Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Luigi Raiano, Joshua Di Tocco, Carlo Massaroni, Giovanni Di Pino, Emiliano Schena, Domenico Formica
Summary: Based on the results of the study, the authors propose guidelines for estimating respiratory rate using different numbers and locations of piezoresistive sensors, providing specific configurations for different levels of physical activity.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Md Abdullah al Rumon, Gozde Cay, Vignesh Ravichandran, Afnan Altekreeti, Anna Gitelson-Kahn, Nicholas Constant, Dhaval Solanki, Kunal Mankodiya
Summary: The advancement of smart textiles has led to the development of wearable textile sensors (WTS) for sensing vital signs and activity monitoring in daily life. Knitting is a promising method for fabricating WTS due to its unique intermeshing loop structure. However, a comprehensive study of knit structures as sensors is needed for practical sensing applications.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Xujing Zhang, Songsong Tang, Rui Ma, Zetong Chen, Jingting Zhuo, Lingyun Cao, Jin Yang, Guowei Yang, Fang Yi
Summary: This article develops a multimodal smart textile that can simultaneously measure temperature and pulse/touch in real time, with high performance and no signal interference. The smart textile uses a triboelectric nanogenerator to detect touch/pulse and a core thermoresistive micro/nano porous fiber to detect temperature. The fiber has record-high thermal sensitivity and the fastest response/recovery time among previously reported fiber/textile-based temperature sensors.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Astrid Garcia Patino, Carlo Menon
Summary: Inductive textile sensors have attracted attention for their reliability, stable readings, low production cost, and easy manufacturing process. They have been widely used in various applications such as antennas, plethysmographs, heartbeat measurement, wireless data transmission, and motion and gesture capturing systems.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Joshua Di Tocco, Arianna Carnevale, Daniela Lo Presti, Marco Bravi, Federica Bressi, Sandra Miccinilli, Silvia Sterzi, Umile Giuseppe Longo, Vincenzo Denaro, Emiliano Schena, Carlo Massaroni
Summary: Wearable devices for physiological parameters monitoring, specifically for knee flexion-extension monitoring, were proposed in this study. The system, based on conductive textile, was tested on healthy volunteers with positive results, showing its potential for applications in rehabilitation and day-to-day monitoring.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Tanvir Alam, Fadoua Saidane, Abdullah Al Faisal, Ashaduzzaman Khan, Gaffar Hossain
Summary: With the development of wearable electronics, traditional textiles have been transformed into precise strain sensors with high accuracy and broad spectrum sensitivity, which has become a research focus in human motion monitoring. A low-cost conductive graphite-polyurethane nanocomposite paste was developed and applied to a modified textile to create a highly efficient strain sensor. This sensor has high mechanical stability and can accurately monitor the movement and angle of fingers, wrists, and elbows.
SENSORS AND ACTUATORS A-PHYSICAL
(2022)
Article
Polymer Science
TranThuyNga Truong, Hayeong Yun, Jooyong Kim
Summary: This study presents a highly stretchable strain/compress sensor based on a shape memory alloy coil spring covered with silver and CNTs/SMP layers. The combination of shape memory materials improves the sensor's mechanics, and the presence of CNTs helps reduce the influence of temperature on resistance. The proposed device can be used to monitor arm and triceps brachii muscle movements, providing a novel approach for wearable arm sleeves.
MACROMOLECULAR RAPID COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Bin Tian, Yuhui Fang, Jing Liang, Ke Zheng, Panwang Guo, Xinyu Zhang, Youfusheng Wu, Qun Liu, Zhida Huang, Changyong Cao, Wei Wu
Summary: This study reports a new multifunctional e-textile fabricated via screen printing, which exhibits good flexibility, wear resistance, and water resistance. The printed e-textiles have potential applications in strain sensors and thermal management, providing new opportunities for the development of wearable electronics and smart clothing.
