Wearable Design Research Articles

Wearable Design Requirements Identification and Evaluation.

Wearable electronics make it possible to monitor human activity and behavior. Most of these devices have not taken into account human factors and they have instead focused on technological issues. This fact could not only affect human–computer interaction and user experience but also the devices’ use cycle. Firstly, this paper presents a classification of wearable design requirements that have been carried out by combining a quantitative and a qualitative methodology. Secondly, we present some evaluation procedures based on design methodologies and human–computer interaction measurement tools. Thus, this contribution aims to provide a roadmap for wearable designers and researchers in order to help them to find more efficient processes by providing a classification of the design requirements and evaluation tools. These resources represent time and resource-saving contributions. Therefore designers and researchers do not have to review the literature. It will no be necessary to carry out exploratory studies for the purposes of identifying requirements or evaluation tools either.

Design and Performance Evaluation of a Novel Wearable Parallel Mechanism for Ankle Rehabilitation.

Repetitive and intensive physiotherapy is indispensable to patients with ankle disabilities. Increasingly robot-assisted technology has been employed in the treatment to reduce the burden of the therapists and the related costs of the patients. This paper proposes a configuration of a wearable parallel mechanism to supplement the equipment selection for ankle rehabilitation. The kinematic analysis, i.e., the inverse position solution and Jacobian matrices, is elaborated. Several performance indices, including the reachable workspace index, motion isotropy index, force transfer index, and maximum torque index, are developed based on the derived kinematic solution. Moreover, according to the proposed kinematic configuration and wearable design concept, the mechanical structure that contains a basic machine-drive system and a multi-model position/force data collection system is designed in detail. Finally, the results of the performance evaluation indicate that the wearable parallel robot possesses sufficient motion isotropy, high force transfer performance, and large maximum torque performance within a large workspace that can cover all possible range of motion of human ankle complex, and is suitable for ankle rehabilitation.

A Wearable Flexible antenna integrated on a Smart Watch for 5G Applications

This paper presents a design of dual-band flexible wearable antenna for modern 5G applications to integrate on a smartwatch. This antenna is a rectangular antenna which the patch and the ground etched on new flexible material is called “ULTRALAM® 3850HT”. This material is characterized by thin flexible cores with low and stable dielectric constant, which is a key requirement for high frequency and wearable designs. The dielectric constant εr is equal to 3.14, and loss tangent tanδ is equal 0.005 of the ULTRALAM® 3850HT flexible material. The presented antenna is designed to operate at 38 GHz and 60 GHz. The SAR (specific absorption ratio) is also introduced and SAR results will be shown. The presented antenna with and without the smartwatch are simulated using HFSS and CST 2018.

Towards a Health 4.0 Framework for the Design of Wearables: Leveraging Human-Centered and Robust Design

With the introduction of Health 4.0 we face a new era in healthcare and notice the disruption of delivery, adoption and use through newly introduced technology. Wearables have become increasingly important in the medical sector and their remote application and widespread use are significant to the development of technology in healthcare today and the future. The implementation of wearables requires regulations and clinical approval when intended to use for health tracking and monitoring. Within this process designers play a crucial role. Design methodologies are the guideline to accomplish a successful path towards the creation of a new product. In this paper the authors explore and draw from established design methodologies to support the creation of a framework for design of wearables in a health 4.0 context. Identifying the positions of design practices and analyzing the correlations in the context of Health 4.0 is therefore presented within this paper.

Fashion Wearable Between Science and Design, From the Product to an Overall User Experience

The purpose of the research is to develop a fashion wearable design methodology that could potentially embody authenticity. The paper first indicates and analyses the limits of wearable technologies here intended not only as products, but also as a systemic and procedural dimension offered by a design-oriented approach. A market analysis and a literature review had been conducted to provide the theoretical framework needed for a practice-driven inquiry into the design process. Starting from the limits of wearables, the experimentations on the methodology to design wearable devices run by Politecnico di Milano with EPFL + ECAL Lab gather 4 workshops and 2 industrial partnerships over 3 year. The findings offer the opportunity to reinterpret the design process and the interaction that designer have with areas such as art, technology and science. They lead to redefine both the design processes concerning the very meaning of the object and the interaction between human, object and context. The results of these experiments are presented in the form of an advanced methodology to design wearables and the value of this approach leads to an emphasis of the designer’s cross role and it can provide significant social and practical implications both in the academic research and in the market.

