Standard test methods provide product developers with information regarding materials' suitability for different purposes. Typically, current standards are suitable for determining the mechanical properties of new materials. However, in the case of electronic textiles (E-Textiles) and wearable technology (wearables), adding conductive components with added functionality makes utilizing textile standards difficult, and these standards will not provide information on mechanical and electrical properties of conductive elements. New standards for E-Textile and wearables testing are needed to ensure product developers can obtain the information necessary to make informed decisions about new products. Standards organizations such as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the Institute for Printed Circuits (IPC) are working on new methods for testing E-Textiles and wearables but must ensure the tests are rugged before publication and industry adoption. This study focuses on performing a ruggedness test for a new IPC test method for abrasion resistance of E-Textiles.

Background: Medical student involvement in clinical care of obstetrical emergencies is limited. Wearable technology, namely Google Glass, has been used to enhance the simulation experience for trainees at our institution. We present a pilot study that examines the utility of this technology in medical students’ education through remotely-conducted exercises in obstetric emergencies. Materials & Methods: A total of thirteen medical students accepted the opportunity to participate in an obstetric emergencies training exercise with remote monitoring. Students wore the Google Glass device while participating in two simulated obstetrical emergencies: shoulder dystocia and vaginal breech delivery. A remote instructor monitored the students’ performance and gave verbal instructions during the simulation. Students then filled out a questionnaire grading the effectiveness of the exercise. Results: Of all participating students, 55% reported Glass extremely valuable for their education. None reported it as not being valuable. 15% reported that Glass distracted them in their simulation activity. 100% of participants reported it being more than “successful" in its potential to improve emergency obstetric care. 55% reported that Glass or a similar device is “extremely likely” to be incorporated into medicine. None reported that it is unlikely to be used in the future of medicine. Conclusions: Wearable technology has the potential to provide improved learner experience. This technology can be successfully used to provide student exposure to simulated emergencies. Further studies evaluating the participation of students and other learners in simulated obstetrical emergencies are needed to determine how effective wearable technology can become in medical education and ultimately patient care as well.

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Despite a strong commercial trend towards wearable technology, this thesis considers the distal devices that have played an important role in our lives for over twenty years. Suggesting that the distance we have had between our bodies and our devices has given us the space to form meaningful relationships; the research explores how these relationships change when our devices migrate onto and into our bodies in the form of wearable technologies. The methodology of performative scenarios is developed to examine examples of relationships between people and their devices. Using examples of technologies that live with us now to inform the design of future technological developments reflects a post-phenomenological perspective calling for a materially oriented design approach. This thesis will explore this approach through focusing on the question; what would we lose if our distal devices became wearable devices? Ideations aiming to prevent any loss caused by the transition of devices from distal to wearable will provide examples of post-phenomenological wearable technology that not only maintains our relationships with our devices, but also helps our relationships to grow.

Resistance training has shifted towards a high- vs low-load training approach. Heavier loads are suggested to maximally recruit motor units and optimize strength adaptations, whereas lower loads stimulate hypertrophy. However, a majority of the research has not used a true strength range when assessing load. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to examine and determine significant differences in strength, body composition, and hormonal markers over nine weeks of high- or low-load resistance training. Secondary purposes of the current investigation were to assess and quantify training load for resistance training using sEMG sensor-embedded compression shorts. 17 recreationally-trained males were randomized into two groups with training loads of 30 or 85% 1-RM. Both groups completed nine weeks of whole-body resistance training three days per week, with exercises performed as three sets to failure per movement. Measures were collected at baseline and every three weeks after, including muscle thickness, body composition, isometrics/isokinetic strength, and hormonal status (testosterone and cortisol). Predicted 1-RM testing was performed pre- and post-training. Both groups demonstrated significant hypertrophy and strength, although the 85% showed greater improvements in the predicted 1-RM and the isokinetic peak torque values. There were also significant differences between groups for muscle load and training load as measured by the wearables, indicating the technology was able to differentiate between resistance training intensities. However, there were no changes in any of the hormonal markers either in basal levels or acutely post-exercise. Overall, our results suggest a similar hypertrophy and hormone response occurs in both low- and high-load groups when training to failure, but the high-load results in greater strength improvements and higher muscle load output when measured by wearable technology.

