Engineering the Comfort-of-Wear for Next Generation Wearables

Abstract

Wearable technologies are becoming important for the fields of information technology and healthcare, driven mainly by societal issues such as the aging society and the current pandemic. Recently developed flexible/stretchable wearable devices have demonstrated their ability for long-term healthcare monitoring with improved signal integrity and multimodality. However, the adherence of wearers to such wearable devices cannot be determined only by the function. Here “comfort-of-wear” is identified as one of the most critical parameters for future wearables, similar to how clothes are chosen based on how comfortable they are. “Comfort-of-wear” is defined as the device's ability to not to disturb the wearers’ daily life. Several engineering approaches are introduced to improve the comfort-of-wear of devices—via strategies that include improving flexibility by utilizing a combination of structures, materials, and systems. Finally, the future of wearables enabled by cutting-edge advanced electronic technologies is proposed.