Smart Fabrics Make Clever (Medical) Clothing - monitors muscle fatigue

[Guest guest]

Smart Fabrics Make Clever (Medical) Clothing - monitors muscle fatigue

http://medicalnewscenter.com/out/out.cgi?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081021190640.htm

European researchers have developed a smart fabric that can monitor

muscular overload and help prevent repetitive strain injury, or RSI.

But that is just the beginning. The team is also exploring a

pregnancy belt to monitor baby's heartbeat, clothing to help coach

hockey, and shirts that monitor muscle fatigue during training.

Smart fabrics promise to revolutionise clothing by incorporating

sensors into cloth for health, lifestyle and business applications.

In the long term, they could consist of circuits and sensors that

provide all of the typical electronics we carry around today, like

mobile phones and PDAs.

Current, first-generation applications are far more modest, and

pioneering medical smart fabrics are used to monitor vital signs like

heart rate and temperature. But two crucial hurdles – unobtrusiveness

and reliability – impede widespread adoption of such clever clothes.

Now one European research team has developed groundbreaking medical-

sensing smart fabrics, and its work could lead to pregnancy

monitoring belts, sports clothing that provides training tips, a

wearable physical game controller, and a vest that helps to prevent

repetitive strain injury.

The Context project initially sought to develop an RSI vest to tackle

a serious work safety issue. Repetitive actions can, over time, lead

to permanent injury and the problem costs billions of euros a year.

It affects over 40 million workers across the continent and is

responsible for 50 percent of all work-related ill-health.

Muscle contraction, the very quiet metric

The team had to tackle three challenging problems. First, they were

using a relatively novel sensor that demanded sophisticated

electronics located in the clothing. Second, they were aiming to

measure muscle contraction, a very `quiet metric'. Third, they were

venturing on a research path seldom trod: muscle contraction as a

predictor for stress. Long-term, low-key stress is the leading risk

factor for RSI.

" Each of the issues was very difficult. We chose to use a

capacitative sensor, because it does not need to be attached to the

skin, like resistive sensors do, which adds to the comfort. It needs

controlling electronics close to the sensor to work effectively, and

that presents a real challenge for textile integration, " explains Bas

Feddes, Context's coordinator.

Similarly, measuring electromyography, or electrical activity in the

muscle, is more subtle and tricky than electrocardiography, which

measures the heart. The rustle of clothing caused by movement can

drown out the signal.

Context has gone a long way to solving that problem but it is not as

robust as they would like.

Finally, medical understanding of muscle stress as a predictor for

RSI is not a mature field of research, so it is difficult to say with

certainty that specific activities could lead to RSI.

Despite these hurdles, the team successfully designed an RSI vest,

and they are currently improving its reliability.

Context's ambitious programme tackled pioneering and very complex

issues in smart-fabric research, which resulted in a useful,

unobtrusive and reliable RSI vest that can warn wearers to take a

recuperative break.

Baby onboard

More importantly, perhaps, the work was finished on time and under

budget, so Context has scope to explore other potential applications

enabled by the system. The team is eager to extend this work. " We

also have some ideas for improving bio-feedback for the prevention of

RSI problems, and we will pursue them as well, " notes Feddes.

But other applications may prove even more compelling in the short

term. For example, the team is looking at a pregnancy belt to monitor

a baby's heart rate. " In the short term, this would be more of a

lifestyle application, rather than a medical one, but that work could

lead to a belt that helps monitor difficult pregnancies, " Feddes

believes.

In the meantime, parents could enjoy the peace of mind monitoring

their child's heartbeat, perhaps with a heart-shaped light keeping

the rhythm. But reliability will be paramount, suggests Feddes, as

false warnings could be nerve wrecking for parents.

Muscle stress during sports training is another potential

application, and one consortium partner will pursue a swing-monitor

for hockey players.

" Hockey coaches find it difficult to give feedback to their players,

so they would be very interested in clothing that details the path of

their stroke. The shirt would track the order in which muscles

engaged during the swing. It is an application that could apply to

golf, too, " Feddes explains.

One of the most interesting and intensively investigated applications

is a physical game controller. Controlling a computer game by wearing

a garment that continuously probes your muscle activity is

attractive, not only because of the fun-factor but also because it

promotes exercise by children.

The garment again requires the expertise of all partners to develop

the sensors, and integrate them into the textiles, and to measure and

interpret muscle activity.

" It is an interesting area with many potential applications and the

project partners were very engaged so we got a lot of work done. We

would like to pursue other areas together in a future project, if

possible, and we will be discussing potential research areas over the

coming months. "

The Context project is receiving funding from the Sixth Framework

Programme for Information Society Technologies.

This is part two of the three-part special feature in October on

smart textiles.