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Yang et al. Soft Sci. 2025, 5, 46 Soft Science
DOI: 10.20517/ss.2025.44

Review Article Open Access

Flexible optical waveguides for health: a review of

the current status and technological perspectives

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Chengwei Yang , Siyu Chen , Yanan Zou 2,3,4 , Yi Ren , Zhuo Wang , Kun Xiao , Arnaldo Leal-Junior ,
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Santosh Kumar , Rui Min 4,8,*
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Department of Physics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai 519087, Guangdong, China.
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Department of Systems Science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai 519087, Guangdong, China.
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School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
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Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai 519087, Guangdong, China.
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Graduate Program in Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Espírito Santo, Vitoria 29075-910, Brazil.
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Department of Cybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, VSB - Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava 70800, Czech Republic.
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Centre of Excellence for Nanotechnology, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Koneru Lakshmaiah
Education Foundation, Vaddeswaram 522302, India.
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Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology
Education (Beijing Normal University), Faculty of Psychology, Beijing 100875, China.
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These authors contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.
* Correspondence to: Dr. Rui Min, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai
519087, Guangdong, China. E-mail: ruimin@bnu.edu.cn
How to cite this article: Yang, C.; Chen, S.; Zou, Y.; Ren, Y.; Wang, Z.; Xiao, K.; Leal-Junior, A.; Kumar, S.; Min, R. Flexible optical
waveguides for health: a review of the current status and technological perspectives. Soft Sci. 2025, 5, 46. https://dx.doi.org/10.
20517/ss.2025.44
Received: 28 Jun 2025 First Decision: 31 Jul 2025 Revised: 20 Aug 2025 Accepted: 27 Aug 2025 Published: 18 Sep 2025
Academic Editors: YongAn Huang, Xingcan Huang Copy Editor: Pei-Yun Wang Production Editor: Pei-Yun Wang
Abstract
In response to the increasing demand for the prevention and control of chronic noncommunicable diseases, people
are paying growing attention to the application of flexible optical waveguides in health assistance, and the specific
functions of flexible optical waveguides are gradually enriched in the process. This review systematically explains
the research progress of flexible optical waveguides in human health assistance. An analysis of the sensing
principles used in flexible optical waveguides for signal sensing is provided. The specific applications of flexible
optical waveguides in human health assistance are categorized into three main areas: invasive biomedical
diagnosis and therapy, contact physiological information monitoring, and interactive soft robots. From the
perspective of materials science, a comprehensive analysis is conducted on commonly used materials and their
properties for flexible optical waveguides in human health assistance. Furthermore, the sensing principles and
specific applications of flexible optical waveguides are provided, aiming to provide theoretical support and
technological innovation direction for the construction of a new generation of intelligent health monitoring systems.

© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
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