on any finished fabric. An accurate analysis of the electrodes performance, based on impedance measurements and signal processing techniques, both in wet and dry conditions, reveals the virtues and vices of the proposed solution, when used for electrocardiogram recording. In particular, the potentialities of these electrodes clearly emerge, in terms of ability to work without any electrolyte, providing a valuable interface between the skin and the electrode, in some cases achieving better performance than commercial disposable electrodes. |
DOI
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Flexible textile antenna array |
EIT |
2015 |
| E. Workman; I. Chang; S. Noghanian |
| Flexible conductive textile material can make it possible to design flexible antennas that are wearable and nonintrusive to the user. It is this simplicity to the user that makes them suitable for applications such as health-monitoring systems. With the goal in mind of designing a wearable flexible antenna, a two element textile antenna array is designed to work at 2.45 GHz frequency. CST Microwave Studio has been used to verify the design. Various fabrication techniques were used. To further decrease the size of the antenna, a slot loaded design is proposed. In addition to the antenna, a connector design which will provide a reliable physically strong connection is proposed in this paper. For the cutting of the fabric a craft cutting machine was used. This machine has an accuracy of 0.05 mm, which is sufficient for the prototype manufacturing. The connector design is done by 3D printing method. |
DOI
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On the development of a tactile sensor for fabric manipulation and classification for industrial applications |
IROS |
2015 |
| S. Denei; P. Maiolino; E. Baglini; G. Cannata |
| In this paper a novel multi-modal tactile sensor is presented, featuring a matrix of capacitive pressure sensors, a microphone for acoustic measurements and proximity and ambient light sensor. The sensor is fully embedded and can be easily integrated at mechanical and electrical levels with industrial grippers. Tactile sensing design has been put on the same level of additional requirements, usually overlooked in tactile sensor research, such as the mechanical interface, cable harness and robustness against continuous and repetitive operations, just to name but a few. The performances of the different sensing modalities have been assessed in a test rig for tactile sensors. Experiments have been performed in order to show the capabilities of the sensor for implementing tactile based industrial gripper control and tactile based fabric classification. |
DOI
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From the design to real e-textile platforms for Rehabilitation and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases care |
EMBC |
2015 |
| R. Paradiso; L. Caldani; G. De Toma |
| In this paper is described the work done to move from the concept of a monitoring system based on a sensing textile platform to the working prototype, in the frame of two different European projects: INTERACTION and WELCOME. |
DOI
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How do designers feel textiles? |
ACII |
2015 |
| B. Petreca; S. Baurley; N. Bianchi-Berthouze |
| Studying tactile experience is important and timely, considering how this channel is being harnessed both in terms of human interaction and for technological developments that rely on it to enhance experience of products and services. Research into tactile experience to date is present mostly within the social context, but there are not many studies on the understanding of tactile experience in interaction with objects. In this paper, we use textiles as a case study to investigate how we can get people to talk about this experience, and to understand what may be important to consider when designing technology to support it. We present a qualitative exploratory study using the `Elicitation Interview' method to obtain a first-person verbal description of experiential processes. We conducted an initial study with 6 experienced professionals from the fashion and textiles area. The analysis revealed that there are two types of touch behaviour in experiencing textiles, active and passive, which happen through `Active hand', `Passive body' and `Active tool-hand'. They can occur in any order, and with different degrees of importance and frequency in the 3 tactile-based phases of the textile selection process - `Situate', `Simulate' and `Stimulate' - and the interaction has different modes in each. We discuss these themes to inform the design of technology for affective touch in the textile field, but also to explore a methodology to uncover the complexity of affective touch and its various purposes. |
DOI
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The use of conductive wires for smart and protective textiles |
EHB |
2015 |
| M. Uzun; E. Sancak; I. Usta |
| The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate conductive core wires reinforced cotton yarns for smart and protective textile applications. Different sensors will be attached to the developed textile structures and will employed in rehabilitation to give the patient an online feedback. The stainless steel (SS), copper (Cu) and silver treated copper (Cu/Ag) conductive wires at different diameters (40, 50 and 60 micron) were employed as the core of the Ne20 cotton yarns. A number of different yarns were produced with and without core wires. A conventional ring spinning system with an attachment was used to produce core yarns. The interaction between the yarn quality and the core wires were tested and analyzed. 20 copses of yarns were produced by using different yarn process combinations. The yarn properties were tested in terms of yarn count, yarn twist, yarn hairiness, breaking strength and elongation. As a result, the properties of cotton yarns were affected by the wire reinforcement. The tested parameters have changed in varied extents. The types of the conductive wires also had different effect on the core yarn properties. |
DOI
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Intel® Omni-path Architecture: Enabling Scalable, High Performance Fabrics |
2015 IEEE 23rd Annual Symposium on High-Performance Interconnects |
2015 |
| M. S. Birrittella; M. Debbage; R. Huggahalli; J. Kunz; T. Lovett; T. Rimmer; K. D. Underwood; R. C. Zak |
| The Intel® Omni-Path Architecture (Intel® OPA) is designed to enable a broad class of computations requiring scalable, tightly coupled CPU, memory, and storage resources. Integration between devices in the Intel® OPA family and Intel® CPUs enable improvements in system level packaging and network efficiency. When coupled with the new user-focused open standard APIs developed by the OpenFabrics Alliance (OFA) Open Fabrics Initiative (OFI), host fabric interfaces (HFIs) and switches in the Intel® OPA family are optimized to provide low latency, high bandwidth, and high message rate. Intel® OPA provides important innovations to enable a multi-generation, scalable fabric, including: link layer reliability, extended fabric addressing, and optimizations for high core count CPUs. Datacenter needs are also a core focus for Intel® OPA, which includes: link level traffic flow optimization to minimize datacenter jitter for high priority packets, robust partitioning support, quality of service support, and a centralized fabric management system. Basic performance metrics from first generation HFI and switch implementations demonstrate the potential of the new fabric architecture. |
DOI
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Dual-band textile antenna on AMC substrate for wearable applications |
MMS |
2015 |
| A. Mersani; L. Osman; I. Sfar |
| The use of the wireless electronics in clothing is essential in our days in order to maintain user safety, rescue work and military personal communication. It can also be dedicated to medical and sports space applications. For this reason, this study is devoted to the design of a textile antenna operating in the WLAN bands (2.4-2.484 GHz) & (5.15-5.825 GHz). This antenna, fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW), is intended to be integrated and carried in a person's clothing. For that purpose, we used metamaterial structures like artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) to increase the performance of the antenna in terms of radiation and reduce the coupling with the human body. |
DOI
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Demo abstract: Inviz: Low-power personalized gesture recognition using wearable textile capacitive sensor arrays |
PerCom |
2015 |
| G. Singh; A. Nelson; R. Robucci; C. Patel; N. Banerjee |
| This demonstration presents Inviz, a low-cost gesture recognition system that uses flexible textile-based capacitive sensors. Gestures are recognized using proximity-based movement detection using flexible capacitive sensor arrays that can be built into the environment or placed on to the body or be integrated into clothing. Inviz provides an innovative interface to home automation systems to simplify environmental control for individuals with limited-mobility resulting from paralysis, paresis, and degenerative diseases. Proximity-based sensing obviates the need for physical contact which can result in skin abrasion which is particularly deleterious to people with limited-to-no sensitivity in their extremities. A custom-designed wireless module maintains a small form factor facilitating placement based on an individual's needs. Our system leverages a hierarchical sensing technique which facilitates learning gestures based on the individual and placement of the sensors. Classification uses just-in-time embedded computational resources to provide accurate responses while maintaining a low average power consumption, in turn reducing the impact of batteries on the form factor. To illustrate the use of Inviz in a smart home environment, we demonstrate an end-to-end home automation system that controls small appliances. We will interface our system with a home automation gateway to demonstrate a subset of potential applications. This interactive demonstration highlights the intuitiveness and extensibility of the Inviz prototype. |
DOI
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Design of wide band circularly polarized textile antenna for ISM bands at 2.4 and 5.8 GHz |
SPICES |
2015 |
| S. K. Mishra; V. Mishra; N. Purohit |
| This paper describes the design and fabrication of circularly polarized wideband textile antenna resonating at 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz ISM bands. The textile antenna that is designed for wireless body centric communications should be low profile, light weight, comfortable against skin and unobtrusive to be worn so that it can be easily accepted by the general public. With the advent and easy availability of electrotextile materials it is now possible to fabricate textile antennas that are very suitable to be used for portable applications. Here, conductive metalized nylon fabric (Zell) is used as a conducting material. For increasing the flexibility and comfortability to the user, denim is used as a substrate material. The proposed antenna is optimized on software package CST microwave studio 2011 for larger bandwidth. It has been found that this circularly polarized antenna has very high 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth and -10 dB impedance bandwidth in free space with very high gain in both ISM bands. The antenna prototype is finally checked on the human body and free space with VNA. The obtained results have validated the design idea. |
DOI
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Embroidered textile antennas for wireless body-centric communication and sensing |
LAPC |
2015 |
| L. Ukkonen; L. Sydänheimo; Y. Rahmat-Samii |
| This paper presents a review and analysis of embroidered textile antennas for wireless body-centric communication systems. Especially, the paper concentrates on recent advancements in embroidered on-body radio frequency identification (RFID) antennas and wireless brain machine interface (BMI) systems and their specific antenna and wireless power transfer challenges. |
DOI
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Design and Characterization of a Fabric-Based Softness Display |
IEEE Transactions on Haptics |
2015 |
| M. Bianchi; A. Serio |
| To enable a realistic tactile interaction with remote or virtual objects, softness information represents a fundamental property to be rendered via haptic devices. What is challenging is to reduce the complexity of such an information as it arises from contact mechanics and to find suitable simplifications that can lead an effective development of softness displays. A possible approach is to surrogate detailed tactile cues with information on the rate of spread of the contact area between the object and the finger as the contact force increases, i.e. force/area relation. This paradigm is called contact area spread rate. In this paper we discuss how such a paradigm has inspired the design of a tactile device (hereinafter referred to as Fabric Yielding Display, FYD-2), which exploits the elasticity of a fabric to mimic different levels of stiffness, while the contact area on the finger indenting the fabric is measured. In this manner, the FYD-2 can be controlled to reproduce force-area characteristics. In this work, we describe the FYD-2 architecture and report a psychophysical characterization. FYD-2 is shown to be able to accurately reproduce force-area curves of typical objects and to enable a reliable softness discrimination in human users. |
DOI
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Adaptive and Personalized Gesture Recognition Using Textile Capacitive Sensor Arrays |
IEEE Transactions on Multi-Scale Computing Systems |
2015 |
| A. Nelson; G. Singh; R. Robucci; C. Patel; N. Banerjee |
| Upper extremity mobility impairment is a common sequel of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), brain injury, strokes, and degenerative diseases such as Guillain-Barre and ALS. Existing assistive technology solutions that provide access as user input devices are intrusive and expensive, and require physical contact that can have deleterious effects such as skin friction injury for paralyzed users who have reduced skin sensitivity. To address this problem, in this paper, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a non-contact proximity gesture recognition system using fabric capacitive sensor arrays. The fabric sensors are lightweight, flexible, and can be easily integrated into items of quotidian use such as clothing, bed sheets, and pillow covers. Our gesture recognition algorithm builds on two known classification techniques, Hidden Markov Model and Dynamic Time Warping to convert raw capacitance values to alphanumeric gestures. Our system is personalized to the user, allowing personalized selection of gesture sets and definition of gesture patterns in accordance with their capabilities. Our system adapts to changes in sensor configuration and orientation with minimal user training and intervention. We have evaluated our system in the context of a gesture-driven home automation system on six subjects that includes an individual who has a C6 Spinal Cord injury. We show that our system can recognize gestures of varying complexity with an average accuracy of 99 percent with minimal training. |
DOI
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Electro-textiles — The enabling technology for wearable antennas in wireless body-centric systems |
2015 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation & USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting |
2015 |
| K. Koski; E. Moradi; M. Hasani; J. Virkki; T. Björninen; L. Ukkonen; Y. Rahmat-Samii |
| Wireless body-centric sensing systems require light-weight and wearable sensor nodes for remote health monitoring of people. This imposes the need for wearable antennas which are comfortable to the users. In this article we demonstrate the capability of conductive fabrics and embroidered structures in the fabrication of such antennas and sensors. We also outline their measured performance in several prominent applications. |
DOI
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A Scalable, 2.9 mW, 1 Mb/s e-Textiles Body Area Network Transceiver With Remotely-Powered Nodes and Bi-Directional Data Communication |
IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits |
2014 |
| N. Desai; J. Yoo; A. P. Chandrakasan |
