Abstract
Human motions, such as joint/spinal bending or stretching, often contain information that is useful for orthopedic/neural disease diagnosis, rehabilitation, and prevention. Here, we show a badge-reel-like stretch sensing device with a grating-structured triboelectric nanogenerator exhibiting a stretching sensitivity of 8 V mm−1, a minimum resolution of 0.6 mm, a low hysteresis, and a high durability (over 120 thousand cycles). Experimental and theoretical investigations are performed to define the key features of the device. Studies from human natural daily activities and exercise demonstrate the functionality of the sensor for real-time recording of knee/arm bending, neck/waist twisting, and so on. We also used the device in a spinal laboratory, monitoring human subjects’ spine motions, and validated the measurements using the commercial inclinometer and hunchback instrument. We anticipate that the lightweight, precise and durable stretch sensor applied to spinal monitoring could help mitigate the risk of long-term abnormal postural habits induced diseases.
Highlights
Human motions, such as joint/spinal bending or stretching, often contain information that is useful for orthopedic/neural disease diagnosis, rehabilitation, and prevention
We presented a precise, durable, and wearable stretch sensor based on triboelectric nanogenerator, and demonstrated its capability of sensing human’s joint motions and monitoring the real-time spinal bending/stretching in a sagittal plane
The test compared with the commercial inclinometer and depth camera demonstrates the feasibility and accuracy of our sensor for recording spinal motions
Summary
Human motions, such as joint/spinal bending or stretching, often contain information that is useful for orthopedic/neural disease diagnosis, rehabilitation, and prevention. We describe a badge-reel-like stretch sensor, based on a grating-structured triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)[29,30] It stretches and contracts, synchronously with human subject bending and stretching, exhibiting a high sensitivity of 8 V mm−1, a minimum resolution of 0.6 mm, excellent robustness (over 120thousand stretching cycles), and a low hysteresis. Synchronously with human subject bending and stretching, exhibiting a high sensitivity of 8 V mm−1, a minimum resolution of 0.6 mm, excellent robustness (over 120thousand stretching cycles), and a low hysteresis We used it to record joint motions, such as knee/arm bending, neck/waist twisting, demonstrating its functionality for real-time monitoring. We attached it along the spine, including S1–L1, L1/ T12–C7, C1–C7, and S1–C7 (C, T, L, and S represent the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacrum segments of the spine, respectively, and the numbers stand for the corresponding stacked bones), to detect the spinal shape change, presenting its potential application in daily spinal monitoring
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