Epileptic Seizure Detection With a Reduced Montage: A Way Forward for Ambulatory EEG Devices

Electroencephalogram (EEG) is one of the fundamental tools for analyzing the behavior of brain and particularly helpful for treatment of epilepsy and detection of associated seizures. For long-term recording of EEG signals, current research is heading towards simple, unobtrusive and ambulatory devices with a small number of channels. The primary contribution of this paper is to assess the performance difference between the seizure detection results using features from all channels versus only the channels in/around the temporal region. For this purpose, we develop a supervised seizure detection algorithm that uses time domain features extracted sequentially for every 1-second epoch. By using this algorithm, we obtained sensitivity values of 0.95 and 0.92, specificity values of 0.99 and 0.99 and false positive per hour values as 0.16 and 0.21 for all 23 channels and 10 temporal region channels, respectively. These results show that restricting the EEG analysis to temporal region results only in a graceful and gradual degradation of classifier performance. We conclude that EEG ambulatory devices with a montage local to the temporal region could demonstrate satisfactory performance. This presents a promising way forward for the use of ambulatory devices with compact wearable design.

Wearable respiration monitoring using an in-line few-mode fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometric sensor.

Continuous respiratory monitoring is extensively important in clinical applications. To effectively assess respiration rate (RR), tidal volume (TV), and minute ventilation (MV), we propose and experimentally demonstrate a respiration monitoring system using an in-line few-mode fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (FMF-MZI), which is the first to introduce in-line MZI into an optimal wearable design for respiration rate and volume monitoring. The optimal linear region of the proposed sensor is analyzed and positioned by a flexible arch structure with curvature sensitivity up to 8.53 dB/m-1. Respiration monitoring results are in good agreement with a standard spirometer among different individuals. The difference in TV estimation is ± 0.2 L, and the overall error of MV estimation is less than 5%.

“I Must Try Harder”: Design Implications for Mobile Apps and Wearables Contributing to Self-Efficacy of Patients With Chronic Conditions

Background:Diverse wellness-promoting mobile health technologies, including mobile apps and wearable trackers, became increasingly popular due to their ability to support patients’ self-management of health conditions. However, the patient’s acceptance and use depend on the perceived experience and the app appropriateness to the patient’s context and needs. We have some understating of the experience and factors influencing the use of these technologies in the general public, but we have a limited understanding of these issues in patients.Objective:By presenting results from an explorative study, this paper aims to identify implications for the design of mobile apps and wearables to effectively support patients’ efforts in self-management of health with a special emphasis on support for self-efficacy of activities contributing to health.MethodsAn explorative mixed-method study involving 200 chronically ill patients of Stanford Medical Center (Stanford, CA, United States) was conducted between mid-2016 and end of 2018. Amongst these, 20 patients were involved in a 4-weeks study, in which we collected the underlying wearable device use logs (e.g., Fitbit) and subjective use experience [via an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA)], as well as patients’ momentary perception of general self-efficacy in their natural environments and different daily contexts.Results:The results indicate that mobile apps for health and wearables have the potential to enable better self-management and improve patients’ wellbeing but must be further refined to address different human aspects of their use. Specifically, the apps/wearables should be easier to use, more personalized and context-aware for the patient’s overall routine and lifestyle choices, as well as with respect to the momentary patient state (e.g., location, type of people around) and health(care) needs. Additionally, apps and devices should be more battery efficient and accurate; providing timely, non-judgmental feedback and personalized advice to the patients anywhere-anytime-anyhow. These results are mapped on major sources of the individuals’ self-efficacy.ConclusionOur results show how the apps/wearables that are aimed at supporting the patients’ self-management should be designed to leverage and further improve the patients’ general self-efficacy and self-efficacy of activities contributing to chronic disease management.

Wearable flexible sweat sensors for healthcare monitoring: a review.

The state-of-the-art in wearable flexible sensors (WFSs) for sweat analyte detection was investigated. Recent advances show the development of integrated, mechanically flexible and multiplexed sensor systems with on-site circuitry for signal processing and wireless data transmission. When compared with single-analyte sensors, such devices provide an opportunity to more accurately analyse analytes that are dependent on other parameters (such as sweat rate and pH) by improving calibration from in situ real-time analysis, while maintaining a lightweight and wearable design. Important health conditions can be monitored and on-demand regulating drugs can be delivered using integrated wearable systems but require correlation verification between sweat and blood measurements using in vivo validation tests before any clinical application can be considered. Improvements are necessary for device sensitivity, accuracy and repeatability to provide more reliable and personalized continuous measurements. With rapid recent development, it can be concluded that non-invasive WFSs for sweat analysis have only skimmed the surface of their health monitoring potential and further significant advancement is sure to be made in the medical field.

