This paper presents research into a user-friendly electronic sleeve (e-sleeve) with integrated electrodes in an array for wearable healthcare. The electrode array was directly printed onto an everyday clothing fabric using screen printing. The fabric properties and designed structures of the e-sleeve were assessed and refined through interaction with end users. Different electrode array layouts were fabricated to optimize the user experience in terms of comfort, effectivity and ease of use. The e-sleeve uses dry electrodes to facilitate ease of use and the electrode array can survive bending a sufficient number of times to ensure an acceptable usage lifetime. Different cleaning methods (washing and wiping) have been identified to enable reuse of the e-sleeve after contamination during use. The application of the e-sleeve has been demonstrated via muscle stimulation on the upper limb to achieve functional tasks (e.g., hand opening, pointing) for eight stroke survivors.

This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of fabrication techniques for the integration of coils into textiles, for the purpose of enabling low-power wireless power transfer; for example, the powering of on-body monitoring devices, such as heart-rate monitors. Key electrical parameters of the coils required to maximize power transfer efficiency are identified from theory. Flexible coils have been fabricated using standard processes widely used in the textile industry, such as screen printing and embroidery. The screen printed coils were fabricated with a silver-polymer ink on a printed interface layer; the embroidered coils were fabricated using a variety of conductive threads formed by coating textile fibers and through the use of copper fibers. These coils have been experimentally characterized and evaluated for use in wireless power transfer applications. The effects of coil geometry and separation on the dc-dc power transfer efficiency using Qi standard compliant driver and receiver circuits are reported.

Globally, human life expectancy is steadily increasing causing an increase in the elderly population and consequently increased costs of supporting them. Ambient assisted living is an active research area aimed at supporting elderly people to live independently in their preferred living environment. This paper presents the design and testing of a self-powered wearable headband for electroencephalogram (EEG) based detection of emotions allowing the evaluation of the quality of life of assisted people. Printed active electrode fabrication and testing is discussed followed by the design of an energy harvester for powering the headband. The results show that the fabricated electrodes have similar performance to commercial electrodes and that the electronics embedded into the headband, as well as the wireless sensor node used for processing the EEG, can be powered by energy harvested from solar panels integrated on the headband. An average real time emotion classification accuracy of 90 (±9) % was obtained from 12 subjects. The results show that the self-powered wearable headband presented in this paper can be used to measure the wellbeing of assisted people with good accuracy.

Wireless inductive power transmission systems can potentially supply wearable devices. Power cables or batteries can be eliminated by implementing a wireless power transfer system, making the wearable devices less obtrusive to users. However, rigid coils can cause discomfort to users in wearable applications. The novel screen-printed flexible coils on textiles reported here are intended to be a low-cost and comfortable solution when integrated into clothing. A constant-width circular-spiral flat coil has been designed to minimize the detrimental effect of the low conductivity of the screen-printed flexible conductors on the efficiency of the wireless power transfer system. The coils are printed on 65/35 polyester/cotton textile with a screen-printed Fabink-UV-IF1 interface layer coating. The interface layer provides a relatively flat and smooth surface to prevent the permeation of the conductive paste into the textile and allows the printing of finer-profile coils. A 5 V 1.2 W DC output has been achieved by a wireless power transfer system using the printed flexible coils with Qi standard circuitry; a DC-DC efficiency of 37% has been measured.