Fabric-based pressure sensor arrays including intersecting elongated conductive strips on opposite sides of a textile sheet

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11617537-B2
Application number	US-201615002136-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 20, 2016
Priority date	May 20, 2011
Publication date	Apr 4, 2023
Grant date	Apr 4, 2023

Abstract

A fabric-based pressure sensor array includes: (1) a first layer including M elongated conductive strips coated thereon; (2) a second layer including N elongated conductive strips coated thereon, the M elongated conductive strips extending crosswise relative to the N elongated conductive strips to define M×N intersections; and (3) a unitary textile sheet extending between the first layer and the second layer so as to overlap the M×N intersections, the textile sheet having a variable resistivity in response to applied pressure so as to define M×N pressure sensors at locations corresponding to the M×N intersections.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fabric-based pressure sensor array, comprising:
a continuous textile sheet having a first surface, a second surface opposite to the first surface, fibers coated with an electrically conductive material and disposed between the first surface and the second surface;
M elongated conductive strips directly coated on the first surface; and
N elongated conductive strips directly coated on the second surface,
wherein the M elongated conductive strips extend crosswise relative to the N elongated conductive strips to define M×N intersections, wherein the continuous textile sheet has an offset resistivity corresponding to an initial offset pressure, and a variable resistivity in response to applied pressure so as to define M×N pressure sensors at locations corresponding to the M×N intersections, and the M elongated conductive strips and N elongated conductive strips are different from the fibers coated with the electrically conductive material, and
wherein the sensor array is configured to detect a first pressure map corresponding to a first position of a body applying pressure to the continuous textile sheet, detect a second pressure map corresponding to a second position of the body applying pressure to the continuous textile sheet, and identify the second position of the body as being an identified one of a set of body positions based on output of a model using machine learning and receiving the first and second pressure maps as input.

2. The fabric-based pressure sensor array of claim 1 , wherein the fibers are coated with an electrically conductive polymer.

3. The fabric-based pressure sensor array of claim 1 , wherein the sensor array is configured to detect pressure applied at the M×N pressure sensors by an object positioned on the continuous textile sheet.

4. The fabric-based pressure sensor array of claim 1 , wherein the fibers are woven to form the continuous textile sheet.

5. The fabric-based pressure sensor array of claim 1 , wherein each of the M elongated conductive strips and the N elongated conductive strips includes an electrically conductive polymer.

6. The fabric-based pressure sensor array of claim 1 , wherein each of the M elongated conductive strips and the N elongated conductive strips includes a polymer and electrically conductive additives dispersed in the polymer.

7. The fabric-based pressure sensor array of claim 1 , wherein each of the M elongated conductive strips and the N elongated conductive strips includes a metal or a metal alloy.

8. The fabric-based pressure sensor array of claim 1 , wherein M is greater than 1, Nis greater than 1, and M is the same as N.

9. The fabric-based pressure sensor array of claim 1 , wherein M is greater than 1, Nis greater than 1, and M is different from N.

10. The fabric-based pressure sensor array of claim 1 , wherein the fabric-based pressure sensor array has a thickness in a range of 0.1 mm to 1 mm.

11. The fabric-based pressure sensor array of claim 1 , wherein the M×N pressure sensors are connected to a data sampling unit.

12. The fabric-based pressure sensor array of claim 1 , wherein the set of body positions includes a situp position, a forward position, a backward position, a left lean position, a right lean position, a right foot over left position, and a left foot over right position.

13. The fabric-based pressure sensor array of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the first and second positions of the body corresponds to a sleeping position.

Assignees

• Univ California
• Medisens Wireless Inc
• The Regent Of The Univ Of California

Inventors

• Sarrafzadeh Majid
• Xu Wenyao
• Huang Ming-Chun
• Raut Nitin
• Yadegar Behrooz

Classifications

• A61B2562/0247

  Pressure sensors · CPC title

• A61B5/1116

  Determining posture transitions · CPC title

• A61B5/6804 Primary

  Garments; Clothes · CPC title

• A61B5/4806

  Sleep evaluation (A61B5/4821 takes precedence; devices for inducing sleep A61M21/02) · CPC title

• G01L1/205

  using distributed sensing elements · CPC title