| This paper presents transceivers and a wireless power delivery system for a Body-Area Network (BAN) that uses an e-textiles-based physical layer (PHY) capable of linking a diverse set of sensor nodes monitoring vital signs on the user's body. A central base station in the network controls power delivery and communication resource allotment for every node using a general-purpose on-chip Node Network Interface (NNI). The architecture of the network ensures fault-tolerance, reconfigurability and ease of use through a dual wireless-wireline topology. The nodes are powered at a peak end-to-end efficiency of 1.2% and can transmit measured data at a peak rate of 1 Mb/s. Modulation schemes for communication in both directions have been chosen and a Medium Access and Control (MAC) protocol has been designed and implemented on chip to reduce complexity at the power-constrained nodes, and move it to the base station. While transferring power to a single node at maximum efficiency, the base station consumes 2.9 mW power and the node recovers 34 µW, of which 14 µW is used to power the network interface circuits while the rest can be used to power signal acquisition circuitry. Fabricated in 0.18 µm CMOS technology, the base station and the NNI occupy 2.95 mm 2 and 1.46 mm 2 area, respectively. |
DOI
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Printed frequency selective surfaces on textiles |
Electronics Letters |
2014 |
| W. G. Whittow; Y. Li; R. Torah; K. Yang; S. Beeby; J. Tudor |
| A novel technique for inkjet printing frequency selective surfaces (FSSs) on textiles is introduced. The challenge of printing an inkjet layer of 3 μm thickness on polyester cotton with a surface roughness of the order of 150 μm is achieved with a screen-printed interface layer. The conducting inkjet layer is then printed directly on top of the interface layer. A screen mask was used so that the interface layer was only printed directly below the conducting ink. A square FSS structure has been fabricated and the measured shielding has been compared to simulations. |
DOI
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A transceiver for E-textile body-area-networks |
MeMeA |
2014 |
| J. G. Carvalho; J. M. da Silva |
| A transceiver for single-line communication among sensor nodes of a body-area network is presented. It is meant to operate on a mesh like network where nodes are interconnected by two conducting-textile lines, which provide both power and communication features. The textile conductors are sewn directly to the garment in order to enhance user's mobility and comfort. For the same reason, a single battery placed in a central processing module is used to supply all sensor nodes. A low-dropout voltage regulator supplied from the transmission-line via a low pass filter ensures in each node the respective 3 V DC power supply. Power-line-communication is performed using a binary phase shift keying modulation process over a non-zero direct current line voltage at a 10 Mbps rate. The transceiver includes also line-fault testing to detect hazards which are likely to occur due to the stress applied to the conductive yarns. |
DOI
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SIW textile antennas as a novel technology for UWB RFID tags |
RFID-TA |
2014 |
| S. Lemey; H. Rogier |
| A wearable ultra-wideband (UWB) textile antenna based on substrate integrated waveguide technology is presented for application in the next generation radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems operating in the low-duty cycle restricted 3.4-4.8 GHz UWB band. The design of a UWB antenna for application in smart textiles is very challenging. For end users, the antenna should be unobtrusively integrated into smart textile and comfortable to wear. From a system point of view, good impedance matching and radiation characteristics over a very large bandwidth are of major importance, even under harsh operating conditions. Our approach consists of applying copper tube eyelets to implement a cavity-backed slot antenna in textile materials. A prototype was realized and measured. The measured return loss characteristic and radiation performance after bending and deploying the antenna on different human body parts prove that our antenna is extremely suited for on-body use. A -10 dB-bandwidth of 1.33 GHz, or 33 %, was realized, in which the radiation pattern remains quasi invariable. |
DOI
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Measuring skin-electrode impedance variation of conductive textile electrodes under pressure |
I2MTC |
2014 |
| B. Taji; S. Shirmohammadi; V. Groza |
| Electrocardiogram (ECG) is the first bio-signal physicians use to diagnose cardiovascular diseases, since any kind of heart abnormality reflects on it. ECG electrodes play an important role in collecting this signal. One type of ECG electrodes which is recently getting more popular, especially due to its user friendly features compared to traditional Ag/AgCl electrodes, is conductive textile. Similar to any other type of electrode, conductive textile is associated with skin-electrode interface impedance located between the body (source of signal) and ECG monitoring device, thus affecting the recorded ECG quality. In this paper, we measure the skin-electrode impedance of conductive textile electrodes under various pressure levels, because in some applications ECG electrode is located under a blood pressure cuff and therefore it is under pressure when the cuff is inflated. We show that in fact under pressure the impedance decreases, resulting in a higher quality ECG measurement. |
DOI
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Damage analysis of carbon fabric-reinforced composites under dynamic bending |
IBCAST |
2014 |
| H. Ullah; A. R. Harland; V. V. Silberschmidt |
| Fabric-reinforced polymer composites used in various applications can be subjected to dynamic loading such as impacts causing bending deformations. Under such loading scenarios, composite structures demonstrate multiple modes of damage and fracture if compared with more traditional, macroscopically homogeneous, structural materials such as metals and alloys. Among damage and fracture modes are fibre breaking, transverse matrix cracking, debonding between fibres and matrix and delamination. Damage evolution affects both their in-service properties and performance that can deteriorate with time. These failure modes need adequate means of analysis and investigation, the major approaches being experimental characterization and numerical simulations. This study deals with analysis of damage in carbon fabric-reinforced polymers (CFRP) under dynamic bending. The properties of, and damage evolution in, the composite laminates were analysed using a combination of mechanical testing and microstructural damage analysis using optical microscopy. Experimental tests are carried out to characterize the behavior of CFRP composites under large-deflection dynamic bending in Izod type impact tests using Resil Impactor. A series of impact tests is carried out at various energy levels to obtain the force-time diagrams and absorbed energy profiles for laminates. Three-dimensional finite element (FE) models are implemented in the commercial code Abaqus/Explicit to study the deformation behavior and damage in composites for cases of dynamic bending. In these models, multiple layers of bilinear cohesive-zone elements are placed at the damage locations identified in microscopic study. Initiation and progression of inter-ply delamination at the impact and bending locations is studied numerically by employing cohesive-zone elements between each ply of the composite. Stress-based criteria are used for damage initiation, and fracture-mechanics techniques to capture its progression in composite - aminates. The developed numerical models are capable to simulate these damage mechanisms as well as their subsequent interaction observed in tests and microscopy. Simulations results showed a good agreement when compared to experimentally obtained transient response of the woven laminates. |
DOI
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Design and preliminary affective characterization of a novel fabric-based tactile display |
HAPTICS |
2014 |
| M. Bianchi; G. Valenza; A. Serio; A. Lanatà; A. Greco; M. Nardelli; E. P. Scilingo; A. Bicchi |
| In this work we present a novel wearable haptic system based on an elastic fabric which can be moved forward and backward over the user forearm thus simulating a human caress. The system allows to control both the velocity of the “caress-like” movement, by regulating motor velocity, and the “strength of the caress”, by regulating motor positions and hence the force exerted by the fabric on the user forearm. Along with a description of the mechanical design and control of the system, we also report the preliminary results of psycho-physiological assessment tests performed by six healthy participants. Such an assessment is intended as a preliminary characterization of the device capability of eliciting tactually emotional states in humans using different combinations of velocity and caress strength. The emotional state is expressed in terms of arousal and valence. Moreover, the activation of the autonomic nervous system is also evaluated through the analysis of the electrodermal response (EDR). The main results reveal a statistically significant correlation between the perceived arousal level and the “strength of the caress” and between the perceived valence level and the “velocity of the caress”. Moreover, we found that phasic EDR is able to discern between pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. These preliminary results are very encouraging and confirm the effectiveness of this device in conveying emotional-like haptic stimuli in a controllable and wearable fashion. |
DOI
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Impact of Skin–Electrode Interface on Electrocardiogram Measurements Using Conductive Textile Electrodes |
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement |
2014 |
| B. Taji; S. Shirmohammadi; V. Groza; I. Batkin |
| Physicians' understanding of biosignals as measured with medical instruments becomes the foundation of their decisions and diagnoses of patients, as they rely strongly on what the instruments show. Thus, it is critical and very important to ensure that the instruments' recordings exactly reflect what is happening in the patient's body so that the acquired signal is the real one or at least as close to the real in-body signal as possible. This is such an important issue that sometimes physicians use invasive measurements to obtain the real biosignal. Generating an in-body signal from what a measurement device shows is called “signal purification” or “reconstruction” and can be done only when we have adequate information about the interface between the body and the monitoring device. In this paper, first, we present a device that we developed for electrocardiogram (ECG) acquisition and transfer to PC. To evaluate the performance of the device, we use it to measure ECG and apply conductive textile as our ECG electrode. Then, we evaluate ECG signals captured by different electrodes, specifically traditional gel Ag/AgCl and dry golden plate electrodes, and compare the results, allowing us to investigate if ECG measured with the device is proper for applications where no skin preparation is allowed, such as ECG-assisted blood pressure monitoring devices. Next, we propose a method to reconstruct the ECG signal from the signal acquired by our device, with respect to the interface characteristics and their relation to the ECG. The interface in this paper is skin-electrode interface for conductive textiles. In the last stage of this paper, we explore the effects of pressure on skin-electrode interface impedance and its parametrical variation. |
DOI
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Inkjet-Printed Microstrip Patch Antennas Realized on Textile for Wearable Applications |
IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters |
2014 |
| W. G. Whittow; A. Chauraya; J. C. Vardaxoglou; Y. Li; R. Torah; K. Yang; S. Beeby; J. Tudor |
| This letter introduces a new technique of inkjet printing antennas on textiles. A screen-printed interface layer was used to reduce the surface roughness of the polyester/cotton material that facilitated the printing of a continuous conducting surface. Conducting ink was used to create three inkjet-printed microstrip patch antennas. An efficiency of 53% was achieved for a fully flexible antenna with two layers of ink. Measurements of the antennas bent around a polystyrene cylinder indicated that a second layer of ink improved the robustness to bending. |
DOI
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Health monitoring using textile sensors and electrodes: An overview and integration of technologies |
MeMeA |
2014 |
| H. Carvalho; A. P. Catarino; A. Rocha; O. Postolache |
| This paper gives an overview of technologies and results of integration and test of textile integrated sensors and electrodes for monitoring of biosignals (electrocardiographic - ECG and electromyographic - EMG), breathing and moisture. Using a seamless jacquard knitting machine, it is possible to integrate these sensors and electrodes directly into the fabrics, which can then be used in clothing for monitoring of elderly people, in sports or in hazardous occupations. The total integration of the sensing elements and connections into the garment presents great advantages in physical as well as psychological comfort of the user. It has been shown that the measurements are of adequate quality for most of the applications. In some cases, as is the case of ECG and EMG, signals acquired are similar to those obtained using conventional electrodes. |
DOI
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Textile sensing platforms for remote monitoring of physical interaction with the environment |
ISMICT |
2014 |
| R. Paradiso; C. Mancuso; G. M. De Toma; L. Caldani |
| This work focus on the design and implementation of a wearable system, based on fabric sensors and inertial platforms, for ambulatory sensing of muscle activity and body movements. The platform has been conceived as a tool for remote monitoring of physical interaction with the environment of patients after stroke. For unobtrusiveness and user-compliance, this system is fully integrated in clothing: trousers and sweatshirt. The system is modular to allow separate monitoring of upper or lower extremity performance. Design and technical solutions are reported. This research activity was done in the frame of the European Project INTERACTION, aiming at the development of a system for a continuous daily-life monitoring of the functional performance of stroke survivors in their physical interaction with the environment. |
DOI
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Characterization of the electrode-skin impedance of textile electrodes |
Design of Circuits and Integrated Systems |
2014 |
| C. C. Oliveira; J. Machado da Silva; I. G. Trindade; F. Martins |
| Wearable systems are expected to contribute for improving traditional biopotential signals monitoring devices due to higher freedom and unobtrusiveness provided to the wearer. Textile electrodes present advantages compared with the conventional Ag/AgCl electrodes for the capturing of biopotentials, namely in terms of skin irritation due to the hydrogel and the need of a technician to place the electrodes on the correct positions. Due to the lack of hydrogel, textile electrodes present different electrical contact characteristics. The skin-electrode impedance is an important feature since it affects the captured signal quality. Although a low impedance is desired, a comfortable wearable system should not require the electrodes to be covered by the hydrogel or be moistened. A forearm sleeve provided with textile electrodes was used to study the electrode-skin impedance and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of surface electromyographic (EMG) signals on a long-term use basis. The sleeve can be adjusted for different levels of tightening to control the pressure applied on the electrodes. The obtained results provide valuable information on the pressure that the textile garments of a sleeve or vest should apply on the recording electrodes, in order to assure a good electrical and mechanical contact between the electrodes and the skin and decrease the noise due to motion. It was observed that the electrode-skin impedance measurement alone is not sufficient to establish a relation with the SNR. The extraction of parameters from an electrical equivalent model of the electrode-skin interface allows to determine a relation with the model parameters and the SNR. The evaluation of these parameters during long-term monitoring will allow assessing the quality of biopotential measurements in textile electrodes. |
DOI
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Dual-Band Suspended-Plate Wearable Textile Antenna |
IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters |
2013 |
