Browse Topic: Wearable technology
This paper presents the development of a cost-effective assistive headgear designed to address the navigation challenges faced by millions of visually impaired individuals in India. Existing solutions are often prohibitively expensive, leaving a significant portion of this population underserved. To address this gap, we propose a novel human-machine interface that utilizes a synergistic combination of computer vision, stereo imaging, and haptic feedback technologies. The focus of this project lies in the creation of a practical and affordable headgear that empowers visually impaired users with real time obstacle detection and navigation capabilities. The solution leverages computer vision for environmental analysis and integrates haptic feedback for intuitive user guidance. This paper details the design intricacies of the headgear, along with the implementation methodologies employed. We present comprehensive testing results and discuss the project's potential to significantly enhance
Wearable devices that use sensors to monitor biological signals can play an important role in health care. These devices provide valuable information that allows providers to predict, diagnose, and treat a variety of conditions while improving access to care and reducing costs.
A silicone membrane for wearable devices is more comfortable and breathable thanks to better-sized pores made with the help of citric acid crystals. The new preparation technique fabricates thin, silicone-based patches that rapidly wick water away from the skin. The technique could reduce the redness and itching caused by wearable biosensors that trap sweat beneath them. The technique was developed by bioengineer and professor Young-Ho Cho and his colleagues at KAIST and reported in the journal Scientific Reports.
A recent study combines three-dimensional embroidery techniques with machine learning to create a fabric-based sensor that can control electronic devices through touch.
A flexible and stretchable cell has been developed for wearable electronic devices that require a reliable and efficient energy source that can easily be integrated into the human body. Conductive material consisting of carbon nanotubes, crosslinked polymers, and enzymes joined by stretchable connectors, are directly printed onto the material through screenprinting.
Rice University Houston, TX
For engineers working on soft robotics or wearable devices, keeping things light is a constant challenge: heavier materials require more energy to move around, and — in the case of wearables or prostheses — cause discomfort. Elastomers are synthetic polymers that can be manufactured with a range of mechanical properties, from stiff to stretchy, making them a popular material for such applications. But manufacturing elastomers that can be shaped into complex 3D structures that go from rigid to rubbery has been unfeasible until now.
Engineers at UC Berkeley have developed a new technique for making wearable sensors that enables medical researchers to prototype and test new designs much faster and at a far lower cost than existing methods.
Nara Institute of Science and Technology Nara, Japan
Scientists at Osaka University, in cooperation with Joanneum Research (Weiz, Austria), have introduced wireless health monitoring patches that use embedded piezoelectric nanogenerators to power themselves with harvested biomechanical energy. This work may lead to new autonomous health sensors as well as battery-less wearable electronic devices.
A pair of earbuds can be turned into a tool to record the electrical activity of the brain as well as levels of lactate in the body with the addition of two flexible sensors screen-printed onto a stamp-like flexible surface.
Recently, a Korean company donated a wearable robot, designed to aid patients with limited mobility during their rehabilitation, to a hospital. The patients wear this robot to receive assistance for muscle and joint exercises while performing actions such as walking or sitting. Wearable devices including smartwatches or eyewear that people wear and attach to their skin have the potential to enhance our quality of life, offering a glimmer of hope to some people much like this robotic innovation.
Freezing is one of the most common and debilitating symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects more than 9 million people worldwide. When individuals with Parkinson’s disease freeze, they suddenly lose the ability to move their feet, often mid-stride, resulting in a series of staccato stutter steps that get shorter until the person stops altogether. These episodes are one of the biggest contributors to falls among people living with Parkinson’s disease.
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) researchers have developed one of the world’s smallest, most intense, and fastest refrigeration devices — the wearable thin-film thermoelectric cooler (TFTEC) — and teamed with neuroscientists to help amputees perceive a sense of temperature with their phantom limbs.
A tactile perception system provides human-like multimodal tactile information to objects like robots and wearable devices that require tactile data in real time. The research team developed a real-time and multi-modal tactile detection system by mimicking the principle by which various types of tactile information is perceived by a variety of sensory receptors in the human skin and is transmitted to the brain in real time.
Made with a laser-modified graphene nanocomposite material, a wearable device can detect specific glucose levels in sweat for three weeks while simultaneously monitoring body temperature and pH levels.
A patent-pending method developed by Purdue University researchers brings the public one step closer to clothes with wearable electronics that don’t affect the wearer’s comfort. The method also simplifies the manufacturing process and boosts sensing capability.
