Wrinkle-Enabled Highly Stretchable Strain Sensors for Wide-Range Health Monitoring with a Big Data Cloud Platform

Abstract

Flexible and stretchable strain sensors are vital for emerging fields of wearable and personal electronics, but it is a huge challenge for them to possess both wide-range measurement capability and good sensitivity. In this study, a highly stretchable strain sensor with a wide strain range and a good sensitivity is fabricated based on smart composites of carbon black (CB)/wrinkled Ecoflex. The sensor exhibits a maximum recoverable strain of up to 500% and a high gauge factor of 67.7. It has a low hysteresis, a fast signal response (as short as 120 ms), and a high reproducibility (up to 5000 cycles with a strain of 150%). The sensor is capable of detecting and capturing wide-range human activities, from speech recognition and pulse monitoring to vigorous motions. It is also applicable for real-time monitoring of robot movements and vehicle security crash in an anthropomorphic field. More importantly, the sensor is successfully used to send signals of a volunteer's breathing data to a local hospital in real time through a big data cloud platform. This research provides the feasibility of using a strain sensor for wearable Internet of things and demonstrates its exciting prospect for healthcare applications.