Wearable technology offers the promise of decentralized and personalized healthcare, which can both alleviate current burdens on medical resources, and also help individuals to be more informed about their health. The heterogeneity of disease phenotypes necessitates adaptations to both diagnosing and surveilling disease, but to ensure user adoption and behavioral change, there needs to be a convenient way to amass such health information continuously. This can be in part accomplished by the development of continuously monitoring, compact wearable medical sensors and analytics technology that provide updates on analyte and biosignal measurements at regular intervals in situ. This dissertation investigates methods for collecting and analyzing information from wearable devices with these principles in mind. In Aim 1, we developed new methods for analysis of cardiovascular biosignals. Current methods of estimating left ventricular mass index (LVMI, a strong risk factor for cardiac outcomes), rely on the analysis of echocardiographic signals. Though still the gold standard, echocardiography can typically only be performed in the clinic, making it inconvenient to obtain frequent measurements of LVMI. Frequent measurements can be useful for monitoring cardiac risk, particularly for high-risk individuals, so we investigated the feasibility of predicting LVMI using a deep learning-based approach through ambulatory blood pressure readings, a one-time laboratory test and demographic information. We find that adding blood pressure waveform information in conjunction with multitask learning improved prediction errors (compared to baseline linear regression and neural network models), pointing to its potential as a clinical tool. Using transfer learning, we developed a model that does not require waveform data, but achieved similar prediction accuracies as methods that do require such data – opening the door to use cases that eliminate the need for wearing a blood pressure cuff continuously during the measurement period. Overall, such a technique has the potential to provide information to individuals who are at high risk of cardiac outcomes both inside and outside the clinic. In Aims 2 and 3, we developed a minimally invasive hydrogel patch for continuous monitoring of calcium, as proof-of-concept for wearable measurement of a wide variety of analytes typically assayed in the lab – a technology that can facilitate treatment and management of many prevalent diseases. Specifically, in Aim 2, we engineered a DNA polyacrylamide hydrogel microneedle array that sensed physiologically relevant calcium levels, for potential use by individuals who have hypoparathyroidism, a condition in which blood calcium levels are low and calcium supplements are needed. A negative mold was made using a CNC mill, the positive mold was cast in silicone, and the aptamer along with acrylamide and bis-acrylamide was seeded into the silicone mold. The DNA hydrogel was then fabricated using a simple UV curing protocol. The optimized DNA hydrogel was specific to calcium, used simple fabrication methods and had a fast, reversible signal response. Finally, in Aim 3, we developed the DNA hydrogel sensor into a wearable, integrated system with real-time fluorescence monitoring for testing in vivo. The microneedle array needed to be hydrated for the DNA aptamer to function, but polyacrylamide was too weak in its hydrated state to effectively pierce through skin epidermis. We demonstrated a method for strengthening our hydrogel system with polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA), while maintaining an optically translucent gel for detection purposes. We conducted piercing studies with a skin phantom on different microneedle array sizes and shapes, and determined that a 3x3 array of beveled microneedles required the least amount of force to pierce through a skin phantom. A custom complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) system was developed to capture real-time fluorescence signals from the microneedle array, which correlated to calcium levels in vitro. This setup was then validated in a rat study. In this dissertation, we demonstrated methods for monitoring human biosignals using signal processing techniques, material innovations and integrated sensing platforms. While a work in progress, this dissertation is a step towards realizing the goal of decentralized, connected health for earlier detection and better management of disease.