Researchers in the Lyding Group at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have discovered an efficient, sustainable method for 3D-printing single-walled carbon nanotube films, a versatile, durable material that can transform how we explore space, engineer aircraft, and wear electronic technology.
Most people already know and appreciate the capabilities of smart phones, now imagine the possibilities offered by smart spacesuits, uniforms and exercise clothes. The future of wearable technology just got a big boost thanks to a team of University of Houston researchers who designed, developed, and delivered a successful prototype of a fully stretchable fabric-based lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery.
Researchers have designed a thin, digital display that can bend in half or stretch to more than twice its original length while still emitting a fluorescent pattern. The material has a wide range of applications, from wearable electronics and health sensors to foldable computer screens.
A method developed at NASA Johnson Space Center uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) interrogators for use with wearable active RFID sensor tags that can operate on ultra-low power. The technique uses a store-and-forward approach to manage the collection of data from RFID active tags even when they are not in range of an individual interrogator, as they move from the coverage area of one interrogator to the next. This allows the use of RFID active tags to transport sensor data in a highly complex environment where instantaneous access to an RFID interrogator cannot be guaranteed. Using this technique, an RFID active tag battery operational lifetime can be extended.
Engineers at the University of California San Diego developed a soft and stretchy ultrasound patch that can be worn on the skin to monitor blood flow through major arteries and veins deep inside a person’s body.
The Defense Department is looking to expand the use of its wearable technology to other infectious disease detection in service members, which leaders say will aid in readiness, says Jeff Schneider, program manager for the Rapid Assessment of Threat Exposure project, also known as the RATE program. DOD is extending the project, initially started with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in 2020, to new user groups after leading a successful prototype during COVID-19, he says.
Trends in wearable technology follow those of the broader biomedical and electronics industries — devices are getting smaller, smarter, and easier to use. Specifically, wearables in healthcare have moved toward solutions that reduce the device profile, provide more integration with smartphone apps, and most importantly enable patients to receive their treatments at home, outside of a doctor’s visit. These wearable devices range from on-body drug-delivery systems for cancer treatment to electrical nerve stimulation patches or simply sensors to monitor vitals. All treatments increase patient autonomy and are rapidly increasing in popularity.
New research out of Washington State University shows the glittering, serpentine structures that power wearable electronics can be created with the same technology used to print concert t-shirts.
Researchers at Drexel University are one step closer to making wearable textile technology a reality. Recently published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Journal of Material’s Chemistry A, materials scientists from Drexel’s College of Engineering, in partnership with a team at Accenture Labs, have reported a new design of a flexible wearable supercapacitor patch. It uses MXene, a material discovered at Drexel University in 2011, to create a textile-based supercapacitor that can charge in minutes and power an Arduino microcontroller temperature sensor and radio communication of data for almost two hours.
Flexible, wearable electronics could be used for precision medical sensors attached to the skin, designed to perform health monitoring and diagnosis. Such a skin-like device is being developed in a project between the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME). Leading the project is Sihong Wang, Assistant Professor in UChicago PME with a joint appointment in Argonne’s Nanoscience and Technology division.
A new string-like implant can monitor fluctuations in brain chemicals, like a fitness tracker for the brain.
A highly sensitive wearable sensor for cardiorespiratory monitoring could potentially be worn continuously by cardiac patients or others who require constant monitoring.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have engineered a biofilm that harvests the energy in evaporation and converts it to electricity. This biofilm has the potential to revolutionize the world of wearable electronics, powering everything from personal medical sensors to personal electronics.
With the spread of new trends such as autonomous driving and vehicle subscription service, drivers may pay less attention to the maintenance of the vehicle. Brake pads being safety critical components, the wear condition of all service brakes is required by regulation to be indicated by either acoustic of optical devices or a means of visually checking the degree of brake lining wear [1]. Current application of the wear indicator in the market uses either sound generating metal strip or wire harness based pad wear sensor. The former is not effective in generating clear alarm to the driver, and the latter is not cost effective, and there is a need for more effective and low cost solution. In this paper, a pad wear monitoring system using MOC(Motor On Caliper) EPB(Electric Parking Brake) ECU is proposed. An MOC EPB is equipped with a motor, geartrain and an ECU. The motor current when applying the parking brake is influenced by the mechanical load at the brake pad side of the system. So
Even before the pandemic disrupted patients’ in-person interactions with their healthcare providers, visionary designers had made significant strides in developing new options for self-operated medical devices. Innovations in wearable technologies along with more streamlined and intuitive handheld options are gaining traction at a rapid pace. A Transparency Market Research analysis put the value of the global remote patient monitoring devices market at $8 billion in 2019, with a projected CAGR of 12.5 percent from 2020 to 2030.1
Researchers at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have developed a highly flexible, high-energy textile lithium battery that offers more stable, durable, and safe energy supply for wearable electronics with a myriad of applications, including healthcare monitoring and intelligent textiles.
