Triboelectric Textiles Enable Wireless Motion Monitoring Through Displacement Current
In our cover paper, we present a fully textile-based wireless sensing system that harnesses displacement current from triboelectric nanogenerators for continuous motion variability analysis, offering new possibilities in health monitoring and smart clothing technologies.
Wearable electronics have evolved significantly, blending seamlessly into everyday clothing. The Biomedical and Mobile Health Technology lab focuses on developing sensors that integrate into textiles, requiring innovation in material science and data analysis. Traditional triboelectric nanogenerators face challenges in device configuration and signal transmission, often relying on non-textile components and wired connections.
This study introduces a wireless bio-sensing system using electrospun nanofibers with inherent micro-gaps, creating a triboelectric textile seamlessly woven into garments. The design allows for untethered continuous bio-signal monitoring, such as stride-time variability (STV) and joint-time variability (JTV) analysis. Signals are transmitted wirelessly via displacement current, enhanced by a textile inductor, eliminating the need for external energy sources.
The system demonstrates high accuracy in classifying various movements, showing strong agreement with gyroscope measurements in both STV and JTV analyses. This work advances the development of fully textile-based wireless wearable sensors, offering applications in rehabilitation, sports training, and fatigue detection for injury prevention. The wireless communication strategy using displacement currents enables signal transmission with fully textile components, ensuring comfort and unobstructed mobility. This lays the groundwork for deeper understanding of human biomechanics and its application in healthcare and sports science
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