• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.733-745
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• 2016

This paper provides a review of wearable textile strain sensors that can measure the deformation of the body surface according to the movements of the wearer. In previous studies, the requirements of textile strain sensors, materials and fabrication methods, as well as the principle of the strain sensing according to sensor structures were understood; furthermore, the factors that affect the sensing performance were critically reviewed and application studies were examined. Textile strain sensors should be able to show piezoresistive effects with consistent resistance-extension in response to the extensional deformations that are repeated when they are worn. Textile strain sensors with piezoresistivity are typically made using conductive yarn knit structures or carbon-based fillers or conducting polymer filler composite materials. For the accuracy and reliability of textile strain sensors, fabrication technologies that would minimize deformation hysteresis should be developed and processes to complement and analyze sensing results based on accurate understanding of the sensors' resistance-strain behavior are necessary. Since light-weighted, flexible, and highly elastic textile strain sensors can be worn by users without any inconvenience so that to enable the users to continuously collect data related to body movements, textile strain sensors are expected to become the core of human interface technologies with a wide range of applications in diverse areas.