Researchers have developed a new type of rubber that is as tough as natural rubber but can also self-heal. Applications include wearable electronics and other medical devices. In order to make a rubber self-healable, the team needed to make the bonds connecting the polymers reversible, so that the bonds could break and reform.
Scientists have discovered that laser-induced graphene (LIG) is a highly effective antifouling material and, when electrified, bacteria zapper. LIG is a spongy version of graphene, the single-atom layer of carbon atoms. The researchers have since suggested uses for the material in wearable electronics and other applications.
Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) are more prevalent than ever, especially in the popular configurations known today as “wearables.” Leading MEMS and sensors in the multitude of wearable technologies include accelerometers, gyros, magnetometers, microphones, UV sensors, glucose monitors, barometers, humidity detectors, and heart rate instruments.
A multi-institutional research team has developed a new electroactive polymer material that can change shape and size when exposed to a relatively small electric field. The advance overcomes two longstanding challenges regarding the use of electroactive polymers to develop new devices, opening the door to a suite of applications ranging from microrobotics to designer haptic, optic, microfluidic, and wearable technologies. The work was performed by researchers at North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Akron.
University of Washington (UW) engineers have introduced a new way of communicating that allows devices such as brain implants, contact lenses, and smaller wearable electronics to talk to everyday devices like smartphones and watches. This new “interscatter communication” works by converting Bluetooth signals into Wi-Fi transmissions over the air. Using only reflections, an interscatter device such as a smart contact lens converts Bluetooth signals from a smartwatch, for example, into Wi-Fi transmissions that can be picked up by a smartphone.
ABSTRACT Currently, fielded ground robotic platforms are controlled by a human operator via constant, direct input from a controller. This approach requires constant attention on the part of the operator, decreasing situational awareness (SA). In scenarios where the robotic asset is non-line-of-sight (non-LOS), the operator must monitor visual feedback, which is typically in the form of a video feed and/or visualization. With the increasing use of personal radios, smart devices/wearable computers, and network connectivity by individual warfighters, the need for an unobtrusive means of robotic control and feedback is becoming more necessary. A proposed intuitive robotic operator control (IROC) involving a heads up display (HUD), instrumented gesture recognition glove, and ground robotic asset is described in this paper. Under the direction of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) Futures Directorate, AnthroTronix, Inc. (ATinc) is implementing the described integration for
Look around you. Doesn’t it seem like everyone is sporting a Fitbit® or other wearable technology? The fact is, consumers are quickly embracing devices that help them monitor fitness metrics. There’s a feel-good bonus in a long schlep from gate to gate in an airport, or a marathon shopping spree, when a compact wrist gadget applauds the impressive distance walked along the way. People are taking to wearable tech as they have adapted to smartphones— incorporating them as an integral piece of their everyday lives.
Researchers at The Ohio State University have embroidered circuits into fabric with 0.1 mm precision -- an ideal size for integrating sensors and electronic components into clothing. The achievement supports the development of new wearable technology, including a bandage that monitors tissue or a flexible fabric cap that senses brain activity.
An already emerging technology in the consumer marketplace, manufacturing with optical grade silicone is starting to awaken the medical device industry to new possibilities. Still in its infancy within the healthcare market, the benefits of optically clear silicones offer some intriguing opportunities, and it is gaining interest for applications such as wearable technologies, endoscopes, optical sensors and instruments, medical lasers, diagnostics, light guides, and other medical device-related applications.
This paper presents detection technology for a driver monitoring system using JINS MEME, an eyewear-type wearable device. Serious accidents caused by human error such as dozing while driving or inattentive driving have been increasing recently in Japan. JINS MEME is expected to contribute to reducing the number of traffic deaths by constantly monitoring the driver with an ocular potential sensor. This paper also explains how a driver’s drowsiness level can be estimated from information on their blink rate, which can be calculated from the ocular potential.
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