Capacitive Proximity and Tactile Perception Towards Continuous Patient Monitoring

Abstract

Monitoring of fitting of therapeutic devices, monitoring of appropriate therapeutic use of such devices and monitoring of poses and motions of patients can be of great benefit for feedback to the therapist with respect to the long term benefit of the therapy. Capacitive sensors can be used as low cost proximity perception sensors. As such sensors can be very thin and bendable, they can be integrated in various devices thus allowing for long term monitoring without adding much complexity. This paper shows the basic principle and demonstrates the applicability in a simple test scenario. Within the interdisciplinary scope of the workshop the aim is to foster new ideas towards future interdisciplinary collaborations with experts from the fields of therapy as well as user-centered-design and active assisted living.