SBIR Phase II: High Data Rate Biometric Monitoring

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是推动用于可穿戴设备的新型压力传感器。在汽车座椅上，这些传感器可以帮助确定乘客人数或衡量司机的注意力。这些传感器还可以用来在机器人平台上实现触觉，从而改进自动化决策过程。在虚拟和增强现实领域，该系统可以测量力和压力信息，以改善一系列行业的培训和学习结果，包括体育、医疗和军事培训应用。在医疗保健和健康市场，拟议的传感器将提供关于高速运动和地面反作用力的生物统计数据，以及呼吸和肌肉疲劳信息，以改善结果。这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目专注于推进可穿戴设备行业中的可伸缩光子传感器。这些弹性传感器是光导，在拉伸时会改变功率输出，功率输出的变化与施加的应变成正比。传感器的功率输出可以根据生物测量输出进行校准，例如高速运动学(关节角度速度)和肌肉疲劳(因炎症导致的体积变化)。由于这些光导的柔软、可伸展和薄的性质，它们可以很容易地集成到服装中，而不会影响其机械性能，从而基本上不会被佩戴者注意到。目前，这些传感器收集数据的速度比最具竞争力的技术快两个数量级。该项目将专注于进一步提高数据采集速度和硬件测试。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to advance new pressure sensors for wearables. In car seats these sensors can help determine occupancy or measure driver attentiveness. These sensors can also be used to enable a sense of touch in robotic platforms, thereby improving automated decision-making processes. In the virtual and augmented reality sector, this system can measure force and pressure information to improve the training and learning outcomes across a range of industries, including sport, medical and military training applications. In the healthcare and wellness market, the proposed sensors would provide biometric data on high speed motions and ground reaction forces, as well as respiration and muscle fatigue information for improved outcomes. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project focuses on advancing stretchable photonic sensors in the wearables industry. These elastomeric sensors are lightguides that change power output upon stretching, with the change in power output proportional to the amount of strain applied. The power output from the sensors can be calibrated towards biometric metric outputs such as high speed kinematics (joint angle velocities) and muscle fatigue (volume changes due to inflammation). Due to the soft, stretchable and thin nature of these lightguides, they can easily be integrated into garments without affecting their mechanical properties, and thereby be essentially unnoticeable to the wearer. Currently, these sensors can gather data at rates two orders of magnitude faster than the closest competitive technology. This project will focus on further increasing the data acquisition speeds and hardware testing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.