Sensing Complicated Motion of Human Body Using Piezoelectric Chiral Polymer Fiber

Abstract

Toward sensing the complicated motion of the human body, we have developed a new soft and flexible fiber sensor assembled from piezoelectric poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) fibers (PLLA fiber sensor). As an early stage of this study, we attempted to detect the pulse rate and observe the motion of a human arm using the PLLA fiber sensor. First, we prepared left-hand and right-hand helical torsion coils (PLLA fiber left-hand and right-hand coils), which were formed by drawing a PLLA fiber with a drawing ratio of ten. As a result, we found that the pulse rate could be measured with extremely high accuracy by the PLLA fiber sensor. At the same time, we were able to detect the rotation of the forearm and upper arm using PLLA fiber sensors.

Keywords:

• Piezoelectric polymer
• fiber
• chiral polymer
• poly-L-lactic acid
• sensor

Funding

This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 2528059) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, and a COE grant from Kansai University.