Development and wearer trial of ECG-garment with textile-based dry electrodes

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents the design and development process of ECG (electrocardiogram) garments using different textile-based dry electrodes and assesses their performance through wearer trials. To comply with the design criteria identified for such garments, sequences of sketches with modified design features, physical prototyping and trial with industry grade mannequin were first implemented before finalising a prototype design with three different fabrics for chest, front and back panels. ECG electrodes were configured on the chest panel individually with following two different conductive textile materials - single jersey knitted fabric and embroidery thread – to construct two different prototypes, which were wearer-trialled with a human participant. Results show that the embroidered electrodes performed better than the knitted electrodes in ECG detection in still and active conditions within the same design and construct of garment.