Themes of Work

Our research centres around the body and how technology can be used to improve how that body exists and interacts with the surrounding environment. We focus on haptic and aural modalities, using textiles as the physical medium for building wearable computational systems. Some of the research projects we undertake focus exclusively on textile sensing and interfaces whilst other focus solely on how auditory displays can be improved for users. A growing area of our work is looking towards how these two complementary technologies can be brought together in novel applications.

Below is an non-exhaustive list of some of the research we have undertaken.

Current EU Funded Projects

SONICOM

SONICOM is a research project that aims to revolutionise the way we interact socially within augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) environments and applications, from online meetings to VR gaming.

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STELEC

STELEC, short for Sustainable Textile ELECtronics, is an interdisciplinary research project funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC) under the Pathfinder programmes in the responsible electronics topic seeking cutting-edge innovation with an end goal at TRL 2-3. The project is a multinational collaboration of research institutes, universities and companies across Europe. It aims at developing next generation textile-based electronics in applications from sensing, processing to AI, with a commitment to full lifecycle sustainability.

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Citation

BibTex format

@article{Zhou:2022:10.1002/pat.5856,
author = {Zhou, Y and Stewart, R},
doi = {10.1002/pat.5856},
journal = {Polymers for Advanced Technologies},
pages = {4250--4264},
title = {Highly flexible, durable, UV resistant, and electrically conductive graphene based TPU/textile composite sensor},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pat.5856},
volume = {33},
year = {2022}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Flexible strain sensors have attracted considerable attention due to their applications in wearable monitoring fields such as human-computer interaction systems, athletic training, and health systems. Textiles are a desired substrate for fabricating wearable flexible sensors due to their light weight, comfort, and flexibility. However, the compatibility between textiles and conductive materials still faces critical challenges, especially for wearable sensors to achieve high sensitivity and a wide sensing range simultaneously with long-term monitoring stability, reliability, and wearing comfort. In this study, we propose a graphene-based TPU/textile composite sensor that can be produced using small-scale manufacturing techniques, using laser cutting combined with film coating and thermal transfer processes and further explore its mechanical, electrical, and sensing properties. Since the human body exhibits different magnitudes of motion and fabric sensors integrated into clothing would face multiple challenges in real world usage e.g. repetitive wear, sweat and sunlight exposure, we performed sensitivity, reliability and durability tests to further evaluate real world usage of the fabric sensors. The developed composite sensor exhibits a high sensitivity (GF = 498), wide sensing range (0%–293%), excellent reliability and stability which only shows 5% deviation after 10,000 cycles of stretching under 5% strain. In addition, the graphene-based textile composite sensor thermalised by TPU film can also maintain high stability after long-term UV irradiation and multiple washing cycles. When integrated into various wearable devices, our composite sensor can detect a wide range of human body motions accurately, as well as subtle physiological signals, exhibiting great potential in incorporating into wearable monitoring devices.
AU  - Zhou,Y
AU  - Stewart,R
DO  - 10.1002/pat.5856
EP  - 4264
PY  - 2022///
SN  - 1042-7147
SP  - 4250
TI  - Highly flexible, durable, UV resistant, and electrically conductive graphene based TPU/textile composite sensor
T2  - Polymers for Advanced Technologies
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pat.5856
UR  - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pat.5856
VL  - 33
ER  -
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