Warp Knitting and Custom Chip Design for Breathing Guidance Apparels
Severin Bernhart, Franziska Guth, Benjamin Poredos, Rainer Matischek, Thomas Herndl, Laura Buchner (2024): Warp Knitting and Custom Chip Design for Breathing Guidance Apparels In: ISEA 2024: The Engineering of Sport 15, Loughborough UK 8-11 July 2024: Conference Proceedings
Endurance running’s appeal is offset by breathing difficulties, which may be alleviated through real-time respiratory guidance with wearable sensors. This study aims to pilot evaluate warp knitting, miniaturized chip design, and commercial smart textile connectors for automating smart textiles fabrication and electronic components miniaturization while maintaining signal quality and user comfort. A wearable chest belt for stride and breathing sensing was developed using a multilayer capacitive textile sensor integrated via warp knitting. The initial on-body unit (OBU) was replaced with a smaller, lighter miniaturized OBU. Six minutes of breathing data from one test subject during rest and running conditions were analyzed for signal quality influences using SNR comparisons. Results showed warp knitted sensors provided slightly higher SNR than stitched sensors, and the miniaturized OBU had higher SNR compared to the prototype. However, JAE connectors exhibited lower SNR than snap buttons. While warp knitting and the proposed custom PCB and chip design met industry demands for production automation and smart textile usability, further testing with diverse individuals is needed to validate these findings.
