Broadening the Utilization of Flexible and Wearable Pressure Sensors for the Monitoring of Health and Physiological Activities

Abstract

Recently, the high need for artificial intelligence, human motion monitoring, and wearable devices that can be utilized to track human health conditions, particularly for patients experiencing any sickness, has drawn serious interest from researchers. The flexible pressure sensors are a promising possibility for these human–machine interface applications because of their quick reaction, huge sensitivity, and ultra-low detection limit. These flexible sensing devices provide real-time statistics about the conditions of the human body, like blood pressure and heartbeat estimation, to recognize cardiovascular-related diseases. We have developed a versatile and wearable capacitive sensing device by changing the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) dielectric layer's structure using a scrubber layer which introduced the porosity in the dielectric layer. The developed sensor showed excellent response under static pressure and dynamic pressure applications. Due to large sensitivity, high working stability, and speedy reaction (120 ms), the versatility of the pressure sensor has been demonstrated in various human motion monitoring applications like wrist bending, palm grip, elbow bending, knee twisting, and vocal-cord vibration detection. In addition, the developed sensor was also used in human–machine interface applications to perceive heartbeat and wrist-pulse motion under typical and after-exercise conditions.