Expressive Wearables

Self-expression is a vital practice for a functioning social life. Wearables have become expressive everyday products, while studies showed how physical collocation can be an opportunity for social technology. This article identifies a perspective for future design of wearables as an extension of the body in its social context: designing for diversity in expression with respect to social boundaries. The collected literature demonstrates the development of new forms of expressive wearables that challenges norms of dress and three groups of participatory methods enable re-search into everyday life practices. The two initial studies—inquiring into everyday life and exploring the wearable design for new practices—exemplify these methods and point a way forward with a focus for design on distinct practices of self-expression.

Thermoelectric polymer composite yarns and an energy harvesting wearable textile

A thermoelectric wearable is proposed based on an innovative 3D wearable design, with p- type polymer impregnated cotton yarns and n-type polymer impregnated cotton yarns, where the ratio of the p-/n-type yarn cross-sections is optimised to maximise the thermoelectric conversion efficiency. The thermoelectric yarns are embroidered through a double-layer cotton fabric, using plain-stitch, and connected via painted silver electrodag patches. The first stage of this study involved the characterisation of P3HT-, PEDOT:PSS- and PCBM-cotton fabric composite samples, in terms of their fibre volume fraction, specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, Z and power factors. In this initial assessment, P3HT was selected as the p-type polymer compared to PEDOT:PSS, and PCBM was selected as the n-type polymer. A small, 3D wearable prototype was fabricated and tested: it exhibited a Seebeck coefficient of 380 μV K−1 but a relatively high resistance. It was estimated that scaling up this thermoelectric wearable to body coverage would produce about 1.5–2 μW for a temperature difference of 40 °C applied on the thermoelectric device.

Wearables for Pediatric Rehabilitation: How to Optimally Design and Use Products to Meet the Needs of Users.

This article will define "wearables" as objects that interface and move with users, spanning clothing through smart devices. A novel design approach merging information from across disciplines and considering users' broad needs will be presented as the optimal approach for designing wearables that maximize usage. Three categories of wearables applicable to rehabilitation and habilitation will be explored: (1) inclusive clothing (eg, altered fit, fasteners); (2) supportive wearables (eg, orthotics, exoskeletons); and (3) smart wearables (eg, with sensors for tracking activity or controlling external devices). For each category, we will provide examples of existing and emerging wearables and potential applications for assessment and intervention with a focus on pediatric populations. We will discuss how these wearables might change task requirements and assist users for immediate effects and how they might be used with intervention activities to change users' abilities across time. It is important for rehabilitation clinicians and researchers to be engaged with the design and use of wearables so they can advocate and create better wearables for their clients and determine how to most effectively use wearables to enhance their assessment, intervention, and research practices.

U-실버세대를 위한 스마트 웨어러블 및 연동 게임의 서비스 디자인 방안 탐색: 개인 맞춤형 운동처방 실행을 위한 흥미 유도 목적의 U-Hospital 솔루션

U-실버세대를 위한 스마트 웨어러블 및 연동 게임의 서비스 디자인 방안 탐색: 개인 맞춤형 운동처방 실행을 위한 흥미 유도 목적의 U-Hospital 솔루션

REVIEW PAPER ON WEARABLE COMPUTING ITS APPLICATIONS AND RESEARCH CHALLENGES

Wearable technology provides number of opportunities in today’s world that trigged all the imaginations for the people. In today’s era we are more and more dependent on computers and to be compatible with the technology we have to be omnipresent and embrace new developments. Our daily use material is imposed by factor such as battery life, processor power, display brightness, network coverage and form factor have led to the delay in the widespread introduction of wearable computers. In this paper we will review wearable early design that was merely used for aircraft and military purpose and compare that with its today’s application that how nowadays they are used for personal activities. It also highlights the scope and market of wearable computers and how it is emerging day by day.

