A pilot evaluation of an electronic textile for lower limb monitoring and interactive biofeedback

Early skill development often occurs without the presence of a skilled instructor, or in settings where skilled mentors are unable to provide prolonged one-to-one guidance and instruction. Interactive training aids, including those using electronic textiles and auditory biofeedback, offer new scope for performance monitoring and novice training. Textile sensors, such as strain sensors, are enabling measurement in a way that allows motion capture and real-time feedback stimuli in diverse training and competition environments. The goal of this study was to explore the potential of an electronic textile for use in lower limb skill development. A pair of “intelligent leggings” was prepared by mounting textile strain sensors across the knee on a pair of leggings commonly worn in sports training. A custom wireless electronic unit (40 x 40 x 12 mm, located on waist), sampling at 250 Hz, streamed kinematic information from the intelligent leggings to a computer in real-time. The ability of the intelligent leggings to reliably monitor leg motion was assessed for a set of exercises involving running and kicking in a motion capture laboratory. Three dimensional kinematic data was collected using with an Optotrak Certus system operating at 100 Hz. Clusters of markers were placed on the thigh and shank with the knee joint axis located using a digital probe and functional tasks. The intelligent leggings were found to be suitable for use as part of an interactive training system for lower limb skill development.