| N. H. Mohd Rais; P. J. Soh; M. F. A. Malek; G. A. E. Vandenbosch |
| A novel, dual-band wearable textile antenna fabricated using conductive textiles for operation in both ISM and HiperLAN applications is presented. Its concept is based on the suspended-plate antenna. It features a 60 × 45 mm2 rectangular radiating element suspended over a 80 × 60 mm2 ground plane using a 5-mm foam substrate. The proposed rectangular radiator is modified using slots, slits, and shorting posts to enable dual-band resonance and broad bandwidths in both frequency bands: 277 MHz (2.22-2.48 GHz) in the ISM and 850 MHz (4.95-5.80 GHz) in the HiperLAN band. The antenna radiates unidirectionally, and the ground plane avoids coupling to the users' body. The SP-WTA shows a total efficiency between 67% and 89% and a peak gain of 8.33 dB. |
DOI
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A smart wearable textile array system for biomedical telemetry applications |
IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques |
2013 |
| P. J. Soh; B. Van den Bergh; H. Xu; H. Aliakbarian; S. Farsi; P. Samal; G. A. E. Vandenbosch; D. M. M. P. Schreurs; B. K. J. C. Nauwelaers |
| A smart wearable textile array system (SWTAS) with direction of arrival (DoA) estimation and beamforming is proposed and developed for biomedical telemetry applications. This conformal system enables effective and continuous patient monitoring when combined with one or more health sensors, as information about the subject's health condition is received adaptively to guarantee link reliability. This operation is facilitated by a receiver front-end and a digital baseband beamforming network, which enables scalability and flexibility. The proposed SWTAS also features flexible antenna arrays made using textiles, which are arbitrarily located on a cylindrically shaped body phantom to ensure wide spatial DoA estimation capability. Besides being designed to suit on-body placement, the system performance is also characterized for on-body usage using a commercial body-emulating liquid, and placed at a realistic distance from the body, considering user clothing. Investigation indicated a good performance in the system's ±80° forward plane with a DoA accuracy of 3° . Finally, a practical evaluation is presented using two transmitters placed at distinct locations and distances. The system successfully estimated both DoAs and received the telemetry signals using beamforming. |
DOI
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Practical design aspects for textile antennas |
APSURSI |
2013 |
| P. Salonen; P. de Maagt |
| Antennas made out of textile materials suffer from performance perturbing effects whose impact mainly depend on the mechanical properties of the fabrics. The soft and flexible nature of the fabrics is essential for user comfort in wearable systems, but makes the antenna performance sensitive to bending, stretching, compression, and the manufacturing process. This paper discusses on practical design issues related to textile antenna design process. Examples are given for robust antenna designs for satellite communication and life jacket integrated antennas. |
DOI
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On-body characterization of textile antennas for biomedical health monitoring systems |
2013 IEEE Topical Conference on Biomedical Wireless Technologies, Networks, and Sensing Systems |
2013 |
| P. J. Soh; G. A. E. Vandenbosch; D. M. M. P. Schreurs |
| In recent years, application of textiles as sensors in wearable biomedical health monitoring is increasingly popular. Since most of such sensors require the use of a wireless data link for bio-signal transmission back to the care-givers, there exists a need to integrate wearable and flexible antennas onto such wearable monitors to ensure comfort to users. This work presents two all-textile planar inverted-F antennas (PIFAs) for such purpose, and investigates their performance in close proximity of a real human user. Besides featuring broad bandwidths, larger than requirements, both antennas also possess favorable properties, namely compact in size, conformal, and low-cost. |
DOI
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Woven Temperature and Humidity Sensors on Flexible Plastic Substrates for E-Textile Applications |
IEEE Sensors Journal |
2013 |
| G. Mattana; T. Kinkeldei; D. Leuenberger; C. Ataman; J. J. Ruan; F. Molina-Lopez; A. V. Quintero; G. Nisato; G. Tröster; D. Briand; N. F. de Rooij |
| In this paper, a woven textile containing temperature and humidity sensors realized on flexible, plastic stripes is presented. The authors introduce two different sensors fabrication techniques: the first one consists of a conventional photolithography patterning technique; the second one, namely inkjet-printing, is here presented as an effective, low-cost alternative. In both cases, we obtain temperature and humidity sensors that can be easily integrated within a fabric by using a conventional weaving machine. All the sensors are fully characterized and the performances obtained with the two different fabrication techniques are compared and discussed, pointing out advantages and drawbacks resulting from each fabrication technique. The bending tests performed on these sensors show that they can be successfully woven without being damaged. A demonstrator, consisting of a mechanical support for the e-textile, a read-out electronic circuit, and a graphical PC interface to monitor the acquisition of humidity and temperature values, is also presented and described. This paper opens an avenue for real integration between printed electronics and traditional textile technology and materials. Printing techniques may be successfully used for the fabrication of e-textile devices, paving the way for the production of large area polymeric stripes and thus enabling new applications that, at the moment, cannot be developed with the standard lithography methods. |
DOI
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An ECG monitoring system using conductive fabric |
MeMeA |
2013 |
| B. Taji; S. Shirmohammadi; V. Groza; M. Bolic |
| In this work we evaluated the quality of the ECG signals obtained from conductive fabric dry electrodes. The purpose of this work was to evaluate if lead I ECG collected with dry conductive fabric electrodes is suitable for applications where no special preparation of electrodes specific for ECG monitoring is allowed. An example of such application is ECG-assisted blood pressure (BP) monitoring device where the user of the BP device should only follow standard procedures of BP measurements. In this paper, we present a system that we developed for the acquisition of ECG signals and their transfer to the PC, and we evaluate the quality of the ECG signals from different electrodes placed at biceps and wrist or touched by fingers. In our experiments we compared signals obtained using gel Ag/AgCl, dry contact electrodes made of golden plates and conductive fabric-based electrodes. Conductive fabric-based electrodes are capable of collecting ECG with accuracy comparable to the accuracy of the signal collected by gel electrodes. |
DOI
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Fully fabric knitted antennas for wearable electronics |
2013 USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting (Joint with AP-S Symposium) |
2013 |
| S. Zhang; A. Chauraya; R. Seager; Y. C. Vardaxoglou; W. Whittow; T. Acti; T. Dias |
| Summary form only given. The worldwide wearable technology market is expected to exceed $6B by 2016 and wearable antennas will be used by the emergency services, fashion designers, military, athletes and patients. Exploring different methods of fabricating antennas is important especially as user comfort and aesthetics are key considerations in ensuring mainstream acceptance. Previously the authors have examined embroidered antennas using highly conductive threads Chauraya et al. EuCAP 2012. Please see this paper for a detailed literature review of wearable antennas. In this paper, we examine knitting as a technique of fabricating antennas. These antennas were fully fabric with a knitted ground plane, a knitted substrate and a knitted patch element. They were fabricated using industrial knitting machinery and hence could potentially be scaled up to mass-manufacture. Four different versions were considered (all had a knitted ground plane and substrate): i) a conducting coated nylon fabric (Nora Dell); ii) a knitted patch with a high fiber density (Sample 1); iii) a knitted patch with a medium fiber density (Sample 2) and iv) a knitted patch with a coarse fiber density (Sample 3). The resulting antennas were extremely flexible and soft to the touch. The return loss results are shown in the figure. All the antennas were fed with a probe feed positioned the same distance from the edge of the patch - the magnitude of the return loss could be improved by finding the optimal feeding point. The S11 and associated bandwidth results of the antennas suggests that the Nora Dell antenna exhibits the smallest losses. The results also indicate that the losses of the knitted antennas improve as the knitted patches became denser. The presentation will include measured radiation patterns, efficiency results and an in-depth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of this manufacturing technique. |
DOI
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On-body investigation of dual band diamond textile antenna for wearable applications at 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz |
EUCAP |
2013 |
| M. E. Jalil; M. K. A. Rahim; N. A. Samsuri; N. A. Murad; N. Othman; H. A. Majid |
| This paper describes the design of a dual band flexible textile antenna with diamond shaped and wider bandwidth. The textile antenna is designed at 2.45GHz and 5.8 GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band. The conductive copper tape is used as a conducting. In order to enhance flexibility and feel comfortable for user, the denim material is used as substrate material. This work also describes the antenna performance toward backside of human body. Detuning frequency, fluctuating bandwidth, reducing efficiency and degradation of realized gain have been identified based on simulation and measurement result. The maximum Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) is determined by varying the distance has been simulated using Microwave Studio Computer Software Technology (CST) by numerical method using human body Voxel model. |
DOI
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Inkjet printed dipole antennas on textiles for wearable communications |
IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation |
2013 |
| A. Chauraya; W. G. Whittow; J. C. Vardaxoglou; Y. Li; R. Torah; K. Yang; S. Beeby; J. Tudor |
| This study presents an inkjet printed textile antenna realised using a novel fabrication methodology. Conventionally, it is very difficult to inkjet print onto textiles because of surface roughness. This study demonstrates how this can be overcome by developing an interface coated layer which bonds to a standard polyester cotton fabric, creating a smooth surface. A planar dipole antenna has been fabricated, simulated and measured. This study includes DC resistance, RF reflection coefficient results and antenna radiation patterns. Efficiencies of greater than 60% have been achieved with only one layer of conducting ink. The study demonstrates that the interface layer saves considerable time and cost in terms of the number of inkjet layers needed whilst also improving the printing resolution. |
DOI
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Performances evaluation of textile electrodes for EMG remote measurements |
EMBC |
2013 |
| B. Sumner; C. Mancuso; R. Paradiso |
| This work focus on the evaluation of textile electrodes for EMG signals acquisition. Signals have been acquired simultaneously from textile electrode and from gold standard electrodes, by using the same acquisition system; tests were done across subjects and with multiple trials to enable a more complete analysis. This research activity was done in the frame of the European Project Interaction, aiming at the development of a system for a continuous daily-life monitoring of the functional performance of stroke survivors in their physical interaction with the environment. |
DOI
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The electronic textile interface workshop: Facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration |
ISTAS |
2013 |
| C. Zeagler; S. Audy; S. Pobiner; H. Profita; S. Gilliland; T. Starner |
| We present our findings from the Electronic Textile Interface Swatch Book Workshops. The workshops were designed as the first in a series of collaborative design experiences that introduce small groups of faculty/students teams from particular design disciplines to the concept of electronic textile interfaces (ETIs) through the use of a textile interface “swatch book” with the support of technician/facilitators. The work here focuses on the experience of the working relationship between the designer participants and the more technologically oriented facilitators, rather than on how much the participants learned about technology. The contribution of this work is a an exploration into understanding how through the use of technology we can bridge the gap between the distant discipline expertise needed to work on projects like ETIs. |
DOI
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Using textile electrode EMG for prosthetic movement identification in transradial amputees |
2013 IEEE International Conference on Body Sensor Networks |
2013 |
| H. Zhang; L. Tian; L. Zhang; G. Li |
| Wearable systems based on continuously monitoring of vital physiological signals without interfering with user's daily life much are desired urgently in health care. Similarly, the limb amputees who need to wear their myoelectric prostheses for a long time daily expect a comfortable and reliable prosthetic system. It is inconvenient in clinical application of a myoelectric prosthesis to use the commonly used gel electrode for electromyography (EMG) recording over all day. Textile electrode with characteristics of ventilation, flexibility, and folding, may be an ideal selection of physiological signal monitoring in clinical applications. In this study, the textile electrodes made using screen printing technology were used for EMG recordings and the real-time performance of the textile-electrode EMG in myoelectric control of multifunctional prostheses was investigated in transradial amputees and able-bodied subjects for comparison purpose. The results over seven able-bodied subjects showed that the textile electrode could achieve similar performance as conventional metal electrodes for both the off-line classification accuracy and the real-time motion completion rate in operating a virtual hand. With the textile electrodes, the average off-line classification accuracy of 73.4% and the real-time motion completion rate of 81.9% within a 5 s time limit were achieved in three transradial amputees. These pilot results suggested that the textile electrodes might be feasible for EMG recordings in control of myoelectric prostheses. |
DOI
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Changing the Culture of Do Not Touch: Interactive Textiles as Vehicles for Historical Education |
2012 Eighth International Conference on Intelligent Environments |
2012 |
| J. Taylor |
| A synthesis of computer technology and textiles extended the scope of a collection of historical artifacts into the environment surrounding the collection. Pillows used on replica furniture in the exhibit were used as interaction points. Each pillow consisted of one or more touch activated audible clips that were tied to electro luminescent wire or LED's. Each pillow used an open source set of components that could be adjusted and tailored to changes in the exhibit so that curators could change audio files and sequencing. Each pillow would be controlled by one Arduino, one audio trigger, and one set of electro luminescent wire sequencers. These components were packaged into a small box along with batteries and placed inside the pillows. Each kit was designed to allow for expansion and use inside any pillow. |
DOI
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A textile-based capacitive breath-sensing system |
Proceedings of 2012 IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics |
2012 |
| C. M. Yang; T. Kao; N. N. Y. Chu; C. C. Wu; T. L. Yang |
| A textile-based breath-sensing system and the testing results with different postures are described. Two electrodes are placed on a belt, loosely buckled for user comfort, to charge and discharge a capacitor modeled off human movement of breathing. For most conditions of daily activities, the system has demonstrated capable of providing accurate measurement of respiratory rates. |