Review
Chemistry, Analytical
Zhiyong Deng, Lihao Guo, Ximeng Chen, Weiwei Wu
Summary: Smart wearable systems for health monitoring are popular in personal wisdom medicine and telemedicine. These systems make biosignal detection, monitoring, and recording portable, long-term, and comfortable. The development of wearable health-monitoring systems focuses on advanced materials and system integration, and the number of high-performance wearable systems is increasing. Challenges in these fields include balancing the trade-off between flexibility/stretchability, sensing performance, and system robustness. More progress is needed to promote the development of wearable health-monitoring systems. The review summarizes achievements and progress in wearable systems and presents a strategy overview for material selection, system integration, and biosignal monitoring. The next generation of wearable systems will offer more opportunities for disease diagnosis and treatment.
Article
Biophysics
Hong Pan, Guorui Chen, Yanmeng Chen, Aiden Di Carlo, Mylan Anh Mayer, Sophia Shen, Chunxu Chen, Weixiong Li, Suriyen Subramaniam, Haichao Huang, Huiling Tai, Yadong Jiang, Guangzhong Xie, Yuanjie Su, Jun Chen
Summary: Electronic textiles are revolutionizing our lives, but their lack of effective recycling poses a significant environmental burden. This study presents a cotton fiber-based piezoresistive textile that is biocompatible, biodegradable, and environmentally friendly. The textile is fabricated using a scalable dip-coating method, achieving strong adhesion between MXene flakes and porous cotton cellulose fibers through hydrogen bonding. With high sensitivity, fast response time, and good cycle stability, this textile can detect various human biomechanical activities while ensuring comfort. Additionally, the cotton cellulose component can naturally degrade, making the electronic textile truly biodegradable. This work offers a cost-effective and ecologically-benign approach to developing high-performance wearable bioelectronics.
BIOSENSORS & BIOELECTRONICS
(2023)
Review
Materials Science, Textiles
Yingying Zhang, Qiyue Xiao, Qiuyan Wang, Yan Zhang, Ping Wang, Yuanyuan Li
Summary: This work provides a review of carbon-based flexible wearable sensors, focusing on fabrication, performance, and working mechanisms. Carbon materials such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, and carbon black are extensively explored. Carbon nanotubes and graphene can be assembled into various macrostructures, forming flexible sensors in forms of films, fibers, yarns, or fabrics. The reviewed flexible strain sensors exhibit high sensitivity, wide sensing range, fast response, long-term stability, and durability. However, there is a need for new technological breakthroughs in the preparation process, material synthesis, and device integration to meet the challenges of complex environments and multifunctional integration in practical applications.
TEXTILE RESEARCH JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Pariya Nazari, Rainer Baeuerle, Johannes Zimmermann, Christian Melzer, Christopher Schwab, Anna Smith, Wolfgang Kowalsky, Jasmin Aghassi-Hagmann, Gerardo Hernandez-Sosa, Uli Lemmer
Summary: This article introduces a highly sensitive microfiber strain sensor that can detect mechanical deformations in applications with limited space, especially for in situ lithium-ion battery thickness monitoring. The sensor is fabricated using a wet-spinning method with a composite of conductive particles embedded in an elastomer. It shows high strain sensitivity, extremely low strain detection limit (0.00005), and high durability of 10,000 cycles. The real-time thickness change of a Li-ion battery pouch cell during charge and discharge cycles is successfully monitored using this sensor, demonstrating its accuracy and ease of applicability. This work presents a promising approach with the least material complexity for soft microfiber strain gauges.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2023)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Hongyun Peng, Huiqiao Li, Guangming Tao, Liangjun Xia, Weilin Xu, Tianyou Zhai
Summary: Textiles with advanced optoelectronic capabilities have revolutionized human-machine interaction paradigms in various emerging fields. The recent progress in smart textile optoelectronics for human-interfaced logic systems is summarized, highlighting the wearability evaluation, integration consideration, breakthroughs, challenges, and potential directions in this field.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Shuwang Wu, Ta-Wei Wang, Yingjie Du, Bowen Yao, Sidi Duan, Yichen Yan, Mutian Hua, Yousif Alsaid, Xinyuan Zhu, Ximin He
Summary: The use of potassium acetate in polyvinyl alcohol hydrogels improves mechanical properties, anti-freezing capacity, and conductivity, making them suitable for a wide range of conditions.
