Wearable Triboelectric Sensor Fabricated with Cooperative Jet Printing and Magnetization-Induction Method for Human Gait Monitoring

Wearable electronic devices have brought many opportunities and hold great promise for applications in foot health monitoring. However, effective foot monitoring often requires more objective and cost-effective solutions. Here, we present a wearable triboelectric nanogenerator with a magnetic microcone array (MMA-TENG), designed for human gait monitoring. The microcone array is fabricated using a novel cooperative jet printing and magnetization-induction method, offering advantages in terms of cost-effectiveness, mass production, repeatability, and excellent structural uniformity. The fabrication parameters can be precisely optimized to control the geometry of the cone structures, thereby enhancing the device's output performance. The MMA-TENG demonstrates excellent performance in long-term pressure sensing with high sensitivity and a fast response. A deep learning-enabled smart insole system is developed using an insole with four MMA-TENGs, a ConvNeXT-based deep learning algorithm, and a portable circuit board. This system can achieve accurate personal identification and activity monitoring with recognition accuracies of 99.74% and 99.54%, respectively. Additionally, the smart insole system is also applied for flatfoot detection with an accuracy of 99.35%. The proposed MMA-TENG opens up a promising avenue for mass production and highlights its potential for supporting individuals in maintaining and monitoring their foot health effectively.