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MedTech West

eNursing - IT-stöd i omvårdnadsteamets arbete

Smart textiles are textiles based on different types of smart materials that can sense or react on environmental stimuli. This new technology is a growing area which exhibits characteristics particularly suitable for capturing (electro) physiological signals, e.g. to monitor ECG, EEG or respiration. These textiles most often form a three dimensional structure where different materials with different characteristics are bound together in different layers. However, in order to take full advantage of these new opportunities the textile industry needs to find new methods to develop innovative smart textile products. One strong and valuable contribution is to involve users early in the development process. The aim of this paper is to highlight how product representations, e.g. prototypes or material samples, can be used to facilitate the communication between users and developers in the development of new healthcare solutions based on textiles. The study presented in this paper was performed through participatory observation. The case is based on the development of a textile structure with three dimensional properties for long-term monitoring of EEG signals. The main findings are that product representations support the exchange of knowledge and experiences between users and developers by five different facilitating roles: Product representations serve to demonstrate (technical) solutions; to verbalise, i.e. serve to fill in were words are missing or when terms are not understood; to visualise, i.e. facilitating members of the development team to envision or adapt mental images of the intended future product; to stimulate, i.e. to inspire the development team to suggest new ideas or design; and, finally, to integrate, i.e. to unite different perspectives within the development team. Conclusion: By using product representations during the development process to facilitate the dialogue between users and developers, the textile industry may take full advantage of the opportunities made available by new development of materials and new technology in order to fulfil users’ needs.

Sponsorship:This work was partly carried out in association with SAFER –Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre at Chalmers, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Automatic crash notification to the nearest emergency center in case of a traffic accident willthrough the EU initiative eCall improve the safety for cars on European roads. eCall functionalitycould also increase the safety for vulnerable road users such as cyclists, but there is notechnical implementation agreed upon for this purpose. We propose to use smartphones due totheir widespread availability and no need for extra hardware. Today’s high-end smartphones areequipped with both GPS functionality and movement sensors. The aims of this study were toexplore if smartphones can be used to collect cycling data of sufficient quality and to design andevaluate a crash detection algorithm (CDA) for cycling accidents. A Google Nexus 4 smartphonewas chosen for the study. This device is equipped with a combined accelerometer and gyroscopechip. Over five hours of “normal” cycling data, i.e. without accidents/incidents, was collected. Sixcrash tests were performed using a simplified crash test dummy. In order to achieve a realisticuser scenario the smartphone was allowed to be easily carried as in everyday use, i.e. the userswere not required to fix it to the body. We used the total acceleration based on the sum of squareof each direction to obtain a measure independent on smartphone orientation. For normal cyclingthis measure was found to momentarily be as high as 50 ms2. High levels were often due tohandling of the smartphone. This prompted that an acceleration threshold alone is not sufficientfor an accurate CDA. A marked rotation during a short time interval was found to be an importantpredictor for crashes. An accurate CDA was designed based on a combination of sensor data suchas acceleration and rotation. The CDA detected all crashes and was subsequently evaluated inseveral hours of normal cycling without any false positive alarms.

The number of eHealth initiatives, i.e. solutions where Information and Communication Technology (ICT)are employed to promote health or improve healthcare, is rapidly growing. Development within theeHealth sector is seen as one, in some instances even “the”, way to meet tomorrow’s healthcarechallenges significantly characterized by an increasing number of elderly with multiple chronic diseases.This and other trends in society will propel a carethat is further individualized, easier to access,and ofhigher quality compared to today’s situation.

Integreringen av interaktiva egenskaper i teknisk textil har rönt stort intresse inom textil-forskningen de senaste åren. Med interaktiva textila strukturer avses textila system som interagerar med sin omgivning i någon mening. Ett sätt att åtadkomma dessa interaktiva strukturer är att foga samman lager av olika struktur eller material där varje lager tillför textilen/det textila systemet olika egenskaper. Det typiska tillvägagångssättet för att sammanfoga olika lager av textila material är att använda någon form av lamineringsteknik. Föreliggande projekt rör en ny vävteknik som möjliggör att flera textila lager med olika egenskaper vävs samman i en och samma process utan de tillsatser eller extra hantering som krävs vid laminering. Utöver de uppenbara produktionstekniska fördelarna möjliggör kombinationen av olika egenskaper i en lagerstruktur också att speciella krav på slutprodukten lättare kan tillgodoses. Det medicintekniska området förväntas ha stor nytta av textila strukturer som kan utformas i tre dimensioner eller kombinera olika egenskaper i en och samma struktur. Syftet är att demonstrera hur en nyutvecklad vävteknik för tredimensionella strukturer kan tillämpas för att tillverka interaktiva textila strukturer i en och samma tillverkningsprocess. I detta delprojekt har den tredimensionella tekniken använts för att utveckla en kapacitiv struktur utformad helt i textil. Genom mindre modifieringar av och tillägg till en 16-skaftad datorstyrd manuell prototypvävstol har två ledande och ett isolerande skikt kombinerats för att realisera en textilbaserad kondensator. I ett första test realiserades ett enkelt högpassfilter med den kapacitiva textila strukturen som kondensator. Filtrets egenskaper visade sig väl följa den förväntade filterkarakteristiken. Den nyutvecklade tredimensionella vävtekniken förväntas ha stora tillämpningsmöjligheter inom det medicintekniska området.