• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.63-76
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of contact type textile electrode structure on heart activity signal acquisition for smart healthcare. In this study, we devised six contact type textile electrodes whose electrode size and configuration were manipulated for measuring heart activity signals using computerized embroidery. We detected heart activity signals using a modified lead II and by attaching each textile electrode to the chest band in four healthy male subjects in a standing static posture. We measured the signals four times repeatedly for all types of electrodes. The heart activity signals were sampled at 1 kHz using a BIOPAC ECG100, and the detected original signals were filtered through a band-pass filter. To compare the performance of heart activity signal acquisition among the different structures of the textile electrodes, we conducted a qualitative analysis using signal waveform and size as parameters. In addition, we performed a quantitative analysis by calculating signal power ratio (SPR) of the heart activity signals obtained through each electrode. We analyzed differences in the performance of heart activity signal acquisition of the six electrodes by performing difference and post-hoc tests using nonparametric statistic methods on the calculated SPR. The results showed a significant difference both in terms of qualitative and quantitative aspects of heart activity signals among the tested contact type textile electrodes. Regarding the configurations of the contact type textile electrodes, the three-dimensionally inflated electrode (3DIE) was found to obtain better quality signals than the flat electrode. However, regarding the electrode size, no significant difference was found in performance of heart signal acquisition for the three electrode sizes. These results suggest that the configuration method (flat/3DIE), which is one of the two requirements of a contact type textile electrode structure for heart activity signal acquisition, has a critical effect on the performance of heart activity signal acquisition for wearable healthcare. Based on the results of this study, we plan to develop a smart clothing technology that can monitor high-quality heart activity without time and space constraints by implementing a clothing platform integrated with the textile electrode and developing a performance improvement plan.