Pressure-type generator for harvesting mechanical energy from human gait

This paper proposes a pressure-type generator that collects human mechanical energy by stepping, a prototype is finally designed and manufactured. The proposed pressure-type generator has a volume of 82.8 cm3 when subjected to pressure. The average output power can reach to 97 mW when under the walking speed of 4 km/h. As a result we can get the power density of 1.17 mW/cm3, higher than most electromagnetically powered devices. Unlike some other generators, this pressure-type generator uses magnets as the recovery device, making the durability of the device better. And also, the wearable design is completely made to let the device can be comfortable used. Finally, we did a series of tests to prove that the device can have great power output performance in the low frequency environment of the human foot movement.

Usage of T-Resonator Method at Determination of Dielectric Constant of Fabric Materials for Wearable Antenna Designs

Abstract In this study, determination of dielectric constants of fabric materials accurately by using T resonator method is aimed. Dielectric constant is one of the most important parameters that have a large effect on micro strip antenna performance. Small shifting at dielectric constant can cause huge alterations on electrical parameters of the antenna, especially at high frequencies. For this reason, a T resonator is designed on the wool felt fabric as the lower layer material at constant frequencies and the resonator dimensions are calculated. Using these calculated values, the finite element method is simulated with a High Frequency Electromagnetic Field Simulation (HFSS) as a resonator. After some size optimizations, the dielectric constant of the fabric was obtained correctly from the simulations. In order to validate the accuracy of the study and the values obtained, T resonator design on woolen felt material is manufactured and measurements of the resonator is realized with a vector network analyzer. Measurements of this resonator are compared with results from simulations and calculations. As a result, it has been shown that the dielectric constant of any fabric can be accurately determined using an easy, fast and inexpensive method and can be used in wearable micro strip antenna designs

Co-designing wearable devices for sports: The case study of sport climbing

Abstract This paper presents the co-design process of a wearable device for rock climbing, an extreme sport that requires high physical, emotional, and cognitive involvement. From the preliminary investigation of climbers’ needs, it emerged that their acceptance of wearables is mainly influenced by climbing sport-specific values like self-efficacy, trust, and adventure. Such values highlight the importance of the role technology should have beyond its functional purpose, i.e. how wearables should support climbers. Based on these insights, we designed and deployed a vibrotactile wearable device aimed at augmenting the communication between instructor and trainees and assessed its usefulness, usability, and pleasantness during an indoor climbing lesson. Finally, we conclude the paper discussing how the wearable we implemented meets the design criteria emerged from climbers’ values and reflecting on the importance to gain new perspectives on the design of wearables for sports in general.

An integrated design of self-care textile wearables: exploration of thermal-stimuli effects and drug delivery function

Fiber technology has become increasingly essential in various industries, such as the fashion clothing, medical, cosmetic and upholstery industries. It can be used to overcome some existing challen...

Becoming-atmosphere

After a brief reflection on ‘aura’ and ‘atmosphere’, and mentioning the current vogue of immersive and participatory performance, Johannes Birringer introduces scenographic concepts explored in the European METABODY project and practices of stage designers and installation artists working with changing materialities and atmospherics. The essay then addresses the question of how we understand the human and non-human, controllable and uncontrollable aspects of atmospheres, before discussing the material affects of choreosonic wearables and the design of wearables used in immersive performative environments which themselves are conceived as formative, not built or constructed in a stable form. Basing its investigation of such interactive environments for wearable performance in recent productions of the DAP-Lab, the essay explores the impact of VR "accessories" (wearable augmented virtuality) on movement choreography and role-play within dance installations – here called ‘kimospheres’.

Implementation of Wearable Terminal Used for Dynamic ECG Real-time Monitoring Based on Internet of Things

Electrocardiogram (ECG) detection is a routine and effective cardiac problem detection project. Traditional electrocardiogram detection has limitations in cardiac arrhythmia and other heart disease detection and diagnosis, such as effectiveness, real-time and so on. Based on the advanced mobile networking and wearable design concept, this paper designs and implements a dynamic ECG real-time monitoring system with low power embedded system and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless communication. Its main functions include 24-hour dynamic ECG signal real-time acquisition, processing, wireless communication, display and storage, real-time analysis of typical arrhythmia, recording and alarm, professional doctors real-time reading and diagnosis, dynamic ECG sharing and cloud platform automatic analysis and diagnosis. Both the physiological signal generator and the actual patient's wear test showed that the design and function of the wearable dynamic ECG real-time monitoring terminal based on the mobile networking could meet and apply to the patients with cardiac monitoring needs in the house, hospital, nursing home, outdoor and many other places.