Special Session: Physically Flexible Devices for Health and Activity Monitoring: Challenges from Design to Test

Recent developments in stretchable and flexible sensing and processing technologies enable a wide range of wearable devices. These devices can pave the way to medical applications ranging from health and activity monitoring to diagnosis and treatments of movement disorders. However, recent studies show that this potential is hindered by both adaptation challenges that affect the end users and technology challenges faced by developers. This paper first summarizes the challenges faced by wearable devices targeting health and user activity monitoring applications. Then, it reviews recent research progress towards addressing these challenges in energy harvesting, energy management, flexible system design, and test areas.