Recent advancements in flexible and wearable sensors for biomedical and healthcare applications

Abstract

In the past decades, with the increasing awareness of personal health management, various types of flexible and wearable body sensors have been developed. Thanks to the superiorities of advanced wearable technologies, including miniaturization and portability, stretchability and comfortability, intelligent human-machine interface, etc., flexible and wearable body sensors hold great promise in the next generation biomedicine and healthcare applications. Unfortunately, the data precision, response speed, sensitivity and selectivity, durability, compatibility with flexible substrates, and preparation technics still need to be enhanced and refined to meet the requirements of clinical evaluations or even commercialization. According to the working principles, flexible and wearable sensing platform can be roughly divided into four categories: physical sensors, chemical sensors, biosensors, and the fusion of different types of sensors. Here, a brief review focused on recent developments of these flexible and wearable sensors applied especially to biomedicine and healthcare is presented. In addition, the existing challenges and potential opportunities ahead in flexible and wearable sensor technologies are discussed. At last, an outlook of wearable sensing platforms in biomedicine and healthcare is proposed. We hope this review can provide guidance for superior flexible and wearable sensing technologies in the future.

A Mode of Intelligent Equipment Monitoring Optimization Based on Dynamic Programming Algorithm

“…It can be seen from Table 2 that the dynamic programming algorithm is consistent with the actual demand, while the monitoring data processing capacity of the static programming algorithm is quite different from the actual demand and does not change along the change of the actual demand curve. In the range of 0∼25 iterations, there is no significant difference in the processing capacity of monitoring data between the two algorithms, but there are significant differences in the range of 25∼50, 50∼75 and 75∼100 iterations, and the dynamic programming algorithm is better than the static programming algorithm, which is consistent with the results of relevant studies Wang [ 16 ]. With the increase of the number of iterations, the amount of monitoring data processing increases.…”

Recent Advances in Stretchable and Wearable Capacitive Electrophysiological Sensors for Long-Term Health Monitoring

“…With the recent development of flexible electronic materials, smart transducers, and wireless systems, wearable sensor technology has gained significant interest in the realization of personalized medical care [ 1 ]. The human body is considered a combination of chemical and electrical systems reinforced by a mechanical building; therefore, measuring such electrical activity allows for an objective assessment of health conditions.…”

Antifreezing and Nondrying Sensors of Ionic Hydrogels with a Double-Layer Structure for Highly Sensitive Motion Monitoring

“…Smart wearable devices featured with flexibility and skin adhesion have received growing attention due to a broad range of prospective applications in many fields including health monitoring, , human-motion monitoring, and electronic skins. To date, numerous studies have been made in the development of smart wearable devices composed of a variety of materials such as carbon-based films, , thermoplastic elastomers, − and multifunctional hydrogels. ,, Compared with traditional rigid carbon- or elastomer-based materials, the hydrogel with a distinct three-dimensional structure has the advantages of excellent flexibility, a water-rich surface, and good biocompatibility, which make it a promising candidate for soft wearable sensing materials. − In order to efficiently transform the external deformation into electrical signals, hydrogel-based wearable sensors are required to possess the good electronic properties of conductors. , Generally, improving the electronic properties of hydrogels can be done by three methods: (1) incorporation of conductive nanomaterials such as graphene and silver nanowires; , (2) based on intrinsically conductive polymers such as polythiophene and/or polyaniline; , (3) adding ions or ionic liquids such as Li + , Na + , or Cl – into the hydrogel matrixes. − Among them, the introduction of ions or ionic liquids is a facile and low-cost method to prepare conductive hydrogels.…”