Interlocking integration of elastic strain sensor yarn enables smart and distributed sensing in healthcare clothing
摘要
Multi-point sensing significantly enhances the accuracy and completeness of health monitoring in wearable technology. However, current electronic sensors face challenges in achieving robust multi-point sensing across the human body. Herein, we present distributed sensing in clothing achieved through the interlocking integration of elastic strain sensor yarn for smart healthcare applications. The double-covered elastic strain sensor yarn, with a stretchability of up to 170% and a gauge factor of 414, was seamlessly integrated into clothing to create a durable sensor-clothing interlocking structure. This sensor-integrated fabric is breathable, washable, and abrasion-resistant. Moreover, a wearable respiratory monitoring belt was developed for assessing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and the sensing data is comparable to that of commercial portable devices. Additionally, smart clothing with distributed sensing was developed to monitor motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease with a high accuracy of 96.67%, as confirmed by the deep learning algorithms, demonstrating its promising potential for wearable healthcare systems.