Researchers from the Holst Centre have developed a prototype smart shirt that integrates imec's validated medical-grade electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring with breathing rate and breathing depth.
There use of "state-of-the-art printed electronics technology" offers complete freedom in design and optimisation of printed sensors and electronics, being as thin as 60 µm and up to 100% stretchable. The properties of the electronics thereby become similar to those of textile, allowing unobtrusive integration.
The new demonstrator is the 3rd generation of vital sign monitoring shirt created with Holst Centre's smart clothing integration platform. It continuously measures the wearers' electrocardiogram (ECG), respiration and motion using imec’s wireless ultralow power multi-sensor data acquisition chip with efficient motion artefact reduction that can share the data via a wireless BTLE system to a smartphone.
The design of the shirt and its electronics can be easily tailored for best electrode contact to skin. This is important to further suppress motion artefacts which are depending for instance on the type of movements typical in different sports. Therefore, printed electronics allows maximising performance of both electronics and thereby the users for specific athletic and fitness applications
The design can be adapted for a variety of applications - e.g. patient monitoring in hospitals, home care, elderly care and is suitable for sports.
The developers say the shirt could help to get patients home from hospital sooner by enabling high-quality cardiac monitoring at home and could replace today’s cumbersome holter monitors. Unlike existing heart monitoring clothing, as the "smart" shirt uses compact and distinct dry electrodes rather than a chest band, making it more comfortable to wear.
- These electrodes are produced using screen-printable, electrically conductive inks from DuPont, which allows their shape to be optimised for maximum skin contact for strong signal resolution and monitoring performance
- The detachable sensor module is also much smaller and lighter (dimensions of 50 mm x 30 mm x 10 mm and 12 grams only) than previous generations, again making the shirt more comfortable to wear at all times
- The shirt can operate for up to two days on a single battery charge because of the low-power sensor and radio electronics
- The mechanical properties and encapsulation are engineered for reliability in the laundry process
- Washability of 25 cycles in domestic laundry can be achieved and so complying with market requirements
The underlying technology has been proven - and matured - in numerous prototypes of the vital signs shirt and health patch demonstrators from Holst Centre and imec.
It is also fully compatible with standard garment manufacturing processes: the electrodes can be laminated to any garment as the final stage of production.
Holst Centre is looking for more partners to take the smart vital signs shirt to market and develop the technology for other applications.
Kerry Adams, printed electronics market segment manager, DuPont, said, "The new vital signs shirt demonstrator shows how printed electronics can truly improve lives, in this case by enabling continuous and precise monitoring of clinical-grade, biometric data from the comfort of one’s home." Kerry added, "We are proud to enable this kind of innovation with our stretchable electronic inks and look forward to our continued participation in Holst Centre’s printed electronics development program."
Marina Toeters from by-wire.net, said, "As a designer, the technology platform from the Holst Centre ecosystem is great to work with. You are completely free to design any kind of garment and application you want to, and know that the designed electronics will be easily integrated as part of the normal manufacturing process."Holst Centre’s vital signs shirt with detachable sensor module