Abstract
This paper presents research into a user-friendly electronic sleeve (e-sleeve) with integrated electrodes in an array for wearable healthcare. The electrode array was directly printed onto an everyday clothing fabric using screen printing. The fabric properties and designed structures of the e-sleeve were assessed and refined through interaction with end users. Different electrode array layouts were fabricated to optimize the user experience in terms of comfort, effectivity and ease of use. The e-sleeve uses dry electrodes to facilitate ease of use and the electrode array can survive bending a sufficient number of times to ensure an acceptable usage lifetime. Different cleaning methods (washing and wiping) have been identified to enable reuse of the e-sleeve after contamination during use. The application of the e-sleeve has been demonstrated via muscle stimulation on the upper limb to achieve functional tasks (e.g., hand opening, pointing) for eight stroke survivors.
Highlights
Emerging advanced e-textile technologies offer rich opportunities to push the boundaries of wearable healthcare applications by improving the user experience motivating the user to adhere to the recommended usage
Electrodes are fundamental elements used in numerous healthcare devices to measure the body’s bio-potentials, for example, electrocardiography (ECG), electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG). They are being used in therapeutic healthcare devices such as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) for pain relief and functional electrical stimulation (FES) for muscle exercise and rehabilitation
There are increasing levels of research activity focusing on integrating dry electrodes into textiles for wearable healthcare applications
Summary
Electrodes are fundamental elements used in numerous healthcare devices to measure the body’s bio-potentials, for example, electrocardiography (ECG), electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG). They are being used in therapeutic healthcare devices such as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) for pain relief and functional electrical stimulation (FES) for muscle exercise and rehabilitation. Most applications focus on diagnostics and monitoring such as ECG [14,15], EEG [16,17] and EMG [18,19] Their application in therapeutics is limited mainly due to the issue of discomfort caused by the high impedance between the dry electrode and skin [20,21]
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