Search

The advancement of intelligent monitoring technologies has created innovative pathways in the health sector. Leveraging sensors within smart devices, data can be seamlessly harvested by network systems. Triboelectric Nanogenerators (TENGs), acting as self-powered sensors, show promise for green, sustainable sensing and health-focused human–machine interactions. This Review Article delves into the four operational mechanisms of TENGs, providing a comprehensive review of their monitoring capabilities across varied environments. Specific applications include tracking human motion parameters, such as angles, frequencies, and trajectories, utilizing diverse materials to measure vital signs, such as heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, and respiration under changing conditions, in rehabilitation settings, employing both composite and standalone TENGs for targeted monitoring. This study also addresses challenges faced by TENGs, focusing on material flexibility, sustainability, washability, elasticity, and biocompatibility. The findings underscore the transformative potential of TENGs in health monitoring, offering valuable insights for fields such as smart sports, rehabilitation, and healthcare sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of self-powered smart biosensors has attracted great attention due to their potential applications in human motion monitoring and energy collection systems. Here, a newly designed triboelectric nanogenerator (PSP-TENG) composed of the PU sponge, polytetrafluoroethylene, and polydimethylsiloxane for monitoring rear leg rotation motion in artistic gymnastics has been developed. The PSP-TENG can monitor the buffering and stretching time of rear leg rotation and identify the angle between the hip, knee, and ankle during the stretching stage. Furthermore, the PSP-TENG has the function of converting measured signals into power signals, which can convert collected human motion mechanical energy into electrical energy to power wearable devices. The development of PSP-TENG has made contributions to the field of human motion monitoring, providing ideas for new energy and technologies to improve the environment and promote a virtuous ecological cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of self-powered arrays of tribological nanogenerators (TENGs) that harvest mechanical energy for data collection has ushered in a promising avenue for human motion monitoring. This emerging trend is poised to shape the future landscape of biomechanical study. However, when we try to monitor various regions of the foot across disparate environments simultaneously, it poses a number of problems, such as the lack of satisfactory waterproofing, suboptimal heat resistance, inaccurate monitoring capacity, and the inability to transmit data wirelessly. To overcome these issues, we have developed an array of sensors affixed to the insole's surface to adeptly monitor movement gait patterns and alert users to falls using self-powered triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). Each sensor cell on this sensor works as an individual air gap TENG (FWF-TENG), namely flexible, waterproof, and fast response, composed of an Ecoflex single-electrode array. Each FWF-TENG boasts a fast response time of 28 ms, which is sufficient to quickly monitor pressure changes during various badminton activities. Importantly, these sensors can persistently generate electrical signals at 70%RH humidity. Data obtained from these sensors can be transmitted to an upper computer intelligent terminal wirelessly through multi-grouped FHW-ENG sensing terminals in real time to achieve human–computer interaction applications, including motion technical determinations, feedback, and fall alerts. As a result, the interconnected TENG arrays have broad potential applications, including gait rehabilitation monitoring, motion technique identification, and fall alarm applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transparent stretchable wearable hybrid nano-generators present great opportunities in motion sensing, motion monitoring, and human-computer interaction. Herein, we report a piezoelectric-triboelectric sport sensor (PTSS) which is composed of TENG, PENG, and a flexible transparent stretchable self-healing hydrogel electrode. The piezoelectric effect and the triboelectric effect are coupled by a contact separation mode. According to this effect, the PTSS shows a wide monitoring range. It can be used to monitor human multi-dimensional motions such as bend, twist, and rotate motions, including the screw pull motion of table tennis and the 301C skill of diving. In addition, the flexible transparent stretchable self-healing hydrogel is used as the electrode, which can meet most of the motion and sensing requirements and presents the characteristics of high flexibility, high transparency, high stretchability, and self-healing behavior. The whole sensing system can transmit signals through Bluetooth devices. The flexible, transparent, and stretchable wearable hybrid nanogenerator can be used as a wearable motion monitoring sensor, which provides a new strategy for the sports field, motion monitoring, and human-computer interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]