Synthetic Skin-like Sensing in Wearable Garments

The field of electronic textiles (etextiles) possesses a variety of applications; one inexpensive and practical application lies in creating unobtrusive pressure sensors. The e-textile pressure sensor is created with a circuit of conductive thread, the voltage and resistance of which is inversely proportional to the pressure applied on the sensor. E-textiles may be used both for recreation and for monitoring the health and wellbeing of their users. In this research project, the pressure sensors were attached to an Arduino and integrated first into the fingertips of a glove, for recreational purposes, then into a pillowcase, for purposes of tracking a user’s sleep cycles throughout the night. Future work may apply these e-textile pillows in an effort to diagnose certain sleeping disorders characterized by atypical movement while asleep.