NPG ASIA MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Beyza Bozali, Sepideh Ghodrat, Kaspar M. B. Jansen
Summary: Smart textiles, an emerging technology, are used for rehabilitation purposes and monitoring various bodily functions. To improve flexibility and comfort, researchers have developed textile-based sensors. This study integrated knitted strain sensors into wearable finger sensors for rehabilitation, achieving accurate responses to different finger angles. The thickness of the spacer layer between the finger and sensor was also investigated.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Francesca De Tommasi, Daniela Lo Presti, Michele Arturo Caponero, Massimiliano Carassiti, Emiliano Schena, Carlo Massaroni
Summary: Monitoring respiratory rate (RR) is crucial for individuals with sleep-related breathing disorders (SBDs). Fiber Bragg grating sensors (FBGs) show promise in this field, and a novel FBG-based smart mattress was developed in this study for continuous RR monitoring. The smart mattress consisted of 13 FBG sensing elements embedded in soft biocompatible rubber, providing compactness, robustness, and user comfort.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Cukic Milena, Chiara Romano, Francesca De Tommasi, Massimiliano Carassiti, Domenico Formica, Emiliano Schena, Carlo Massaroni
Summary: Heart rate variability (HRV) indexes are useful for various applications and can be retrieved from the heart's electrical activity or mechanical signals recorded from the body's surface. However, the morphology of mechanical signals is strongly affected by body posture. This study investigated the feasibility of estimating HRV indexes from accelerometer and gyroscope data collected with a wearable IMU positioned at the xiphoid level.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Daniela Lo Presti, Joshua Di Tocco, Sara Cimini, Stefano Cinti, Carlo Massaroni, Rosaria D'Amato, Michele A. A. Caponero, Laura De Gara, Emiliano Schena
Summary: Global climate change and population growth present challenges for agricultural outputs. Wearable sensors are being developed to monitor plant growth and microclimate parameters. This research proposes two wearable sensors based on fiber Bragg gratings, which have high sensitivity and can withstand various environmental factors. Experimental tests show that these sensors can effectively monitor dimensional changes in plants, offering promising applications in smart agriculture for improving crop quality, agricultural efficiency, and profits.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Joshua Di Tocco, Daniela Lo Presti, Carlo Massaroni, Stefano Cinti, Sara Cimini, Laura De Gara, Emiliano Schena
Summary: This study proposed a multi-sensor wearable platform for monitoring the growth of plant organs and microclimate. The platform consists of a custom flexible strain sensor and a commercial sensing unit, and showed promising results in preliminary tests.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Chiara Romano, Domenico Formica, Emiliano Schena, Carlo Massaroni
Summary: This study investigates the influence of sensor placement for cardiorespiratory monitoring using inertial measurement units (IMUs). Triaxial accelerometer data was collected from 15 healthy volunteers in different postures, and the most informative axis and sensor position were determined. The general-purpose configuration allows accurate estimation of respiratory rate (RR) and heart rate (HR), while the posture-dependent configuration improves RR estimation, especially during walking and standing.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
D. Lo Presti, C. Massaroni, D. Bianchi, J. Di Tocco, S. Cimini, M. A. Caponero, A. Gizzi, L. De Gara, S. Cinti, E. Schena
Summary: One of the biggest challenges in world agriculture is feeding a growing population sustainably. Global food availability is strained by climate change and biological stresses. This article proposes a wearable system that can monitor the dimensional changes of plants and edible parts, offering a strategy to increase agricultural productivity.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Martina Zaltieri, Daniela Lo Presti, Marco Bravi, Michele Arturo Caponero, Silvia Sterzi, Emiliano Schena, Carlo Massaroni
Summary: Due to incorrect sitting posture, upper body musculoskeletal disorders (UBMDs) are widespread among sedentary workers. Monitoring sitting behaviors and respiratory rate (RR) can help minimize UBMDs' occurrence and assess the workers' state of health. A flexible wearable system based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) technology was proposed to recognize sitting postures and estimate RR, showing good performances in posture recognition and agreement with benchmark in RR estimation. The wearable system could provide support for understanding posture attitudes and gathering RR information to depict users' state of health.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Chiara Romano, Andrea Nicolo, Lorenzo Innocenti, Marco Bravi, Sandra Miccinilli, Silvia Sterzi, Massimo Sacchetti, Emiliano Schena, Carlo Massaroni
