Inductive fiber-meshed strain and displacement transducers for respiratory measuring systems and motion capturing systems

Unobtrusive transducers play an important part in wearable and mobile computing fields. One out of many methods of implementations is to use smart materials and integrate them into intelligent structures via the route of fabric manufacturing processes that are capable of transducer action. This new breed of transducers is called fabric transducers. However, fabric transducers that were developed mainly focused on the variations in the resistance and capacitance of the electroconductive fabric structures. Therefore, they inhibit the disadvantages that are common in resistive and capacitive transducers. Moreover, they have limitations in operating as strain or displacement transducers. To overcome the limitations, research has been carried out to investigate constructions of an inductive fiber meshed strain and of displacement transducer. Electroconductive fibers (polymeric and metallic) of different conductivity levels were arranged in helical paths to form coils. The fibers were arranged by using flat bed-knitting technology. This paper discusses the constructions, simulations, performances, and limitations of the inductive fiber meshed transducers. Also, the discussion is further extended toward two specific applications: respiratory measuring systems and motion capturing systems