DOI
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Design and Manufacturing of Robust Textile Antennas for Harsh Environments |
IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation |
2012 |
| J. Lilja; P. Salonen; T. Kaija; P. de Maagt |
| Antennas made out of textile materials suffer from performance perturbing effects whose impact mainly depend on the mechanical properties of the fabrics. The soft and flexible nature of the fabrics is essential for user comfort in wearable systems, but makes the antenna performance sensitive to bending, stretching, compression, and the manufacturing process. Furthermore, water absorption into the woven textile structures can increase both the permittivity and the dielectric loss of the substrate materials. The potential performance reduction due to the material characteristics is addressed in this paper, and methods to improve performance robustness are introduced. Tests show that the use of a textile cover provides a rugged design which is insensitive to the effects of abrasion, saline water and varying climatic conditions. A dual frequency textile antenna is thoroughly tested and shown to be fully compliant with Iridium and GPS specifications. |
DOI
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Textile Interfaces: Embroidered Jog-Wheel, Beaded Tilt Sensor, Twisted Pair Ribbon, and Sound Sequins |
ISWC |
2012 |
| C. Zeagler; S. Gilliland; H. Profita; T. Starner |
| Electronic textiles (or e-textiles) attempt to integrate electronics and computing into fabric. In our efforts to create new e-textile interfaces and construction techniques for our Electronic Textile Interface Swatch Book (an e-textile toolkit), we have created a multi-use jog wheel using multilayer embroidery, sound sequins from PVDF film and a tilt sensor using a hanging bead, embroidery and capacitive sensing. In order to make capacitive sensing over long leads possible on the body, we have constructed twisted pair ribbon and demonstrated its effectiveness over more typical sensing techniques. We detail construction techniques and lessons learned from this technology exploration. |
DOI
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Large area sensor integration in textiles |
International Multi-Conference on Systems, Sygnals & Devices |
2012 |
| C. Kallmayer; E. Simon |
| In recent years, the integration of electronics in technical textiles has gained increasing attention especially in Europe. Many industry driven projects have already been started in this area on national as well as on European level. An example is the European project PASTA. In order to make the step towards industrial manufacturing of wearable electronics as well as smart large area technical textiles it is necessary to develop modular concepts as well as integration processes suitable for high volume production. Within PASTA new electronic packaging technologies and the development of new textile structures are investigated. By introducing new concepts for electronic packaging and module interconnects, a seamless, more comfortable and more robust integration of electronics in textiles will be possible. The main technological developments concentrate on different levels of integration: a new concept for bare die integration into a yarn, a new interconnect technology based on mechanical crimping, and the development of a stretchable interposer serving as a stress relief interface between the rigid component and the elastic fabric. The technologies will also be analyzed and evaluated regarding functionality and reliability. The proposed solutions for integration of electronics in textiles will cover a whole range of components, from ultra-small LEDs to complex multichip modules for sensor data processing. Moreover, a system design task will address the power distribution and system partitioning aspects to provide a complete solution for integration of a distributed sensor/actuator system in fabric. Different approaches are possible for large area sensors in textiles. The scope of this paper is to show which technologies enable the use of conductive yarns in a fabric for pressure and damage detection and in-situ monitoring of accumulated stress in composites to predict the residual lifetime and to indicate damage of industrial components. |
DOI
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The effects of human body and bending on dipole textile antenna performance and SAR |
2012 Asia Pacific Microwave Conference Proceedings |
2012 |
| N. A. Elias; N. A. Samsuri; M. K. A. Rahim; N. Othman |
| In this paper, the interaction between a single band textile antenna with human body is examined. The simulations are performed by means of CST Microwave Studio with a single band 2.4 GHz patch dipole antenna as the radiating source. The effects of bending and different distances from the body are also considered in this study. Results have clearly indicated that the human body has notably shifts the antenna resonant frequency and modifies the radiation pattern at the frequencies investigated. Furthermore, the results obtained show that the SAR values are significantly influenced by the amount of curvature of the antenna and the separation distance between the antenna and the human body. The averaged SAR value is increased up to 92.3 % when the curved textile antenna is bent and placed 1 mm away from the body. |
DOI
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Game interface using digital textile sensors, accelerometer and gyroscope |
IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics |
2012 |
| N. N. Y. Chu; C. M. Yang; C. C. Wu |
| Pressure sensors connecting with accelerometer and gyroscope through conductive, washable fabric, is designed into a dancing game to detect movements of a player. The firmware in microcontroller mounted on a belt can judge the player's movements with enough accuracy that the player would not be limited by conventional wires and resident equipments as used in other popular dancing games. This novel wearable entertainment system provides a mixed reality game interface in which users can dance through 3 Modes with increasing sophistication. |
DOI
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Life cycle assessment and eco-design of a textile-based large-area sensor system |
2012 Electronics Goes Green 2012+ |
2012 |
| A. R. Köhler; C. Lauterbach; A. Steinhage; J. C. Buiter; A. Techmer |
| The sensing floor is a smart textile application that supports Ambient Assisted Living as it introduces smart functions unobtrusively in the user's daily living environment. The technology is based on textile sensor areas and microelectronic modules, which are integrated invisibly in the textile underlay of carpets or laminates. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was carried out to support environmentally conscious decision-making in the course of product development. The results suggest that the system's electricity consumption during its use phase is the most relevant environmental aspect and that a 2.5 mm thick polyester fleece has the highest environmental burden of the materials in the product. The paper also reports about experiences with conducting a LCA in the context of the SME that develops and manufactures the sensing floor system. |
DOI
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Tactile dataglove with fabric-based sensors |
Humanoids |
2012 |
| G. Büscher; R. Kõiva; C. Schürmann; R. Haschke; H. J. Ritter |
| This paper introduces a novel, fabric-based, flexible, and stretchable tactile sensor, capable of seamlessly covering natural shapes. Our design allows for several tactile cells to be embedded in a single sensor patch, and can have an arbitrary perimeter and can cover freeform surfaces. The sensor remains operational on top of soft padding, facilitating the possibility to build human-like artificial skin. It provides force measurements from subtle to high forces (0.1-30N), which easily covers the common range for everyday human manual interactions. Due to a layered construction, the sensor is very robust and can withstand huge normal forces without sustaining damage. We discuss the construction of the sensor and evaluate its performance. As an exciting application for the sensor, we describe the construction of a wearable tactile dataglove with 54 tactile cells. |
DOI
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Effects of human body and antenna orientation on dipole textile antenna performance and SAR |
APACE |
2012 |
| N. A. Elias; N. A. Samsuri; M. K. A. Rahim; N. Othman; M. E. Jalil |
| Wearable textile antennas are supposed to be integrated within the clothing or secured on the body. Therefore, the placement of the antennas and their orientation need to be carefully determined. In this paper, the interaction between a single band dipole textile antenna for wireless off-body communication applications with human body is examined. The simulations are performed by means of CST Microwave Studio with a single band 2.4 GHz patch dipole antenna as the radiating source. The effects of human body are taken into account and different antenna orientations, locations and distances from the body are also considered in this study. Results have clearly indicated that the human body has notably shifts the antenna resonant frequency and modifies the radiation pattern at the frequency investigated. Furthermore, the results obtained show that the SAR values are significantly influenced by the antenna orientation and position. SAR is increased by utmost 16 % when the textile antenna is horizontally orientated compared to antenna in vertical orientation. |
DOI
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Study and evaluation of a single differential sensor design based on electro-textile electrodes for ECG biometrics applications |
2011 IEEE SENSORS Proceedings |
2011 |
| H. Silva; A. Lourenço; R. Lourenço; P. Leite; D. Coutinho; A. Fred |
| In this paper we present a study and evaluation of a custom single differential sensor design for ECG data acquisition, recurring to electro-textile electrodes as the interface between the sensor and the skin. Our work is focused on improving current signal acquisition methods for ECG biometrics, targeting wearable, continuous and unobtrusive applications. A circuit with virtual ground was also devised for enhanced usability. The purpose is to build upon and further extend the state-of-the-art in the field, improving existing signal acquisition conditions by: minimizing the number of electrical contact points with the subject's body; eliminating the need of gel in the interface with the skin; and devising a non-intrusive design that can be easily integrated into wearable devices. Experimental analysis has been performed to compare the proposed approach with a reference acquisition sensor, and results validate the potential of our method. |
DOI
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On the use of soft surfaces to reduce back radiation in textile microstrip patch antennas |
EUCAP |
2011 |
| I. Gallego-Gallego; O. Quevedo-Teruel; L. Inclan-Sanchez; E. Rajo-Iglesias; F. J. García-Vidal |
| Nowadays there is a huge number of innovative wireless services demanded by the users and all of them require antennas with new features. One of these new characteristics which is very convenient for the comfortability of the users is the integration of some of these services in the garments in other words to design wearable terminals. On the other hand, for monitoring or detection applications, such as firefighters, the integration of the antennas in these garments is not only a question of convenience, it is a security necessity. However, most of the actual devices loose part of the radiated energy in radiation to the body of the wearers. In this communication, we propose the combination of soft surfaces with traditional microstrip patch antennas for reducing the level of back radiation in wearable applications. The studied has been extended to the case of cylindrical modification of the antenna's shape to take into account the conform-ability that will be required to the textile antenna. |
DOI
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A novel see-through screen based on weave fabrics |
2011 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo |
2011 |
| Cha Zhang; Ruigang Yang; T. Large; Zhengyou Zhang |
| See-through screens (STS) have found important applications in remote collaboration systems to enhance non-verbal communication and gaze awareness. Existing STS designs often sacrifice the display quality significantly, rendering low-contrast images that discount the overall user experience. In this paper, we present a novel see-through screen solution based on weave fabrics. Such fabrics are known to be acoustically transparent and used to build professional projection screens for Hollywood studios. We place a cam-era immediately behind the screen and synchronize it with a 120Hz projector to perform time-multiplexing display and video capture. By focusing the camera at the user 4–5 feet away from the screen, the image of the weave fabric will be severely blurred. We present the imaging principle of the setup, and derive image processing techniques to enhance the quality of the captured video. The overall system is low cost, has much better display quality than existing systems, and can be used to build wall-size see-through screens for various applications. |
DOI
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Textile electrodes and integrated smart textile for reliable biomonitoring |
2011 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society |
2011 |
| R. Paradiso; M. Pacelli |
| Since birth the first and the most natural interface for the body is fabric, a soft, warm and reassuring material. Cloth is usually covering more than 80 % of the skin; which leads us to consider textile material as the most appropriate interface where new sensorial and interactive functions can be implemented. The new generation of personalised monitoring systems is based on this paradigm: functions like sensing, transmission and elaboration are implementable in the materials through the textile technology. Functional yarns and fibres are usable to realise garments where electrical and computing properties are combined with the traditional mechanical characteristics, giving rise to textile platforms that are comparable with the cloths that are normally used to produce our garments. The feel of the fabric is the same, but the functionality is augmented. Nowadays, consumers demand user-friendly connectivity and interactivity; sensing clothes are the most natural and ordinary interface able to follow us, everywhere in a non-intrusive way, in natural harmony with our body. |
DOI
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Interfacing Mobile Devices with Electronic Textiles Using Spatial Information |
ISWC |
2011 |
| B. S. Kim; H. S. Shin; Y. K. Son; I. Y. Cho; H. S. Lee |
| Study results on commercial electronic textiles (e-textiles) have shown that convenience aspect needs to be improved. In this paper, we propose an enhanced version of Drop-n-Play interface that provides an easy and hazard-free method to connect mobile devices to e-textiles. User tests have been conducted to demonstrate its performance. |
DOI
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Haptic interaction of hair and textiles |
2011 IEEE International Symposium on VR Innovation |
2011 |
| N. Magnenat-Thalmann |
| The 3D representation of animated objects is largely exploited in many industries for over two decades. The touch-based interaction with such objects for modelling purposes is an increasingly active research area with huge application potential. However, simulating the contact interactions enabling to model complex deformable objects in virtual reality environments and reproducing the associated haptic sensations are challenging tasks. Their computationally intensive character requires defining an appropriate trade-off between the allowed simulation accuracy and the requested performance. Time-critical tasks must be individually computed at the desired speed and efficiently synchronized in order to enable a physically plausible interaction experience. Hence, applications enabling haptics-based manipulation require a tailored and computationally efficient design. In our presentation, we discuss two such systems for the interaction with hair and textiles. Results of the European Research Project Haptex will be presented. |
DOI
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| |
Impedance characteristics of body-worn electro-textile antenna under flat and bent positions |
AEMC |
2011 |
| S. Sankaralingam; S. Dhar; R. P. Ghosh; S. Chakraborty; B. Gupta |