Summary: Emerging evidence suggests that respiratory frequency is a valid marker of physical effort, leading to the interest in developing devices for monitoring this vital sign. This study proposes the use of a microphone embedded in a facemask to estimate respiratory frequency from breath sounds during walking and running. The results show relatively good agreement between the proposed system and the reference system, indicating that microphone sensors can be considered suitable for estimating respiratory frequency during exercise.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Chiara Romano, Andrea Nicolo, Lorenzo Innocenti, Massimo Sacchetti, Emiliano Schena, Carlo Massaroni
Summary: This study presents the design and testing of a smart facemask with a temperature biosensor for monitoring respiratory frequency during cycling exercise. The smart facemask showed good performance in both laboratory and outdoor testing, with high accuracy and precision in extracting respiratory frequency data. These findings have important implications for exercise testing and management.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Francesca De Tommasi, Carlo Massaroni, Michele Arturo Caponero, Emiliano Schena, Daniela Lo Presti, Massimiliano Carassiti
Summary: This article introduces a 3D-printed device based on fiber Bragg grating sensors (FBGs) to assist physicians in performing epidural procedures. By wearing a thumb-shaped device under a clinician's glove, the epidural space can be accurately detected, overcoming the limitations of traditional methods.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
D. Lo Presti, A. Dimo, L. Zoboli, D. Bianchi, C. Massaroni, V. Altomare, A. Grasso, C. M. Oddo, A. Gizzi, E. Schena
Summary: This study introduces an innovative tactile probe for breast cancer identification, utilizing fiber Bragg grating (FBG) technology combined with 3D printing. The sensing unit design was optimized through analysis, fabrication, and characterization, leading to the development of a prototype integrating multiple sensing units. Promising results were obtained through tests on silicone samples with different hardness and a phantom mimicking early stage breast tumor, providing guidance for further optimization of the probe design.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Francesca De Tommasi, Carlo Massaroni, Michele Arturo Caponero, Massimiliano Carassiti, Emiliano Schena, Daniela Lo Presti
Summary: In recent years, researchers have been looking for unobtrusive solutions to monitor cardiorespiratory activity, and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors show promise in monitoring respiratory rate (RR) and heart rate (HR). This study tests a mattress based on a 13-FBG array for continuous HR estimation and assesses its performance in different breathing regimes and postures. The results suggest that the proposed mattress has the potential to reliably estimate HR values, demonstrating the high potential for monitoring cardiorespiratory activity.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Francesca De Tommasi, Livio D'Alvia, Carlo Massaroni, Daniela Lo Presti, Massimiliano Carassiti, Zaccaria Del Prete, Emiliano Schena, Eduardo Palermo
Summary: In recent decades, fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors have been widely used in biomedical applications, particularly in thermal ablation treatments. The choice of FBG length is crucial in minimizing measurement errors, yet there is a lack of comprehensive investigations on this parameter. Our study aims to provide additional knowledge on the effect of two different FBG lengths on temperature estimation in the presence of thermal gradients. Results suggest that shorter FBG sensors are more suitable for retrieving thermal gradient information, while longer FBGs may lead to unacceptable measurement errors during thermal ablation treatments.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT
(2023)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Arianna Carnevale, Ilaria Mannocchi, Emiliano Schena, Marco Carli, Mohamed Saifeddine Hadj Sassi, Martina Marino, Umile Giuseppe Longo
Summary: This study investigated the effectiveness of shoulder rehabilitation in virtual environments using a custom VR app. Results showed that the VR app helped volunteers achieve their rehabilitation goals more effectively.
BIOENGINEERING-BASEL
(2023)
