Sensor Glove with Extended Energy Storage for Motor Disorder Evaluation

In this presentation, I will discuss the development of a sensor system for motor disorder evaluations. There is no objective metric for evaluating motor skills of people suffering from hypertonicity, a neuromuscular disorder that causes muscle stiffness/resistance and jerky movement, and current assessments rely on qualitative surveys. To address this gap, we have fabricated an instrumented glove with pressure and motion sensors for motor characterization. Through the flexible sensor systems, the shift from subjective scores to objective measurement will promote better diagnosis and dramatically improve the accuracy in tracking patient response to therapy.
In addition, because of the operational time of wireless sensor systems had been limited by the energy storage capacity, we were motivated to develop better energy storage devices to extend the usage time. The new energy storage components are based on redox supercapacitors as portable power sources. These devices combine a redox metal anode, similar to that found in batteries, to enhance the capacity for charge storage and an electric double-layer cathode that allows fast kinetics and sustains high power density. The mechanistic findings in this report provide the design guidelines for zinc ion supercapacitors with high cumulative capacities and extended cycle lifetime to minimize maintenance costs and operational time.