Smart apparel design for urinary incontinence detection

Abstract

A wide range of wearable devices are now used to help people with various health conditions. While approximately 10% of the Canadian population is affected by some form of urinary incontinence, there is a significant need for devices addressing this condition. This paper presents an ongoing research project for the design and development of an underwear fitted with urinary detection capacities. The paper focuses on the testing and comparison of three different solutions identified from scientific literature for detecting urinary leakage, namely by measuring conductivity, temperature, and humidity. These three detection modules have been integrated into a single prototype to ensure that they are tested under the same conditions. Our results point out that conductivity and humidity measurements appear to be viable for urine leakage detection in an absorbent pad, whereas temperature measurement has proven to be unsuccessful due to the rapid drop of the solution temperature and the time required for the liquid to reach the sensor. The temperature method is hence excluded from the next development stages. Finally, further tests on participants are still required to evaluate how body fluids other than urine might impact conductivity and humidity measurements.