Inside an L-shaped room in Cruess Hall, surrounded by workstations, 3D printers, sewing machines, tools and mannequins wearing prototypes, Gozde Goncu-Berk builds the future. It鈥檚 a future of many possibilities, but those possibilities share a common thread. They鈥檙e all based around humanity鈥檚 increasing use of wearable technology.
鈥淭he main question that guides my research is, how can we use clothing, textiles, new materials and digital fabrication technologies to improve our lives through design?鈥 said Goncu-Berk, an associate professor in the Department of Design in the College of Letters and Science. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of potential for these technologies to augment bodily functions that are lost, help with chronic health conditions and enhance life.鈥
Smartwatches, Bluetooth earbuds, virtual reality headsets 鈥 these devices are becoming more commonplace in the second decade of the 21st century. However, society is still in the nascent stages of adopting wearable technology. While its potential applications are numerous, the foundational research to design, fabricate and disseminate wearable devices is ongoing.
Wearables Collective 2024
Researchers, like Goncu-Berk, are forging interdisciplinary partnerships to usher in the wearable technology age. The projects at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis run the gamut, from designing a real-time bladder monitoring system to a NASA-funded project for a haptic sleeve interface for a robotic arm.
What鈥檚 more, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis faculty are training the next generation of technologists, providing them with opportunities to explore and answer pressing questions at the intersection of health, science and fashion.
The Privee: A wearable urinary monitor
According to the National Institutes of Health, about 423 million people worldwide experience some form of urinary incontinence, a condition that can arise for various reasons, including menopause, obesity, dementia, Parkinson鈥檚 disease and cerebral palsy, among others. Currently, containment is the only management technique for this problem.
Goncu-Berk hopes to change that with Privee, an unobtrusive undergarment that monitors bladder fullness in real-time.
鈥淭his was an idea I had for many years before I was here at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis, but I was never able to fully actualize it,鈥 Goncu-Berk said. 鈥淏ut with the right collaborators here, now we have a functional prototype.鈥
Goncu-Berk realized this vision thanks to a partnership with Houman Homayoun, a professor in the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis College of Engineering鈥檚 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Together, they presented a prototype of the Privee at the UbiComp/ISWC wearable computing conference in fall 2023.
With a design informed by interviews with urinary incontinence patients, the Privee is meant to be worn beneath underwear to ensure contact with skin. Eight embroidered electrodes along with textile transmission lines are woven into the Privee鈥檚 fabric, providing the necessary apparatuses to transmit biological information.
Harnessing a technology called bioimpedance spectroscopy, the Privee鈥檚 electrodes are fashioned from conductive thread and positioned along the bladder area. The amount of liquid in the bladder affects the electrical characteristics of that region. When the bladder is full, the impedance, or the resistance of the tissues, are different compared to when it鈥檚 not full. That electrical information is then captured by a specialized algorithm that estimates a time to urination.
鈥淧eople who don鈥檛 have awareness of their bladder, like those with cerebral palsy or Alzheimer鈥檚 disease or some sort of spinal cord injury where they have to use diapers or need to be catheterized, would benefit from the Privee,鈥 Goncu-Berk said.
With an operational prototype in hand, Goncu-Berk and her collaborators are looking for opportunities to commercialize the technology. That鈥檚 predicated on partnering with someone who knows the ins and outs of bringing such a product to market. And she鈥檚 actively looking for that partner.
鈥淚 am very excited about the possibility of these efforts to reach the end user one day,鈥 said Goncu-Berk.
To the stars
Goncu-Berk鈥檚 research partnerships across the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis campus aren鈥檛 limited to projects solely concerning human health. In fact, one of her research partnerships aims to bring wearable technology to those advancing humanity鈥檚 mission to the stars.
Across campus from Goncu-Berk鈥檚 WearLab in Cruess Hall sits the Bionic Engineering and Assistive Robotics Laboratory, also known as BEAR Lab. Run by Jonathon Schofield, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, the BEAR Lab specializes in integrating advanced assistive technologies and humans.
鈥淎 lot of the work we do focuses on how we can interface with the human nervous system, whether that鈥檚 actually working with surgeons to access nerve and muscle signals or using non-invasive wearable systems,鈥 said Schofield. 鈥淲e鈥檙e often looking at how we can facilitate communication between humans and machines.鈥
In the medical world, this type of research is revolutionizing prosthetic limb design. Divorced from prosthetic design, Schofield and Goncu-Berk are collaborating on a NASA-funded project to design a sleeve that provides astronauts with haptic, or sense of touch, information while they operate a robotic arm during space missions. Additional collaborators include Professor Stephen Robinson, a former astronaut who鈥檚 now a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Professor Wilsaan Joiner of the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior.
