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Monitoring human movements and posture using wearable technologies
We want to incorporate our thread-like sensors into common textiles to develop smart garments for the detection of human movements. Our aim is to develop wearable technologies that are light and unobtrusive and provide data that can be used to inform on, guide, track, or improve human movement.
Keywords: motion analysis, wearable technology, smart textile, medical technologies, and digital health
Wearable technologies are increasing in popularity for providing user data in a variety of fields including healthcare and fitness. For the wearable devices to be practical for the end users, they need to be unobtrusive. Using textile-based sensors, tracking can be seamlessly incorporated into textiles and clothing.
The purpose of this research is focused on developing smart garments using our thread-like capacitive, resistive, and inductive sensors to detect specific human movements, measure joint angles, and count repetitive movements within health and fitness applications. The vision of the technology is to provide the end user with a practical solution to monitor their activities to detect and potentially prevent the occurrence of an undesirable event, in addition to improving their path to recovery in case of injury.
Wearable technologies are increasing in popularity for providing user data in a variety of fields including healthcare and fitness. For the wearable devices to be practical for the end users, they need to be unobtrusive. Using textile-based sensors, tracking can be seamlessly incorporated into textiles and clothing. The purpose of this research is focused on developing smart garments using our thread-like capacitive, resistive, and inductive sensors to detect specific human movements, measure joint angles, and count repetitive movements within health and fitness applications. The vision of the technology is to provide the end user with a practical solution to monitor their activities to detect and potentially prevent the occurrence of an undesirable event, in addition to improving their path to recovery in case of injury.
**Goals**
- Develop electronics to acquire data from capacitive, resistive, and inductive stretch sensors.
- Incorporate sensors (provided by applied materials researchers within BMHT or commercial options) and electronics into garments
- Evaluate the performance of the garments in monitoring movements of the limb and torso
- Visualize results and write a report of the work (manuscript or project report)
**Tasks**
- Literature review (10%)
- Development of garments using resistive and capacitive sensors for lower limb joint angle measurements (40%)
- Development of garments using inductive sensors for the detection of back movements (15%)
- Test and evaluation (15%)
- Report and presentation (20%)
**Your Profile**
- Background in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields
- Prior experience with prototyping (electrical circuits and microcontroller programming)
- Independent worker with critical thinking and problem solving skills
- Can visualize data using different charts such as boxplot and scatter plots
**Goals**
- Develop electronics to acquire data from capacitive, resistive, and inductive stretch sensors.
- Incorporate sensors (provided by applied materials researchers within BMHT or commercial options) and electronics into garments
- Evaluate the performance of the garments in monitoring movements of the limb and torso
- Visualize results and write a report of the work (manuscript or project report)
**Tasks**
- Literature review (10%)
- Development of garments using resistive and capacitive sensors for lower limb joint angle measurements (40%)
- Development of garments using inductive sensors for the detection of back movements (15%)
- Test and evaluation (15%)
- Report and presentation (20%)
**Your Profile**
- Background in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields
- Prior experience with prototyping (electrical circuits and microcontroller programming)
- Independent worker with critical thinking and problem solving skills
- Can visualize data using different charts such as boxplot and scatter plots
Prof Dr Carlo Menon and Dr. Chakaveh Ahmadizadeh will supervise the student and the research will be performed at the Biomedical and Mobile Health Technology lab (www.bmht.ethz.ch) at ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
To apply, use the button below to tell us why you want to do this project ("motivation"); attach a mini CV with your current program of study, your grades and any other info you deem relevant--maybe the name and phone number of a postdoc or a professor willing to be your reference; and make any further comments ("additional remarks").
Prof Dr Carlo Menon and Dr. Chakaveh Ahmadizadeh will supervise the student and the research will be performed at the Biomedical and Mobile Health Technology lab (www.bmht.ethz.ch) at ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
To apply, use the button below to tell us why you want to do this project ("motivation"); attach a mini CV with your current program of study, your grades and any other info you deem relevant--maybe the name and phone number of a postdoc or a professor willing to be your reference; and make any further comments ("additional remarks").
