Clevertex - Grado Zero Espace Srl

problem should be taken care of at young age. It is not self-evident however to impose the child to a
strict schedule of periods it has to wear the eye patch. The attending doctor has to completely rely on
the information the parents have given him on the subject. Nevertheless, wearing the eye patch on
prescribed periods of time is of crucial importance for the therapy to succeed. The intelligent eye patch
aims at providing the doctor with objective data about the eye patch wearing schedule. The eye patch
consists of an absorbing cushion and an adhesive strip. The cushion contains a microchip, a contact
sensitive sensor, a timekeeper and a battery.
The microchip and the timekeeper register a signal when the eye patch is in contact with the eye and
a second signal when the contact is broken off. The duration of the signal is saved in the memory of
the microchip. The eye patch stores and processes information that is useful for an appropriate
treatment of the aberration. The cushion also has a data port, so that an external link can be made
between the microchip and a computer.
For healthcare, wellness and fitness applications, strain-sensitive fabrics, introduced in chapter 2.1.3
are often used for the monitoring of body motion and change of shape [47]. The Intellitex Suit has
already been pointed out in a previous chapter. Some more examples can be found below.
For example, University of Pisa constructed an undershirt for continuous cardiopulmonary recording
using woven or knitted strain-sensitive fabrics [56].
A foam based pressure sensor was produced at the University College Dublin and Dublin City
University in order to measure breathing, shoulder movement and neck movement of the wearer. For
this purpose, a polymer synthesis methodology was developed to create a textile-like structure by
coating an open-cell polyurethane (PU) foam with a CEP (polypyrrole). The method involved soaking
the substrate, the PU foam, in an aqueous monomer and dopant solution. An aqueous oxidant
solution was then introduced into the reaction vessel to initiate polymerisation. This lead to the
precipitation of doped PPy, which subsequently deposited onto the PU substrate. The foam based
sensor was sewn between two garment layers [109].
Fig. 50 Schematic presentation and photographs of the foam-based pressure sensor integrated into a garment structure
designed by Lucy Dunne
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