| The evolution of antenna technology for man-machine interface has taken quantum leaps in utilizing textile materials as antenna substrates. In future this will allow complete freedom to develop body-worn antenna systems embedded in so-called “smart clothes”. Smart clothes (also called `electro-textiles”) will emerge in various sports outfits, emergency workers' outfits, military, medical, space applications and so on. The ability to establish wireless broadband communication link is an essential requirement for smart clothes. In this paper, the impedance characteristics of a triangular microstrip patch antenna, made up of smart Flectron fabric and insulating polyester textile material, for such wireless broadband communication have been examined under flat and bent positions. |
DOI
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| |
Bending effects on a textile microstrip antenna |
APSURSI |
2011 |
| N. Amaro; C. Mendes; P. Pinho |
| This paper describes the design of a textile microstrip antenna for 2.4 GHz. Two different fabrics are used: one for the dielectric part and another one for the conductor part. The dielectric constant of the dielectric fabric is determined experimentally. The input matching is studied by electromagnetic simulation and experimentally. Since the antenna is meant to be incorporated in the user's clothe, the effect that the antenna bending has on the matching level is also investigated both theoretically and experimentally. |
DOI
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AmbiKraf: A Nonemissive Fabric Display for Fast Changing Textile Animation |
2011 IFIP 9th International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing |
2011 |
| R. L. Peiris; M. J. Tharakan; N. Fernando; A. D. Chrok |
| With this paper we present AmbiKraf, a none missive fast color changing fabric display. Our main motivation is to investigate the possibility of an actual fabric technology that can change the color in the form of a display. The core novelty of this paper addresses in presenting a base line technology that enables such a ubiquitous fabric display that lets the user interact with the actual fabric itself. Here, we use thermo chromic inks and Peltier semiconductor elements to achieve a rapid color changing display. The implemented controller is able to control the temperature with a high accuracy and thereby accurately control the color of the thermo chromic ink display. In addition the controller has fast heating/cooling ability which presents the ability for a relatively high speed display on the fabric. The calming nature of this animated fabric display is presented through few prototypes that ubiquitously combine the technology with daily fabrics. The paper describes the complete implementation of the system and presents a detailed analysis of the technical results. |
DOI
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| |
Improvement of the on-body performance of a dual-band textile antenna using an EBG structure |
2010 Loughborough Antennas & Propagation Conference |
2010 |
| N. Chahat; M. Zhadobov; R. Sauleau; K. Mahdjoubi |
| A new dual-band wearable textile antenna designed for body-centric communications is introduced. The antenna is fully characterized in free space and on the body model, with and without an electromagnetic band gap (EBG) substrate. The band gap array consists of 3 × 3 elements and is used to reduce the interaction with human tissues. With the EBG back reflector, the radiation into the body is reduced by more than 15 dB. Increases of 5.2 dB and 3 dB gain are noticed at 2.45 GHz and 5.5 GHz, respectively. The results are presented for the return loss, radiation pattern, efficiency, and specific absorption rate (SAR). |
DOI
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| |
Arm-band type textile-MP3 player with multi-layer Planar Fashionable Circuit Board (P-FCB) techniques |
ISWC |
2010 |
| Seulki Lee; Binhee Kim; Taehwan Roh; Sunjoo Hong; Hoi-Jun Yoo |
| Arm-band type textile-MP3 player using direct chip integration technique into textile named Planar Fashionable Circuit Board (P-FCB) is designed. The multi-layered board manufacturing technique improves the integration level so that more complex system can be implemented using P-FCB. Also, wearable user input-output (I/O) interface makes people control the system freely without any disturbance. Finally, Arm-band type textile-MP3 player system is developed and demonstrated to show the possibility of using P-FCB in wearable entertainment system. |
DOI
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| |
Breathing Feedback System with Wearable Textile Sensors |
2010 International Conference on Body Sensor Networks |
2010 |
| E. Mitchell; S. Coyle; N. E. O'Connor; D. Diamond; T. Ward |
| Breathing exercises form an essential part of the treatment for respiratory illnesses such as cystic fibrosis. Ideally these exercises should be performed on a daily basis. This paper presents an interactive system using a wearable textile sensor to monitor breathing patterns. A graphical user interface provides visual real-time feedback to patients. The aim of the system is to encourage the correct performance of prescribed breathing exercises by monitoring the rate and the depth of breathing. The system is straight forward to use, low-cost and can be installed easily within a clinical setting or in the home. Monitoring the user with a wearable sensor gives real-time feedback to the user as they perform the exercise, allowing them to perform the exercises independently. There is also potential for remote monitoring where the user's overall performance over time can be assessed by a clinician. |
DOI
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| |
On the Road to a Textile Integrated Bioimpedance Early Warning System for Lung Edema |
2010 International Conference on Body Sensor Networks |
2010 |
| T. Schlebusch; L. Röthlingshöfer; S. Kim; M. Köny; S. Leonhardt |
| Early detection of lung edema for patients suffering from chronic heart disease improves the medical treatment and can avoid committal of the patient to an intensive care unit. Therefore, an early warning system monitoring the amount of fluid in the lungs by measuring trans-thoracic bioimpedance outside the body has been developed. The proposed system(TiBIS) consists of a textile integrated measurement module and a Personal Digital Assistant for signal processing and user interaction. |
DOI
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A wearable, wireless electronic interface for textile sensors lin shu |
Proceedings of 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems |
2010 |
| X. M. Tao; D. D. Feng |
| Electronic interfaces for wearable sensors require wireless connection, appropriate measurement range, small size, simple and robust structure, insensitivity to noise and comfort to wearers in daily life. A novel wearable, wireless electronic interface for resistive textile sensors is presented, which meets the requirements and has the ability to provide real-time measurement. System configuration, accuracy and resolution have been analyzed in-depth and design rules have been defined. Experimental results show that this electronic interface exhibits less than 1% error in a large measurement range for wearable textile resistive sensors. It also shows a good stability to power supply interference. The interface has been successfully applied in a foot pressure measurement system. |
DOI
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| |
Optical wireless data transmission with a sensor network integrated in a textile-reinforced composite |
2010 IEEE Sensors |
2010 |
| A. Heinig; F. Deicke; A. Kunadt; E. Starke; W. J. Fischer |
| In this work a wireless sensor network has been integrated in a textile-reinforced composite. It has been shown that an optical IrDA data transmission between an IrDA transceiver which is part of the sensor network and an external IrDA receiver is possible over a distance of a few ten centimetres. A special IrDA controller was developed to reduce power consumption and the number of components. All sensor data stored in the integrated memory can be transmitted with a high data rate using the optical interface. The power consumption is very low compared with radio systems. |
DOI
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| |
High-density EMG E-Textile systems for the control of active prostheses |
2010 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology |
2010 |
| D. Farina; T. Lorrain; F. Negro; N. Jiang |
| Myoelectric control of active prostheses requires electrode systems that are easy to apply for daily repositioning of the electrodes by the user. In this study we propose the use of Smart Fabric and Interactive Textile (SFIT) systems as an alternative solution for recording high-density EMG signals for myoelectric control. A sleeve covering the upper and lower arm, which contains 100 electrodes arranged in four grids of 5×5 electrodes, was used to record EMG signals in 3 subjects during the execution of 9 tasks of the wrist and hand. The signals were analyzed by extracting wavelet coefficients which were classified with linear discriminant analysis. The average classification accuracy for the nine tasks was 89.1 ± 1.9 %. These results show that SFIT systems can be used as an effective way for muscle-machine interfacing. |
DOI
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| |
An innovative breathing game applied with textile sensors |
2010 2nd International IEEE Consumer Electronics Society's Games Innovations Conference |
2010 |
| C. M. Yang; C. W. Yang; W. C. Fang; W. C. Huang; S. H. Hung; C. H. Wang; H. H. Lin; Y. M. Huang |
| Recently there has been much interest in and speculation about whether games could be used to improve health, learning and behaviour but there is little empirical evidence that games work. Physiological signals open new channels for communication between the player and the game. In this paper, we use a 4-stage breath belt to detect both breath rate and amplitude; socks with dome-shaped sensors can detect gait. The sensors are all digital textile sensors. Sensing breath and gait signals from the player, without discomfort, makes this process continuous and easy to use in real-time. Another advantage is that the 4-stage breath belt and socks can also perform breath therapy and gait analysis. So, we develop this system which can not only extract breath signals and gait parameters but also express images which are directly provided to the user for health analysis during games. We designed a respiratory and gait-computer interface for games. |
DOI
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| |
In-Shoe Plantar Pressure Measurement and Analysis System Based on Fabric Pressure Sensing Array |
IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine |
2010 |
| L. Shu; T. Hua; Y. Wang; Q. Li; D. D. Feng; X. Tao |
| Spatial and temporal plantar pressure distributions are important and useful measures in footwear evaluation, athletic training, clinical gait analysis, and pathology foot diagnosis. However, present plantar pressure measurement and analysis systems are more or less uncomfortable to wear and expensive. This paper presents an in-shoe plantar pressure measurement and analysis system based on a textile fabric sensor array, which is soft, light, and has a high-pressure sensitivity and a long service life. The sensors are connected with a soft polymeric board through conductive yarns and integrated into an insole. A stable data acquisition system interfaces with the insole, wirelessly transmits the acquired data to remote receiver through Bluetooth path. Three configuration modes are incorporated to gain connection with desktop, laptop, or smart phone, which can be configured to comfortably work in research laboratories, clinics, sport ground, and other outdoor environments. A real-time display and analysis software is presented to calculate parameters such as mean pressure, peak pressure, center of pressure (COP), and shift speed of COP. Experimental results show that this system has stable performance in both static and dynamic measurements. |
DOI
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| |
BIOTEX—Biosensing Textiles for Personalised Healthcare Management |
IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine |
2010 |
| S. Coyle; K. T. Lau; N. Moyna; D. O'Gorman; D. Diamond; F. Di Francesco; D. Costanzo; P. Salvo; M. G. Trivella; D. E. De Rossi; N. Taccini; R. Paradiso; J. A. Porchet; A. Ridolfi; J. Luprano; C. Chuzel; T. Lanier; F. Revol-Cavalier; S. Schoumacker; V. Mourier; I. Chartier; R. Convert; H. De-Moncuit; C. Bini |
| Textile-based sensors offer an unobtrusive method of continually monitoring physiological parameters during daily activities. Chemical analysis of body fluids, noninvasively, is a novel and exciting area of personalized wearable healthcare systems. BIOTEX was an EU-funded project that aimed to develop textile sensors to measure physiological parameters and the chemical composition of body fluids, with a particular interest in sweat. A wearable sensing system has been developed that integrates a textile-based fluid handling system for sample collection and transport with a number of sensors including sodium, conductivity, and pH sensors. Sensors for sweat rate, ECG, respiration, and blood oxygenation were also developed. For the first time, it has been possible to monitor a number of physiological parameters together with sweat composition in real time. This has been carried out via a network of wearable sensors distributed around the body of a subject user. This has huge implications for the field of sports and human performance and opens a whole new field of research in the clinical setting. |
DOI
|
| |
Wearable technology for biomechanics: e-textile or micromechanical sensors? Conversations in BME |
IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine |
2010 |
| P. H. Veltink; D. De Rossi |
| The possibility of gathering reliable information about movement characteristics during activities of daily living holds particular appeal for researchers. Data such as this could be used to analyze the performance of individuals undergoing rehabilitation and to provide vital information on whether or not there is an improvement during a neurorehabilitation protocol. Wearable devices are particularly promising toward this aim, because they can be used in unstructured environments (e.g., at home). Recently, two different approaches in this area have become very popular and show promising performance: the use of inertial sensors together with advanced algorithms (e.g., Kalman filters) and the development of e-textile, in which the sensing technology is directly embroidered into the garment worn by the user. |
DOI
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| |
The Textile Interface Swatchbook: Creating graphical user interface-like widgets with conductive embroidery |
ISWC |
2010 |
| S. Gilliland; N. Komor; T. Starner; C. Zeagler |
| The Textile Interface Swatchbook demonstrates how conductive embroidery can render graphical user interface-like (GUI) widgets on fabric. Such widgets might be used to control mobile electronics such as a music player, mobile phone, or projected display. At present, six swatches have been created for the swatchbook: pleat, menu, rocker, multi-touch gesture, zipper, and proximity. The three most diverse and original are discussed here. In addition, we develop a hybrid resistive-capacitive touch sensing technique designed to be more tolerant to the flexing typical of fabric. We hope to develop the Textile Interface Swatchbook into a reference tool for textile interfaces. |
DOI
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| |
Development of a system to measure local measurement conditions around textile electrodes |
2010 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology |
2010 |
| S. Kim; J. Oliveira; L. Roethlingshoefer; S. Leonhard |
| The three main influence factors on the interface between textile electrode an skin are: temperature, contact pressure and relative humidity. This paper presents first results of a prototype, which measures these local measurement conditions around textile electrodes. The wearable prototype is a data acquisition system based on a microcontroller with a flexible sensor sleeve. Validation measurements included variation of ambient temperature, contact pressures and sleeve material. Results show a good correlation with data found in literature. |
DOI
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| |
A new fabric-based softness display |
2010 IEEE Haptics Symposium |
2010 |
| M. Bianchi; A. Serio; E. P. Scilingo; A. Bicchi |
