Test System for Textile Electrodes Characterization

There is an ongoing restructuring process in the healthcare services all over the world, occurring with more intensiveness in the developed countries. The world of healthcare delivery includes the concept of "continuity of care". This leads us to think about a shift of the concept hospital-centered healthcare to a new patient/citizen centered healthcare as well as from cure to prevention. Strong and reliable textile electrodes could be the first step towards the necessary health data for patient/citizen-centered healthcare and consequently prevention. Textile electrodes have the potential for continuous measurement, of physiological and physical parameters from patients to service providers, family and other support people. In order to design a reliable wearable device to detect, and consequently help in the cure of diseases, textile electrodes can provide a useful contribution. However it is necessary to test the new textile electrodes intensively in order to obtain reliable answers of the physiological signals. For that, it is necessary to know or create conditions of temperature and force, and to control the humidity for each measurement.

Autorentext

Carlos Gonçalves received the Master degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Minho, Braga,Portugal, in 2011. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in Leaders for Technical Industry at University of Minho, Braga, Portugal. His current research focuses on developing and characterizing soft wearable orthotic devices.