Identify gaps and opportunities in the smart garment space related to thermal comfort and active smart heating
Identify potential designs that fit key user needs:
Socially acceptable, intuitive to use, improve user comfort (subjectively) and warm the skin temperature (objectively)
Continuous improve research and design of prototypes.
Approach:
Explore current wearable products that heat users (garments or accessories)
Perform user research on key users (discretionary users for comfort, users in cooler environments, users with Raynaud-like symptoms)
Collaborate with other graduate research team members on research design, execution, and reporting
Plan/execute biannual research studies focused on improving garment and electronic prototypes, based on physical performance and user evaluations.
Maintain project documentation and publish progress in a variety of formats (public forums, poster sessions, conferences/papers). the project's purpose was key to moving this research project forward.
Project duration: NSF-sponsored research grant, 2 years part-time work
Role & key contributions:
Part-time graduate researcher assigned to this project
Quickly onboarded to continue previous work, analyzing previous studies and determine next moves
Co-authoring or Lead author on a number of research publications or poster presenting at public forums or conferences.
Prototyped adaptive heating garments, using variety of tools (programmable sewing machine, garment fabrication, electrical design, microcontroller programming)
Design, execute, and moderate user studies on garment performance and user preference
Final product overview:
Two design cycles of prototyping, testing, and reporting
Garments explored (sleeve cuffs and extensions, gloves, headband, jacket)
Adaptive control loop using thermistors for temperature readings and triggered heat control. (See below for an image of the prototype as well as a schematic of the overall control loop.)
Sharing research with public and research community
Publications & Awards:
Dupler, E., Gagliardi, N., Foo, E., Ozbek, S., Utset-Ward, S., & Dunne, L. (2019). Toward Textile-Based Heating Devices for the Distal Extremities: Experimental Characterization of System Design Parameters. In 2019 Design of Medical Devices (DMD) Conference.
Gagliardi, N., Foo, E., Dupler, E., Ozbek, S., & Dunne, L. (2018). Design of a Stitched Textile-Based Thermal Actuator Garment to Attenuate Peripheral Microclimate Experience. In 2018 Design of Medical Devices Conference. American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
2018 IEEE Twin Cities Project Showcase Research Poster Presentation - 3rd Place
2018 Design of Medical Device (DMD) Conference Poster presenter & team participation in the 5-in-5 student competition