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A breathable underwater motion sensor could help monitor swimmer safety
Many flexible fitness trackers cannot be submerged in water because the coatings required to completely seal these devices would make them uncomfortable to wear. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Nano have applied a thin, slippery coating to conductive fabric, creating a breathable underwater motion sensor. They integrated the sensor into a smart device that wirelessly alerts a smartphone app when a swimmer stops moving, an indication that they could be drowning. Underwater motion sensors could have many applications, such as monitoring heart rate and tracking swimmer activity and safety. Current methods of protecting these electronics make the...
A breathable underwater motion sensor could help monitor swimmer safety
Many flexible fitness trackers cannot be submerged in water because the coatings required to completely seal these devices would make them uncomfortable to wear. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Nano have applied a thin, slippery coating to conductive fabric, creating a breathable underwater motion sensor. They integrated the sensor into a smart device that wirelessly alerts a smartphone app when a swimmer stops moving, an indication that they could be drowning.
Underwater motion sensors could have many applications, such as monitoring heart rate and tracking swimmer activity and safety. However, current methods of protecting these electronics make the devices thick and impermeable to air, which can cause skin irritation. However, previous research has shown that thin, uniform layers of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) provide sufficient water repellency to protect flexible motion sensors underwater. However, it is unclear whether the coating would be comfortable. That's why Jianying Huang, Cheolmin Park, Yuekun Lai and colleagues wanted to test PDMS as a water-repellent coating for a fabric-based sensor that would be part of a wireless underwater motion detection system.
To do this, the researchers dipped a piece of polyester knit fabric in a graphene oxide solution and then in hydroiodic acid. The final immersion was in a solution containing PDMS microparticles and nanoparticles. Initial tests showed that the coated fabric was conductive and water-repellent, but still permeable to air, which suggests it was comfortable to wear. When a sample of the coated fabric was attached to a person's finger and then bent underwater, it produced a measurable electrical response.
The team combined the fabric-based sensor with a power supply and data collector to create an intelligent underwater motion system that could wirelessly transmit the electrical response to a smartphone app. When the smart device was attached to a motorized swimming doll, the app tracked the doll's kicking legs. To simulate a swimmer in distress, the doll's kicking motion was turned off and the app sent a red alert. The researchers say that because the smart motion sensor repels water, it could help monitor the safety of swimmers and could be used in other types of underwater sensors.
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Reference:
Zhu, T., et al. (2022) A breathable knitted fabric-based intelligent system with enhanced superhydrophobicity for drowning alerting. ACS Nano. doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.2c08325.
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