| This paper describes a new bi-elastic fabric-based display for rendering softness. Bi-elastic means that the fabric exhibits properties which render it elastic in at least two substantially perpendicular directions, and preferably in all directions. The device described here is based on tissue stretch to provide different levels of softness. More specifically, a thin layer of bi-elastic fabric is placed on the top of a hollow cylinder and tied to an external circular crown which can be moved up and down, relaxing or stretching the fabric. A camera placed just beneath the fabric allows for the measurement of the contact area involved in the haptic exploration. The system is also endowed with a graphical user interface, which gives a real-time visual rendering of the interaction of the fingertip with the display. In this paper, design, realization and control implementation are discussed, and performance of the display is evaluated by means of a set of psychophysical tests. We also compare performance in terms of softness perception of different simulated materials with that obtained using another softness display. |
DOI
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LOBIN: E-Textile and Wireless-Sensor-Network-Based Platform for Healthcare Monitoring in Future Hospital Environments |
IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine |
2010 |
| G. López; V. Custodio; J. I. Moreno |
| This paper describes a novel healthcare IT platform developed under the LOBIN project, which allows monitoring several physiological parameters, such as ECG, heart rate, body temperature, etc., and tracking the location of a group of patients within hospital environments. The combination of e-textile and wireless sensor networks provides an efficient way to support noninvasive and pervasive services demanded by future healthcare environments. This paper presents the architecture, system deployment as well as validation results from both laboratory tests and a pilot scheme developed with real users in collaboration with the Cardiology Unit at La Paz Hospital, Madrid, Spain. |
DOI
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| |
Wearable monitoring of lumbar spine curvature by inertial and e-textile sensory fusion |
2010 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology |
2010 |
| R. Bartalesi; F. Lorussi; D. De Rossi; M. Tesconi; A. Tognetti |
| This paper describes the design, the development and the preliminary testing of a wearable system able perform a real time estimation of the local curvature and the length of the spine lumbar arch. The system integrate and fuse information gathered from textile based piezoresistive sensor arrays and tri-axial accelerometers. E-textile strain sensing garments suffer from non-linearities, hysteresis and long transient, while accelerometers, used as inclinometers, present biased values and are affected by the system acceleration due to subject movements. In this work, focused on the wearability and comfort of the user, we propose a fusion of the information deriving from the two class of sensors to reduce their intrinsic errors affecting measurements. Comparative evaluation of system performances with stereophotogrammetric techniques shows a 2% error in lumbar arch length reconstruction. |
DOI
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| |
A fabric display system in virtual reality environments based on web |
2010 3rd International Conference on Computer Science and Information Technology |
2010 |
| Fanlei Yan; Lianhe Yang; Huajiang Li |
| This paper first analyzes two major methods that create the model of VR, proposes that fabric is suitable for virtual display. Then a fabric display system in virtual reality environments based on web is designed. The system uses 3DS MAX to achieve fusion of fabric's image and display scene's image. And then a VRML file (*.wrl format) is exported from 3DS MAX. The system adopts B/S structure, uses ASP. NET technologies, and users can use web browser with Blaxxun Contact plug-in to browse fabric in the Scene. |
DOI
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| |
Electro-textile printed slot antenna over finite EBG structure |
iWAT |
2010 |
| J. Vicente; A. A. Moreira |
| This paper reports an electro-textile antenna fed by a thin coaxial cable, based on a monopole like element and a rectangular slot with a triangular transition on a ground plane. The structure resembles a printed slot antenna with two electro-textile layers and common felt used as dielectric. Prototypes were fabricated and measured for an isolated antenna and in the vicinity of a user's limb. The antenna was designed for central frequency 2.45 GHz. A simplified simulation model was used to emulate the effect of the user's limb on the antenna performance. To improve antenna radiation and total efficiency an EBG inspired structure was included in the design. The new structure was numerically simulated and measured in wearing scenario in the vicinity of the human body. |
DOI
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| |
Production management and data processing system for the textile enterprise based on multi-Agent |
ICCI |
2010 |
| J. Shao; J. Wang; S. Liu; L. Yang |
| To realize the network and informationization management of production data, and the quick reaction of decision analysis, as well as to build a information sharing platform for the textile enterprise, the real existing shortcoming of production management system was studied, and the actual requirements of the informationization construction of the textile enterprise were analyzed. First, according to actual requirements of the textile enterprise, a production management structure model based on multi-Agent is proposed by using the multi-Agent technology, relationship model, decision theory and expert system. Then, through comparing the existing information management system, the advantages of the system is also reflected, and the functional structure model of the system is optimized. Third, a flexible, dynamic, efficient collaboration management platform is designed, and a production management and decision system based on multi-Agent is developed. As verified by real application, production management and decision model based on multi-Agent strengthens the interactivity role both the user and the system, meets the requirements of the production management, intelligent decision and personalized service, furthermore, production management system based on multi-Agent realizes the heterogeneous integration among the different databases, and promotes the informationization development of production management of the textile enterprise. |
DOI
|
| |
Textile pressure sensors for sports applications |
2010 IEEE Sensors |
2010 |
| T. Holleczek; A. Rüegg; H. Harms; G. Tröster |
| Wearable sports trainers are built upon sensor systems recognizing the activities performed by its users. In snowboarding, one of the fastest growing sports in the world, traditional activity recognition approaches make use of pressure insoles with force-sensitive resistors, which, however, are particularly uncomfortable to wear. To make these measurements more convenient, we have developed textile pressure sensors using the principle of a variable capacitor. Electrodes of conductive textiles coated with silver arranged on both sides of compressible spacers made from Croslite™ form a capacitor, whose capacitance indicates the applied pressure. We integrated three sensors into a snowboarding sock at relevant positions under the heel and the ball of the foot. Outdoor experiments on a ski slope in the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise (Zermatt, Switzerland) show that the machine learning algorithm NCC can detect turns, the basic activity of snowboarding, from the sensor data with an accuracy of 84 percent. Moreover, indoor experiments reveal that NCC can clearly distinguish whether a person wearing our sensor socks is standing on the ball of the foot, flat or on the heel. These results suggest the socks might also be used for gait analysis or the monitoring of the in-shoe pressure distribution of runners. |
DOI
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| |
A Wearable Fabric Computer by Planar-Fashionable Circuit Board Technique |
2009 Sixth International Workshop on Wearable and Implantable Body Sensor Networks |
2009 |
| H. Kim; Y. Kim; B. Kim; H. J. Yoo |
| A method to fabricate circuits on the cloth, planar fashionable circuit board (P-FCB), is proposed. And its applications such as fabric passive elements, user I/O interface, and the fabric package are introduced. The electrical and the mechanical characteristic analysis of P-FCB and the system integration methodology establishment improve the system performance and productivity. A complete wearable system is implemented by P-FCB technology for the continuous sweat monitoring and the RFID tag antenna applications. |
DOI
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| |
Textile-based monitoring system for biker |
2009 9th International Conference on Information Technology and Applications in Biomedicine |
2009 |
| C. M. Yang; C. C. Wu; C. M. Chou; C. W. Yang |
| A wearable monitoring system for biker is presented, with textile-based clip type tension sensors on belt and pants to detect biker's breath and steps, respectively, and an accelerometer, together with clip type sensors to detect falling down and other biking conditions. The clip type sensors are fully made of textile, so they are washable, durable, low cost, easily installed on ordinary clothing, and comfortable. The clip sensors and the accelerometer are able to output signals to a microcontroller to derive breath rate, step counts, posture, and flatness of road. The microcontroller will then transmit the information through Bluetooth interface to a PDA for further analyzing and send messages through mobile telephone when necessary. The system provides information about biker's physical condition, movement of bicycle, and road condition, which are important for both health and safety of modern citizen. |
DOI
|
| |
A framework for collaborative eTextiles design - An introduction to Co-eTex |
2009 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design |
2009 |
| G. Ngai; S. C. F. Chan; W. W. Y. Lau; J. C. Y. Cheung |
| Advances in textile-friendly electronics devices, smart materials, sophisticated interfaces, and intelligent software have combined to make intelligent garments increasingly practical. This paper introduces Co-eTex, a framework designed to support collaborative development of intelligent garments. It is based on a newly-invented construction platform for eTextiles and Wearable Computing, which was designed to be robust, reliable, easy to construct and to program. It also includes a hybrid graphical-textual programming tool designed for novice programmers to program intelligent behaviour for intelligent garments. We describe the use of Co-eTex in rapidly developing prototypes for a variety of designs of intelligent garments. Based on our experiences in using the Co-eTex, we believe it is a possible direction leading to the development of mass customization or adaptive customization of intelligent garments. |
DOI
|
| |
Is It Gropable? Assessing the Impact of Mobility on Textile Interfaces |
ISWC |
2009 |
| N. Komor; S. Gilliland; J. Clawson; M. Bhardwaj; M. Garg; C. Zeagler; T. Starner |
| In a mobile environment, the visual attention a person can devote to a computer is often limited. In such situations, a manual interface should be ldquogropable,rdquo that is, the user should be able to access and use the interface with little to no visual attention. We compare stationary and mobile input on two embroidered textile interfaces; a single touch three button interface and a multitouch four button interface that is activated by pressing two buttons at the same time. Sixteen participants completed 480 trials while walking a path and sitting. While multitouch increases the expressiveness of gestures that can be performed, our user study only shows a slight, not statistically significant, increase in accuracy and an understandable decrease in speed for simple selection tasks. |
DOI
|
| |
A new simple multimodal platform for home monitoring of cardiac patients through textile technology |
CinC |
2009 |
| P. Meriggi; F. Rizzo; A. Faini; F. Chiarugi; I. Karatzanis; G. Zacharioudakis; M. Valentini; G. Parati; P. Castiglioni; M. Di Rienzo |
| In the developed countries, healthcare systems are evolving under the pressure of the population ageing, the necessity of reducing the increasing healthcare costs and the availability of new technologies. Telemedicine and eHealth solutions are gaining importance in this reference frame. Recently we participated in the final validation phase of a wide European Project, Heartfaid, aimed at building an eHealth platform for the remote monitoring and management of patients suffering from chronic heart failure. In this context, we designed and developed a simple multimodal subsystem for the home acquisition and transmission of data collected from the patients, composed of a vest embedding textile electrodes, a touchscreen computer and a UMTS dongle. In this paper we report the results of this experience where we explored the usability of such a simplified interface for home monitoring of cardiac patients. |
DOI
|
| |
Development of a hydration sensor integrated on fabric |
Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Wearable, Micro, and Nano Technologies for Personalized Health |
2009 |
| G. Marchand; A. Bourgerette; M. Antonakios; Y. Colletta; N. David; F. Vinet; C. Gallis |
| The main purpose of the European project ProeTEX is to develop equipment to improve safety, coordination and efficiency of emergency disaster intervention personnel like fire-fighters or civil protection rescuers. The equipment consists of a new generation of “smart” garments, integrating wearable sensors which will allow monitoring position and activity of the user, as well as environmental variables of the operating field in which rescuers are working and physiological parameters among whom there is the dehydration. The dehydration of emergency disaster personnel can lead to severe physiological consequences being able to go until the death. The follow-up of the sodium ions concentration in the sweat allows to evaluate this dehydration state in real time by a non invasive method and to react quickly in the event of problem. This paper deals with the development of an Ionic Selective Electrode sensor and its transfer on fabrics. The performances were evaluated in terms of sensitivity, selectivity and reproducibility initially in model solution and then in natural sweat. A portable electronic board connected to the sensing part is described too. This board drives the electrochemical and temperature sensors for analog acquisition and converts measurement data to digital value. Signal processing is implemented on the electronic board in order to correct raw data (gain, offset) and to convert them to ion concentrations. |
DOI
|
| |
A wireless gait analysis system by digital textile sensors |
2009 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society |
2009 |
| C. M. Yang; C. M. Chou; J. S. Hu; S. H. Hung; C. H. Yang; C. C. Wu; M. Y. Hsu; T. L. Yang |
| This paper studies the feasibility of spatio-temporal gait analysis based upon digital textile sensors. Digitized legs and feet patterns of healthy subjects and their relations with spatio-temporal gait parameters were analyzed. In the first experiment, spatio-temporal gait parameters were determined during over ground walking. In the second experiment, predicted running, backward walking, walking up stairs and walking down stairs parameters were determined. From the results of the experiments, it is concluded that, for healthy subjects, the duration of subsequent stride cycles and left/right steps, the estimations of step length, cadence, walking speed, central of pressure and central of mass trajectory, can be obtained by analyzing the digital signals from the textile sensors on pants and socks. These parameters are easily displayed in several different graphs allowing the user to view the parameters during gait. Finally, the digital data are easily to analyze the feature of activity recognition. |
DOI
|
| |
Stretchable circuit board technology in textile applications |
2009 4th International Microsystems, Packaging, Assembly and Circuits Technology Conference |
2009 |
| Andreas Ostmann; Rene Vieroth; Manuel Seckel; T. Löher; Herbert Reichl |