When operating a robotic arm in space, astronauts are often overtly visually taxed, splitting their attention between multiple monitors and viewing windows, and operating various knobs and buttons. The NASA haptic sleeve project鈥檚 aim, according to Schofield, is to give astronauts relevant information through an array of vibration motors embedded in the sleeve. That additional sensory feedback could help them avoid space collision or better follow a prescribed movement trajectory.
鈥淗ow can we promote extremely proficient operation of a robotic arm where it鈥檚 like an extension of the body in the same way you鈥檇 see a professional tennis player use their racket?鈥 Schofield said.
Enter Joiner, an expert in human motor learning who鈥檚 previously partnered with Schofield on prosthetic design projects. According to Joiner, similarities exist between the underlying biological research for prosthetic limb design and the NASA haptic sleeve project.
鈥淲hen we rely on our limbs, we rely on a wealth of information 鈥 proprioception, haptic information when we feel things, and vision 鈥 and you have to integrate all of that information to make predictions about the consequences of your movements,鈥 Joiner said. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e talking about prosthetics, you鈥檙e really talking about how to best operate an external device when you don鈥檛 have the natural feedback that we usually do.鈥
That mentality can be applied to a robotic arm and a human operator. The human operator can鈥檛 inherently feel the tactile sensations experienced by the robotic arm. But such information, if available, would create a safer environment by enabling more comprehensive control. Some advanced prosthetic research is already tapping into neural and muscular signals to provide wearers with some semblance of sensation.
鈥淚f we can provide sufficient and effective feedback to folks who are missing a limb, then surely we should be able to provide enough feedback to someone who has an able-bodied limb who is trying to model or mimic their movements with a robotic arm,鈥 Joiner said.
Currently, Schofield and colleagues are experimenting with an early-stage prototype of the haptic sleeve. Goncu-Berk鈥檚 contributions to the project concern making the wearable functional in an electronic textile, comfortable and fit for a human operator.
鈥淗umans are very interesting to design for, and Gozde entered the equation as someone with an expertise in wearables who works with materials, garments, fabrics and mediums that we don鈥檛 normally see in classical engineering,鈥 said Schofield. 鈥淪he鈥檚 just an incredibly creative individual with a ton of expertise in the area.鈥
Wearables in the classroom
Wearables technology research at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis isn鈥檛 restricted to faculty. Students are also trying their hands at designing the future. In the class 鈥淪tudio Practice in Design,鈥 Goncu-Berk guides students through an iterative design process as they work on a collective project.
First-year design MFA students Latrell Broughton and Isadora Goldschneider, who both took the class during their first quarter of the MFA program, partnered with the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Spaceflight Research Center, run by Professor Stephen Robinson, on a project about designing immersive experiences for astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
鈥淓motionally, the isolation of being on the ISS, combined with the intensity of the work environment, can cause negative outcomes for an astronaut鈥檚 mental wellbeing, leading to poor job performance,鈥 said Goldschneider. 鈥淲e looked at one of the astronauts鈥 favorite activities, Earth gazing, as a point of intervention.鈥
Typically, astronauts gaze at the Earth from the confines of the ISS鈥 Cupola, a 360-degree, dome-shaped observatory that provides a view of Earth. To enhance this experience, Broughton and Goldschneider designed a wearable prototype that adds a layer of mixed reality to Earth-gazing.
The prototype consisted of three components: a head piece, a visor and a vest. The head piece is designed to dampen outside noise while providing audio through embroidered speakers. It also houses the visor, which is intended to deliver sensory-oriented, mixed reality experiences through a semi-transparent screen. The adjustable vest employs haptic feedback actuators to induce physical sensations.
Inspired by cooling dog vests, this prototype simulates an experience of closeness that is hard to access in microgravity.
鈥淚t was a really tough project for me, but once we were able to get all the components together, once we were able to see the design, it felt very empowering,鈥 said Broughton.
For Broughton and Goldschneider, the experience was akin to being on the precipice of a technological wave. Wearable technologies are primed to change the way we interact with reality. The 鈥淪tudio Practice in Design鈥 course provided Broughton and Goldschneider with an intimate view of the world to come.
鈥淚 think anyone who is interested in pursuing it, I think there are opportunities to align their interests within the field of wearables,鈥 Broughton said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty exciting that there are these opportunities for students here at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis.鈥
Media Resources
Greg Watry is a content specialist with the College of Letters and Science. This article in the college's digital magazine.