The Mobile Life (TML) is a company with great passion for mobile devices that has set its primary focus on developing tailor-made mobile applications. Some of their bigger clients consist of airlines where TML designs, develops and delivers applications, in which travelers who travel with the airline can use to browse through, reserve and book flights. Wearable Technology is being more and more embraced as the future big addition to the ecosystem of mobile devices and exploring what some of the more prominent wearables have to offer is very much in the interest of aspiring companies like TML. To understand more in-depth what it means to develop applications for devices that might suffer from vast limitations in regards to interaction and feedback, we would first investigate what coming wearables could be recognized as prominent. The wearables that we concluded as suitable to investigate closer were Google Glass, Android Wear and various smartwatches. Out of these, Google Glass was the device chosen to act as our platform when exploring the potential of a wearable. A suitable way of understanding the possibilities and limitations of user interaction for Google Glass was to develop our own flight booking application for Glass. The realization we got was that there are various aspects of Glass that limits the kind of applications that can be made for it. The two primary things are the limits of the hardware and the fact that user interaction has taken a step back. From the graphical directmanipulation interaction that we nowadays are so used to in smartphones, to a simple menu system with limitations to how much the user can interact and how much feedback the program can show the user. / The Mobile Life (TML) är ett företag med stort engagemang inom mobil utveckling med fokus på att leverera skräddarsydda mobila lösningar. Vissa av deras större kunder inkluderar flygbolag som TML designar, utvecklar och levererar applikationer för resenärer att söka boka och köpa flygbiljetter. Wearable Technology blir mer och mer accepterat som nästa stora tillskott till det mobila ekosystemet och däri ligger intresset av att undersöka vad de mest hypade enheterna har att erbjuda för avancerande företag som TML. För att få en bättre insikt i vad det betyder att utveckla applikationer för enheter som markant skiljer sig från mobiltelefoner och surfplattor i avseende av prestanda och möjligheter gällande inmatning och utmatning av information tog vi fram de mest framträdande enheterna. De mest framträdande enheterna visade sig vara Google Glass, Android Wear och diverse smarta klockor. Utifrån dessa valdes Google Glass som vår plattform för att undersöka möjligheterna för wearables. Ett lämpligt sätt att förstå möjligheter och begränsningar inom användarinteraktion för Google Glass var att utveckla vår egen flygboknings applikation för Glass. Insikten vi fick var att det finns olika aspekter av Glass som begränsar den typ av applikation som kan göras för den. De två primära sakerna är begränsningar för hårdvara och det faktum att användarinteraktion har på ett vis tagit ett steg tillbaka. Från den grafiska direktmanipulering interaktion som vi idag är så vana vid i smartphones, till ett enkelt menysystem med begränsningar för hur mycket användaren kan interagera och hur mycket feedback programmet kan visa användaren.

Textile forms of wearable technology offer the potential for users to interact with electronic devices in a whole new manner. However, the operation of a wearable system can result in non-traditional on-body interactions (including gestural commands) that users may not be comfortable with performing in a public setting. Understanding the societal perceptions of gesture-based interactions will ultimately impact how readily a new form of mobile technology will be adopted within society. The goal of this research is to assess the social acceptability of a user's interaction with an electronic textile wearable interface. Two means of interaction were studied: the first was to assess the most acceptable input method for the interface (tapping, sliding, circular rotation); and the second assessment was to measure the social acceptability of a user interacting with the detachable textile interface at different locations on the body. The study recruited participants who strictly identified themselves as being of American nationality so as to gain insight into the culture-specific perceptions of interacting with a wearable form of technology.

Various studies have taken different approaches to persuade users into adopting a healthy sitting posture. In addition to the sedentary lifestyles we have come to adopt, the importance and reasoning of these studies stem from the adverse effects of poor posture on our health and mood. However, studies approaching this area with real-time visual modality integrated into clothing are rather sparse. Utilizing this integration might potentially fulfill the requirements of the ubiquitous computing era and inform the users in a calmer way. To evaluate various aspects of this concept, a mid-fidelity prototype was developed and tested with users. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted to obtain their thoughts and opinions on such an approach. In addition to the approval of the concept, further concerns, advantages and disadvantages were disclosed, and used to inform a design space for similar concepts. Although requiring more research, the results of this study outline a primary design space consisting of essential characteristics one needs to be aware of when designing a similar concept.