An All‐Textile, Mechano‐Capacitive Subtle Movement Sensor

ABSTRACT Designing garments that effectively capture human movements demands a focus on the wearer's comfort and freedom of motion. Electronic textile (e‐Textile) sensors offer a promising avenue due to their soft and flexible properties. However, these sensors are most responsive to large motions, as their precision is usually relatively low compared to other sensing solutions. Furthermore, e‐Textile sensors that measure physical force or deformation often require the sensing element itself to undergo deformation and be subject to force. This leads to degradation of the sensor due to repeated mechanical strain. To address these issues, a novel all‐textile mechanical capacitive sensor design is presented. This sensor is optimized for measuring subtle movements, such as thoracic wall movements, in breath monitoring. The design is more robust than other e‐Textile sensing approaches, as the deforming textile elements are separated from the sensing element. This design choice results in sensors with improved signal response, higher accuracy, and longer cycle life than the other comparable textile sensors. In this paper, we share the design and implementation guidelines, in vitro measurements (such as evaluation of the effects of electrode shape and size and cycle life tests), and multiple in vivo measurements of sensor prototypes.