Wearable electronic textiles (e-textiles) are gaining traction in the world of animal health. E-textiles are being developed for animals that can monitor essential health indicators.

“In bedding, e-textiles help monitor sleep patterns and detect signs of discomfort or illness,” said Chi Hwan Lee, the Leslie A Geddes Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering. “In carriers and collars, they facilitate location tracking and stress monitoring, particularly useful for endangered species during transportation. For humans interacting closely with animals, e-textiles can enhance safety. For example, smart beekeeping suits could monitor body temperature, stress or even detect certain pheromones.”

Lee and his research team, which includes Laurent Couëtil with the College of Veterinary Medicine and Martin Jun with the School of Mechanical Engineering, integrated a set of sensor arrays and conductive polymers that can be embedded into a horse slicker to track heart rate, respiratory and muscular systems. The slicker is non-invasive while providing continuous monitoring. 

“Traditional equipment might be more cumbersome and less suited for long-term wear, especially in an animal’s natural setting,” Lee explains. “E-fabrics, conversely, can be seamlessly integrated with blankets or wearables, with minimal interference with the animal’s activities.”

The lack of customizability is a major problem with e-textiles. For the e-textiles to be customizable, Lee’s team implemented a versatile dual-regime spray to precisely deposit functional nanoparticles onto various fabrics at sub-millimeter resolution across large areas. This allows the wearable technology to tightly fit various body sizes to accurately monitor health signals.

Creating this slicker for horses shows the scalability of the e-textiles. Future developments could be used to track, monitor and allow early detection of disease flair-ups in humans

Sources: Chi Hwan Lee, lee2270@purdue.edu.

A Textile Tapestry for the Animal Kingdom

A horse slicker is just a horse slicker, or course, of course, unless it can monitor chronic disease

Read more about Chi Hwan Lee’s lab and various research projects:

• A smart neckband for tracking dietary intake
• Lee received a patent on a tissue scaffold to help treat organs and cells damaged by disease
• $6.7M in federal grants awarded to develop tech to monitor, treat chroni eye disease
• World Glaucoma Day: Purdue-related innovation to monitor eye health
• BME’s Lee ‘lights up’ wearables with high-tech embroidery solution