| Today's electronic systems are based on an assembly of components onto rigid or flexible substrates, serving perfectly the needs of traditional product fields like automotive, computing or industry electronics. On the other hand, many of the demands from emerging applications like wearable and textile electronics cannot be met if standard technologies are used for their realization. These new fields have therefore become mayor drivers for the development of novel technologies. Among these `stretchable electronics' have attracted strong attention. Especially for textile applications the potential of electronic systems to comply with the body shape and movement will improve the user comfort dramatically. A manufacturing technology for the realization of stretchable systems by common printed circuit board techniques, based on polyurethane as a stretchable matrix material has been developed. The stretchable circuit board technology has been used to realize a number of textile applications. As an example the realization of a fashion dress with integrated high brightness LEDs and movement sensing will be described. |
DOI
|
| |
Stretchable electronic systems for wearable and textile applications |
2008 IEEE 9th VLSI Packaging Workshop of Japan |
2008 |
| T. Loher; R. Vieroth; M. Seckel; A. Ostmann; H. Reichl |
| Assembly of electronic components on rigid and/or flexible printed circuit boards is today the customary way to fabricate electronic systems in stationary, mobile and automotive applications. On the other hand, many of the demands from emerging application fields like wearable and textile electronics cannot be met if with standard technologies. These fields have therefore become mayor drivers for the development of novel technologies. Among these dasiastretchable electronicspsila have attracted much attention recently. Especially for textile applications the potential of the electronic system to comply with the body shape and movement will considerably improve the user comfort. In this paper we will present a cost effective technology for the realization of stretchable systems by common printed circuit board techniques like lamination, lithography, etching and micro via technology with polyurethane as a stretchable matrix/substrate material. Mastering of the adhesion between materials and the transitions region from stretchable to non-stretchable parts of the system are crucial for the mechanical performance and robustness. Technical approaches and the obtained results to tackle these issues will be presented. After a complete embedding of the components/interconnections the systems can be firmly attached to textile or non-woven cloth, which can be subsequently integrated into garments. The described process technology bears the potential for large scale roll to roll processing. Reliability aspects for stretchable electronic systems are so far not standardized and will be discussed briefly. Electrical and mechanical functionality of test vehicles subjected to multiple stretch and mild washing cycles will be presented. A functional electronic demonstrator with embedded passives, a micro controller, and LEDs which was realized with this technology will be shown. |
DOI
|
| |
Textiles digital sensors for detecting breathing frequency |
2008 5th International Summer School and Symposium on Medical Devices and Biosensors |
2008 |
| C. M. Yang; W. T. Huang; Tsu-Lin Yang; Mi-chi Hsieh; Chi-tso Liu |
| In this paper we present textile sensors for the equipment of detecting the frequency of breathing. The aim of this study wants to monitor the respiratory rate whenever the users are sitting still, walking and jogging. The sensor, which is entirely fabricated out of textile, is integrated in a prototype belt of the monitoring suit. The complete suit contains not only the sensor but also the electronics for interface, data handling, storage and transmission. The sensor may be used in exercise or homecare applications to monitor breathing frequency for people who live alone or children who need to be taken care. The sensor is highly flexible and has high resistance to washing processes and cyclic mechanical deformations. This work demonstrates that electronic clothing is a feasible design via the textile sensor embedded in clothing. We hope to make the design of an "e-vital wear" possible and easy to use.So we can achieve low cost and long term healthcare for people. |
DOI
|
| |
Emotion recognition using color and pattern in textile images |
2008 IEEE Conference on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems |
2008 |
| Na Yeon Kim; Yunhee Shin; Youngrae Kim; Eun Yi Kim |
| In this paper, a novel method is proposed using color and pattern information for recognizing some emotions included in a textile. Here we use 10 Kobayashi emotion keywords. Our method is composed of feature extraction and classification. For accurate emotion recognition, both color and pattern are extracted from a textile. Then the representative color prototypes of a textile are extracted using color quantization method and pattern is described by wavelet transform followed by some statistical terms. The extracted features are given to the neural network (NN)-based classifiers. The advantages of our method include the following: (1) it is a generalized method to accurately recognize emotions in textile images which used in various application domains; (2) it is a fully automatic method with no manual interaction. To prove these advantages, the experiments are performed on 389 textiles obtained from various application domains such as interior, fashion, and artificial ones. Our method shows the precision of 100% and the recall of 99%, regardless of the specific domain. |
DOI
|
| |
Bio-sensing textiles to support health management |
2008 30th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society |
2008 |
| J. Luprano |
| Integration of health monitoring tools into textiles brings the benefits of safety and comfort to the users. Instrumented clothes will provide remote monitoring of vital signs, diagnostics to improve early illness detection and metabolic disorder and benefits to the reduction on medical social costs to the citizen. Ambulatory healthcare, isolated people, convalescent people and patients with chronic diseases are addressed. |
DOI
|
| |
Smart fabrics and interactive textile enabling wearable personal applications: R&D state of the art and future challenges |
2008 30th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society |
2008 |
| A. Lymberis; R. Paradiso |
| Smart fabrics and interactive textiles (SFIT) are fibrous structures that are capable of sensing, actuating, generating/storing power and/or communicating. Research and development towards wearable textile-based personal systems allowing e.g. health monitoring, protection & safety, and healthy lifestyle gained strong interest during the last 10 years. Under the Information and Communication Programme of the European Commission, a cluster of R&D projects dealing with smart fabrics and interactive textile wearable systems regroup activities along two different and complementary approaches i.e. “application pull” and “technology push”. This includes projects aiming at personal health management through integration, validation, and use of smart clothing and other networked mobile devices as well as projects targeting the full integration of sensors/actuators, energy sources, processing and communication within the clothes to enable personal applications such as protection/safety, emergency and healthcare. The integration part of the technologies into a real SFIT product is at present stage on the threshold of prototyping and testing. Several issues, technical as well user-centred, societal and business, remain to be solved. The paper presents on going major R&D activities, identifies gaps and discuss key challenges for the future. |
DOI
|
| |
Intelligent Sensor Fabric Computing on a Chip - A Technology Path for Intelligent Network Computing |
2007 IEEE Aerospace Conference |
2007 |
| J. Meier; T. Ramesh |
| Cognitive intelligent computing technologies are a new generation of computing that can support real-time network applications in diverse markets. Low cost, high volume sensor nodes are realizable due to a high level of chip integration (i.e. system-on-a-chip). These sensor nodes can operate more efficiently in a distributed environment using cognitive reasoning for making collaborative decisions, improving the quality of information and realtime sensing control. Fabric computing (FC) provides the flexible connectivity of these sensor nodes that can adapt in real time to service dynamic application needs. One underlying technology for FC is the field programmable gate array (FPGA) reconfigurable technology. FC easily integrates other key devices to provide a distributed computing fabric that offers computing at the edge of the network (near the users or sensors). The ultimate goal of providing real-time sensing using FC is to provide distributed services and processing near the sensors, referred to as "power to the edge." In this paper we evaluate general trends for intelligent computing on the edge of the network using reconfigurable computing fabric formed as cells that can scale from global network to chips. We show a simple abstract model for fabric cell and describe challenges for migration path to a system-on-a-chip configuration for the sensor fabric computing integration. |
DOI
|
| |
Large Surface Area Electronic Textiles for Ubiquitous Computing: A System Approach |
MobiQuitous |
2007 |
| D. Graumann; G. Raffa; M. Quirk; B. Sawyer; J. Chong; M. Jones; T. Martin |
| Electronic textile research often centers on the concept of introducing electronics to apparel such as shirts jackets, gloves, and health vests. Another less researched concept incorporates electronics into large textile surfaces such as carpets and upholstery. In this paper we explore methods and challenges of building a large surface area electronic textile floor for cooperative mobile device interaction. We systematically construct both a 100 ft by 50 ft textile simulation and a 3 ft by 8 ft working prototype using readily available materials. We introduce the broadly applicable embedded workload of human gait tracking as a means to defining the requirements for the textile physicals, networked computing node, and distributed execution environment subsystems. Through this effort we begin to establish a working model for combining inexpensive electronic textiles with a scalable execution environment that supports mobile device to floor interactions. |
DOI
|
| |
Design and Fabrication of Elastic Interconnections for Stretchable Electronic Circuits |
IEEE Electron Device Letters |
2007 |
| D. Brosteaux; F. Axisa; M. Gonzalez; J. Vanfleteren |
| For biomedical and textile applications, the comfort of the user will be enhanced if the electronic circuits are not only flexible but also elastic. This letter reveals a simple moulded-interconnect-device technology for the construction of elastic point-to-point interconnections, based on 2-D spring-shaped metallic tracks, which are embedded in a highly elastic silicone film. Metal interconnections of 3-cm long were constructed with an initial resistance of about 3Omega , which did not significantly increase (<5%) when stretched. A stretchability above 100% in one direction has been demonstrated. |
DOI
|
| |
OFSETH: Optical Fibre Embedded into technical Textile for Healthcare, an efficient way to monitor patient under magnetic resonance imaging |
2007 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society |
2007 |
| J. De jonckheere; M. Jeanne; A. Grillet; S. Weber; P. Chaud; R. Logier; J. Weber |
| Healthcare monitoring is a general concern for patients requiring a continuous medical assistance and treatment. In order to increase mobility of such patients, a huge effort is pursued worldwide for the development of wearable monitoring systems able to measure vital physiological parameters such as respiratory movements, cardiac activity, pulse oximetry, temperature of the body. Technical or smart textiles that incorporate different sensors play a growing role in these developments as they are well suited for wearability and can ensure comfort to the user. While most developments up to now have been focused on the use of electrical sensors, the aim of OFSETH is to take advantage of pure optical sensing technologies for extending the capabilities of medical technical textiles for wearable health monitoring. OFSETH expects to achieve a breakthrough in healthcare monitoring applications where standard (non-optical) monitoring techniques show significant limits such as for the monitoring of anesthetized patients under Medical Resonance Imaging (MRI). |
DOI
|
| |
Recognizing Upper Body Postures using Textile Strain Sensors |
ISWC |
2007 |
| C. Mattmann; O. Amft; H. Harms; G. Troster; F. Clemens |
| In this paper we present a garment prototype using strain sensors to recognize upper body postures. A novel thermoplastic elastomer strain sensor was used for measuring strain in the clothing. This sensor has a linear resistance response to strain, a small hysteresis and can be fully integrated into textile. A study was conducted with eight participants wearing the garment and performing a total of 27 upper body postures. A Naive Bayes classification was applied to identify the different postures. Nearly a complete recognition rate of 97% was achieved when the classification was adapted to the individual participant. A classification rate of 84% was achieved for an all-user classification and 65% for an independent user. These results show the feasibility to recognize postures with our setup, even in an unseen user setting. Furthermore, we used the garment prototype in a gym experiment to explore its potential for rehabilitation and fitness training. Intensity, speed and number of repetitions could be obtained from the garment sensor data. |
DOI
|
| |
Textile Integrated Contactless EMG Sensing for Stress Analysis |
2007 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society |
2007 |
| J. Taelman; T. Adriaensen; C. van der Horst; T. Linz; A. Spaepen |
| Stress has become an important issue in today's society. Forty to fifty percent of the work related illnesses are directly or indirectly related to stress. In the ConText project, a biofeedback shirt for daily use is being developed to register muscle activity. The user receives feedback about muscle fatigue and/or the level of stress in order to lower the risk on musculoskeletal disorders. Comfort is an important factor to lower the acceptance threshold to wear the shirt. To achieve optimal comfort, the project aims for unobtrusive measurements with contactless sensors which are textile integrated. Working with contactless sensors induces new challenges for instance the displacement of the sensor in the shirt relative to the anatomical position of the muscles. This could affect the recorded signal and lead to errors in the signal. In this paper, we present the results of the quantification of this misalignment. Secondly, we present the first tests with the embroidered sensor. |
DOI
|
| |
Subjective Fabric Evaluation |
Cyberworlds, 2007. CW '07. International Conference on |
2007 |
| C. Luible; M. Varheenmaa; N. Magnenat-Thalmann; H. Meinander |
| The number of various existing fabric materials for different usages is unlimited. Therefore it is important to judge each textile material regarding quality and suitability before any manufacturing process. Related fabric characteristics can be subjectively assessed or objectively measured. A new field of research tries to imitate the subjective fabric evaluation method by virtually simulating the touch of fabrics with new haptic and tactile technologies. However, the today existing technology does not allow the rendering of complex interactions between hand and fabric, as it occurs during the real assessment method. Thus, the subjective fabric evaluation needs to be simplified to allow a direct comparison of the real and the virtual process. The main difference of the traditional subjective assessment, where the fabric is touched with both hands, to the simplified one lays basically in the fixation of the fabrics, so that the specimen can be judged with two fingers. The main mechanical properties such tensile, shear, bending, compression, friction, surface and weight have been assessed with the new test arrangement. The results of the assessment have been reported for all tested properties. |
DOI
|
| |
A Construction Kit for Electronic Textiles |
ISWC |
2006 |
| L. Buechley |
| Construction kits have long been popular as educational artifacts, supporting and encouraging creative explorations of engineering and design; but to date, such kits have had little connection with the new and expanding field of electronic textiles (e-textiles). We believe that creating an "e-textile construction kit" could provide a powerful new medium to engage a diverse range of students in electrical engineering and computer science. This paper, then, describes a construction kit designed to introduce novices to electronics, computing and design via e-textiles. We describe each component of the kit, provide examples of constructions that were built with the kit, and examine the durability of these constructions. We conclude with a discussion of the results of preliminary user testing and an exploration of our plans for continued work in this area. |
