Remote monitoring of a patient's movements has long been a problem for many clinicians and caregivers. A new technology dubbed the "smart pants" addresses this problem by providing fiber-opting sensors for remote monitoring.
Fiber Optic Smart Pants
According to Science Daily, researchers describe a new approach to remote movement monitoring using smart pants. As such, these pants would be made up of fiber optic sensors, providing a nonintrusive way to track the wearer's movements.
The pants detect sitting, squatting, kicking, and other activities without affecting the wearer's movement. They are designed to help clinicians and caregivers track patients' movements and give notifications should they sense distress or issues.
Arnaldo Leal-Junior, who is the leader of the research team from Brazil's Federal University of Espirito Santo, described the design and functionality of these smart pants. The researcher described the material, saying it was made from polymer optical fiber.
Science Daily reports how Leal-Junior described the smart pants as a nonintrusive approach, avoiding privacy issues that most image-based systems provide. The researcher also described its use cases as being in the home or rehabilitation clinics.
Smart Pants Design
The researchers described the smart pants in the Optica Publishing Group journal Biomedical Optic Express. As such, the pants were described as being made from transparent optical fibers.
The fibers were then integrated into the textile and connected to a portable signal acquisition unit inside the pocket. Despite its sophistication, Leal-Junior says creating a low-cost solution through optical devices was possible.
As for the smart pant's future, the researcher described how machine learning could potentially extend its capabilities. As such, further expansions of the technology could unlock new parameter measurements.
Low-Cost Wearable Sensors
The fiber optic pants are just a fraction of the larger picture of low-cost wearable sensors developed by photonic textiles. While other products like smartwatches detect movement, they are still limited in nature.
The researchers want to provide a full, comprehensive approach to monitoring patient movement without any hindrance in their activity. To do this, added intensity variation polymer optical fiber sensors into the pants' fabric
Science Daily notes that the sensors were based on polymethyl methacrylate optic fibers with a diameter measurement of just 1 mm. Whenever movement is applied, the fiber bends and signals the physical modification type used on a specific area.
By spreading out the sensitive fibers, researchers devised a multiplexed sensor system. The system had 30 measuring points for every leg.
So far, the smart pants prototype has been tested by volunteers, and they were used to perform activities like slow or fast walking, sitting, squatting, and kicking. The sensors showed 100% accuracy for those activities.
Leal-Junior highlights several advantages of fiber optics, including their immunity to magnetic or electric interference, making them a flexible yet compact integration to different clothing accessories.
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