Project results

Four applications were selected in order to require a wide range of potential sweat and blood sensors with minimal discomfort to the users. These applications are:

Obese Children: to improve their level of activity and get a sufficient quantity of minerals.
Sportive people: to guaranty the quantity of minerals and avoid dehydration for athletes.
Diabetes: to prevent the different pathologic states, which is of concern for many people.
Wound healing and skin graft: to track the evolution of wounds and to avoid the appearance of chronic state or infection.

A public version of the Use and technical requirements for the applications can be downloaded in format.

The list of sensors and their specifications were derived from these requirements. The following aspects were specified:

For the measurement aspects, in order to build wearable systems monitoring species in body fluids:
- Biological species to analyze in blood and in sweat
- Concentration range, sensitivity, reproducibility, quantity, contamination
- Other species in presence in the fluids
- Type of measurement: one shot, sequential, continuous, threshold, relative, etc.
- Liquid collection and isolation constraints
- Electronics
For the textile processing, since the research targets the use of standard production processes with as small as possible changes:
- Thermal maximum temperature
- Chemical compatibility with the processes
- Physical compatibility with fibre fabrication
Last but not least, for the use constraints:
- Business requirements for each application
- Medical requirements, classification
- Legal requirements, marking, etc.
- Security and ethical issues
- User friendliness
- Location on the body, type of contact with the skin
- Size of patch and electronics
- Costs of patch and electronics
- Ambient conditions and variations: temperature, atmosphere, light
- Future garment integration: disposability, dismountability, washability

The feasibility of each sensor was evaluated and was then breadboarded using laboratory equipment. Not only scientific and technical aspects were considered during this phase, but also the specifications derived during the previous phase which aspects are listed in the above lists. It appeared clearly that the challenges were for some sensors larger than expected. A pipeline approach was introduce to accommodate the progress pace for each sensor. Because of their challenge, the development of some sensors had to be suspended, to fit the available resources of the project, while other ones could be pursued due to their results.

Information concerning the project and its results can be found on the CORDIS website concerning ICT Results.

Several sensors have been built and are currently being tested. Some of them are illustrated by the following pictures. Test results will be presented in a future update of this web page.

	Test of fluid collection system
	Textile fluid collection
	Fluid channel for Sodium sensor
	Sodium sensor with textile pump
	Reflective oximetry using plastic optical fibers
	Plastic optical fibers beam
	Plastic optical fibers embedded in textile for reflective oximetry
	Textile sweat rate sensor
	Testing of the sweat pH sensor
	Laboratory test set-up of the wound healing immunosensor

Project coordinator:
Jean Luprano
CSEM SA
Jaquet-Droz 1
CH-2007 Neuchâtel
Switzerland
T: +41 32 7205 378
F: +41 32 7205 720