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Page 12 of 38 Wei et al. Soft Sci 2023;3:17 https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/ss.2023.09

capacitive sensor, a hybrid sensor with a special sandwich structure is made, and a multimodal electronic
textile with a humidity-temperature-strain sensor is realized.

Physiological signal sensing
Electronic textiles based on sensors have been widely used in the biomedical field. They have the same
permeability and comfort as conventional clothing and can directly make contact with the skin for a long
time without causing discomfort. The biosensor based on electronic textiles can continuously detect the
signal of the human body. It can detect the pulse [148,149] , heart rate [150,151] , respiration , and other signals of
[152]
people by making textile sensors into clothing and other daily textiles to achieve disease diagnosis,
healthcare [153,154] , and other functions. In disease diagnosis and medical care, multimodal signal detection can
monitor human body status more comprehensively and accurately. Therefore, increasing multimodal
sensing textiles for pulse, respiration, and other signals have been developed.

Sleep time accounts for approximately 1/3 of the daily time. Good sleep is of great significance to human
health, but sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) seriously threatens human health. SAS can be effectively
[156]
[155]
monitored by detecting the respiratory-pulse signal or respiratory-heart rate signal [157,158] during sleep.
There are two directions for monitoring the SAS of electronic textiles. The one is to make sheets into
electronic textiles, which enables the conversion of pressure to electrical signals through the triboelectric
sensing mechanism based on silicone rubber and polyester, as shown in Figure 6A . Sixty-one independent
[45]
sensing units are integrated into the single-layer textile, and 60 small sensing units are evenly distributed on
the textile to detect the posture of people during sleep. A larger sensing unit is located below the chest area
to detect physiological signals. The system then transmits these signals to the computer to monitor the
respiratory signals and pulse signals. The figure shows that when SAS occurs, the respiratory signal will
change significantly, which can be combined with the heart rate signal to accurately diagnose SAS. The
second is to integrate the sensor into the clothing, as shown in Figure 6B , and combine two triboelectric
[96]
all-textile sensor arrays (TATSA) to the chest and wrist of the clothing to continuously collect and monitor
the pulse signal and respiratory signal in real-time. The respiratory signal can directly display whether the
patient has SAS. In addition, the analysis of pulse transmission time (PTT) based on this can determine
which SAS the patient has so as to provide targeted treatment for the patient. In addition to SAS, electronic
[159]
textiles can also diagnose other diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases diagnosed by pulse wave ,
COVID-19 diagnosed by respiratory activity , etc.
[160]
In addition to disease diagnosis, they can contact the human body for long-term signal monitoring due to
the good compatibility between electronic textiles and the human body, which can play a good role in
healthcare. As shown in Figure 6C , installing perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane modified TiO nanoparticles
[161]
2
incorporated textile conductor (PTCCS) on the human chest can upload the detected electrocardiogram
(ECG) signal through Bluetooth to promote its application in health monitoring. In addition, based on the
Arduino platform, the platform is connected with two PTCCS textile electrodes of the biceps brachii belly
and elbow joint. The electromyography signals of the three biceps brachii contraction movements, namely
fist clenching, elbow lifting, and forearm supine, are obtained by a series of processing. When the
conductive fabric is used as a strain sensor, a stable resistance signal can be generated according to the
reorganization of the conductive network. When the conductor is used as a physiological electrical sensor, it
can effectively monitor ECG and electromyogram (EMG) signals. The combination of ECG and EMG can
play a good role in monitoring people’s physical condition in sports. It can be seen that this long-term signal
monitoring has a good application prospect in medical care and sports.