DOI
|
| |
E-textile based automatic activity diary for medical annotation and analysis |
BSN |
2006 |
| J. Edmison; D. Lehn; M. Jones; T. Martin |
| Health monitoring applications often require that the patient maintain a diary of activities so that the physiological data can be correlated to what the user was doing. However, patients are notoriously bad at self-reporting. Consequently, it would be beneficial to automatically generate an activity diary. This paper presents a proof-of-concept prototype electronic textile system for recording both physiological data and context information. It also presents some of the issues that arise in the design and use of a health monitoring and activity annotation system |
DOI
|
| |
A Health-Shirt using e-Textile Materials for the Continuous and Cuffless Monitoring of Arterial Blood Pressure |
2006 3rd IEEE/EMBS International Summer School on Medical Devices and Biosensors |
2006 |
| Y. t. Zhang; C. C. Y. Poon; C. h. Chan; M. W. W. Tsang; K. f. Wu |
| This paper proposes a health-shirt (h-Shirt) using e-textile materials for long-term and continuous monitoring of physiological parameters, including arterial blood pressure (BP) by a cuffless approach. BP measurements using the h-Shirt and the setup of a calibration technique for this approach were tested on 10 and 5 subjects respectively. The results demonstrated the potential of integrating the calibration and measurement techniques on the h-Shirt to develop a wearable, hands-free system for monitoring users' BP around the clock. Based on the h-Shirt, a convertible, universal health-suit (CUHS) is suggested to include both monitoring functions and bio-feedback mechanisms for real-time health management. The development of the h-Shirt and CUHS is instigated by our researches on building wearable intelligent sensors and systems for e-health (WISSH). |
DOI
|
| |
Implementation of Wearable Sensor Glove using Pulse-wave Sensor, Conducting Fabric and Embedded System |
2006 3rd IEEE/EMBS International Summer School on Medical Devices and Biosensors |
2006 |
| Y. Lee; B. Lee; C. Lee; M. Lee |
| Today, there are research trends about the wearable sensor device that measures various bio-signals and provides healthcare services to user using e-health technology. This study describes the wearable sensor glove using pulse-wave sensor, conducting fabric and embedded system. This wearable sensor glove is based on the pulse-wave measurement system which is able to measure the pulse wave signal in much use of oriental medicine on the basis of a research trend of e-health system. |
DOI
|
| |
Characterization of a Novel Data Glove Based on Textile Integrated Sensors |
Faculty of Engineering |
2006 |
| A. Tognetti; N. Carbonaro; G. Zupone; D. De Rossi |
| The present work is about the realization and the characterization of a novel data glove able to detect hand kinematic configurations. The sensing glove has been realized by directly integrate sensors in the fabric used to manufacture the glove. Main specifications for the realized device are lightness, wearability and user comfort. As a fundamental requirement to address this purpose we have estimated the employment of a material which does not substantially change the mechanical properties of the fabric and maintains the wearability of the garment. To obtain this result, we have integrated sensor networks made by conductive elastomer into an elastic fabric used to manufacture the sensing glove. Electrically conductive elastomer composites show piezoresistive properties when a deformation is applied. Conductive elastomers materials can be applied to fabric or to other flexible substrate and they can be employed as strain sensors. To validate the realized device, a function that relates glove sensor values to hand motion has been realized and tested. |
DOI
|
| |
Wearable Medical Devices Using Textile and Flexible Technologies for Ambulatory Monitoring |
2005 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology 27th Annual Conference |
2005 |
| A. Dittmar; R. Meffre; F. De Oliveira; C. Gehin; G. Delhomme |
| Health smart clothes are in contact with almost all the surface of the skin offer large possibilities for the location of sensors for non invasive measurements. Head band, collar, tee-shirt, socks, shoes, belts for chest, arm, wrist, legs ... provide localization with specific purpose taking into account their proximity of an organ or a source of biosignal, and also its ergonomic possibility (user friendly) to fix a sensor, and the associated instrumentations (batteries, amplifiers, signal processing, telecom, alarm, display ...). Progress in science and technology offers, for the first time, intelligence, speed, miniaturization, sophistication and new materials at low cost. In this new landscape, microtechnologies, information technologies and telecommunications are a key factor. Microsensors:Microtechnologies offer the possibility of small size, but also intelligent, active device, working with low energy, wireless and non invasive or mini invasive. These sensors have to be thin, flexible and compatible with textile, or made using textile technologies, new fibers with specific properties: mechanical, electrical, optical... The field of applications is very large, e.g. continuous monitoring on elderly population, professional and military activities, athlete's performance and condition, and people with disabilities. The research are oriented toward two complementary directions: Improving the relevancy of each sensor and increasing the number of sensors for having a more global synthetic and robust information |
DOI
|
| |
Cable-Free Body Area Network using Conductive Fabric Sheets for Advanced Human-Robot Interaction |
2005 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology 27th Annual Conference |
2005 |
| E. Wade; H. Asada |
| Wearable sensing networks offer a multitude of benefits for the user. One field that can benefit from such technologies is in-home robotics. Much work has been dedicated to the general area of interaction between robots and humans, and more specifically to gesture recognition. We propose a wearable monitoring network composed of conductive fabrics that can more easily facilitate robot interaction. It creates additional interaction by visual indication, and electronically by way of a local PC. This system creates a more natural human-robot interface and makes feasible many new forms of gesture recognition. Finally, we can address safety concerns; the garment gives us a method of locating the human and minimizing the possibility for robots to strike the user. In this paper, we lay out the architecture for such a system, and perform some of the initial characterization |
DOI
|
| |
Electroactive polymer-based devices for e-textiles in biomedicine |
Univ. of Pisa |
2005 |
| F. Carpi; D. De Rossi |
| This paper describes the early conception and latest developments of electroactive polymer (EAP)-based sensors, actuators, electronic components, and power sources, implemented as wearable devices for smart electronic textiles (e-textiles). Such textiles, functioning as multifunctional wearable human interfaces, are today considered relevant promoters of progress and useful tools in several biomedical fields, such as biomonitoring, rehabilitation, and telemedicine. After a brief outline on ongoing research and the first products on e-textiles under commercial development, this paper presents the most highly performing EAP-based devices developed by our lab and other research groups for sensing, actuation, electronics, and energy generation/storage, with reference to their already demonstrated or potential applicability to electronic textiles. |
DOI
|
| |
Strain sensing fabric characterization |
Pisa Univ. |
2004 |
| A. Tognetti; F. Lorussi; M. Tesconi; D. De Rossi |
| Electrically conductive elastomer (CE) composites show piezoresistive properties when a deformation is applied. In several applications, CE can be integrated into fabric or into other flexible substrates and can be employed as a strain sensor. Moreover, integrated CE sensors may be used in biomechanical analysis to realize wearable kinesthetic interfaces able to detect the posture and movement of a subject. Unfortunately, the long transient time (up to several minutes) and some peculiar non-linear phenomena in CE require a complex treatment of signals which is described in the present work. |
DOI
|
| |
Cable-free wearable sensor system using a DC powerline body network in a conductive fabric vest |
The 26th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society |
2004 |
| E. Wade; H. H. Asada |
| A wearable DC powerline communication (PLC) network for health monitoring and rehabilitation is proposed. The network infrastructure is based on a novel use of conductive fabrics as the electrical transmission medium. Whereas other wearable networks rely on bulky sensors and cables, we combine PLC technology and intelligent sensor design to create a noninvasive, comfortable, flexible, and washable monitoring network. Additionally, the design allows us to incorporate multiple nodes in a single network. The network consists of three components; sensor nodes that are composed of a sensor, microprocessor, and local amplifier, a 'central' node that provides power to and processes information from the various sensor nodes in the network, and a two conductive sheets as the medium for power and data transmission. Using this medium, we can collect and record biological data from multiple sensor nodes to monitor the user's state. We will begin by reviewing a novel DC PLC network. Next, we will discuss the design of the conductive fabric vest and its salient features. Finally, we will present results of our initial experimental results and the future plans for this work. |
DOI
|
| |
E-textiles for autonomous location awareness |
ISWC |
2004 |
| Madhup Chandra; M. T. Jones; T. L. M. Bradley |
| In this paper, we describe an autonomous, wearable electronic textile location awareness system that will determine a user's location within a building given a map of that building. The system uses a moderate number of ultrasonic range transceivers as the sensing elements. Given a set of range readings from these sensors, the system attempts to match those actual readings to expected readings associated with a set of candidate locations for the wearer. These expected readings are calculated using a simulation model of the propagation of ultrasonic signals within a building. An additional algorithm is given for determining the wearer's movement between rooms, allowing for the uncertainty associated with sensor readings in complex, multiroom environments. A wearable prototype system is described and results from this system in a variety of situations are presented. |
DOI
|
| |
Fabric sensors for the measurement of physiological parameters |
TRANSDUCERS, Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, 12th International Conference on, 2003 |
2003 |
| M. Catrysse; R. Puers; C. Hertleer; L. Van Langenhove; H. van Egmond; D. Matthys |
| In this paper, we present fabric sensors for the recording of electrocardiogram (ECG) and respiration rate. Special attention is given to the dedicated sensor interface circuits. The sensors are integrated in a prototype belt for an intelligent suit. The suit will contain not only the sensors, but also the interface, data handling, storage and transmission circuitry. The suit is intended for the monitoring of children in a hospital environment. |
DOI
|
| |
Software tool development for marker making operations in textile industry |
Proceedings 2003 IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation. Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation for the New Millennium (Cat. No.03EX694) |
2003 |
| J. Jaidormrong; N. Chaiyaratana; J. Hassamontr |
| This paper discusses the design and development of a software tool for marker making operations in textile manufacturing using a top-down design paradigm. The software requirements have been analyzed and specified in order to address practical requirements by the users. The software is implemented in a CAD software environment. Its aim is to find an appropriate stencil layout on fabric surface such that the stencils do not overlap one another while trim loss is minimized. The software can be used to find the stencil layout on plain fabric, fabric with horizontal or vertical stripes and fabric with checkered patterns. A heuristic search strategy is developed to find such a layout. In order to evaluate the program's performance, case studies with actual fabric and stencils from a garment factory are used. The layouts generated by the program are then compared with those produced by a human expert. The results indicate that the developed program cannot outperform the human expert in the case of marker making on plain fabric. However, in the case of marker making on the fabric with stripes or checkered patterns the program can provide better results in terms of the required length of fabric and the trim loss percentage. Suggestions for further improvement on the functionality and efficiency of the program are also given. |
DOI
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Using piezoelectric materials for wearable electronic textiles |
ISWC |
2002 |
| J. Edmison; M. Jones; Z. Nakad; T. Martin |
| An open issue for electronic textiles (e-textiles) used for wearable computing is the choice of materials. This paper describes the desirable characteristics of piezoelectric materials for wearable e-textiles, including shape sensing, sound detection, and sound emission. The paper then describes an initial prototype of a glove for user input that employs piezoelectrics to sense the movement of the hands to illustrate the design issues involved in using piezoelectrics. |
DOI
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Peer-to-peer hardware-software interfaces for reconfigurable fabrics |
Proceedings. 10th Annual IEEE Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines |
2002 |
| M. Budiu; M. Mishra; A. R. Bharambe; S. C. Goldstein |
| In this paper we describe a peer-to-peer interface between processor cores and reconfigurable fabrics. The main advantage of the peer-to-peer model is that it greatly expands the scope of application for reconfigurable computing and hence its potential benefits. The primary extension in our model is that "code" on the reconfigurable hardware unit is allowed to invoke routines both on the reconfigurable unit itself and on the fixed logic processor We describe the software constructs and compilation mechanisms needed for such an architecture, including a detailed description of the interface between the two parts of the application. |
DOI
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GSM fabric antenna for mobile phones integrated within clothing |
IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium. 2001 Digest. Held in conjunction with: USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting (Cat. No.01CH37229) |
2001 |
| P. J. Massey |
| Present day products utilize the mobile phone's relatively small built-in antenna. However the close proximity of the antenna to the user's body leads to extensive signal losses. Building the antenna into the clothing would allow a much larger antenna to be constructed that incorporates a large ground plane to isolate the user from the antenna's fields. Antenna construction using fabric technology enhances user comfort by permitting the antenna to be light, breathable and flexible. This paper describes how a fabric mobile phone antenna may be incorporated within a new range of garments. |
DOI
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E-broidery: Design and fabrication of textile-based computing |
IBM Systems Journal |
2000 |
| E. R. Post; M. Orth; P. R. Russo; N. Gershenfeld |
| Highly durable, flexible, and even washable multilayer electronic circuitry can be constructed on textile substrates, using conductive yarns and suitably packaged components. In this paper we describe the development of e-broidery (electronic embroidery, i.e., the patterning of conductive textiles by numerically controlled sewing or weaving processes) as a means of creating computationally active textiles. We compare textiles to existing flexible circuit substrates with regard to durability, conformability, and wearability. We also report on: some unique applications enabled by our work; the construction of sensors and user interface elements in textiles; and a complete process for creating flexible multilayer circuits on fabric substrates. This process maintains close compatibility with existing electronic components and design tools, while optimizing design techniques and component packages for use in textiles. |
DOI
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