Sensorized fabric glove as game controller for rehabilitation

Smart textile applications have garnered enormous interest in recent years for digital health monitoring. Here, we propose a soft fabric data glove that can be mapped into a gaming controller. The data glove comprises stretchable microfiber sensors woven seamlessly into textiles for strain sensing. By integrating the microfiber sensor imperceptibly unto the finger gloves and a 9-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU) unto the wrist, we devise a fabric glove controller that can interpret finger and wrist movements. Using the open-source Unity3D platform, we demonstrate the gaming controller translating to movement and actions of an avatar in a customized game. Importantly, the gamification of wrist movements motivates the user to exercise the wrist in a simulated rehabilitation regime. The digitization of the finger and wrist movements are also ideal for therapists to monitor and assess the rehabilitation progress remotely. Overall, the portable and lightweight data glove presents its potential in unobtrusive continuous health monitoring, through gaming applications.