Disruptive, Soft, Wearable Sensors

Abstract The wearable industry is on the rise, with a myriad of technical applications ranging from real‐time health monitoring, the Internet of Things, and robotics, to name but a few. However, there is a saying “wearable is not wearable” because the current market‐available wearable sensors are largely bulky and rigid, leading to uncomfortable wearing experience, motion artefacts, and poor data accuracy. This has aroused a world‐wide intensive research quest for novel materials, with the aim of fabricating next‐generation ultra‐lightweight and soft wearable devices. Such disruptive second‐skin‐like biosensing technologies may enable a paradigm shift from current wearable 1.0 to future wearable 2.0 products. Here, the state‐of‐the‐art progress made in the key phases for future wearable technology, namely, wear → sense → communicate → analyze → interpret → decide, is summarized. Without a doubt, materials innovation is the key, which is the main focus of the discussion. In addition, emphasis is also given to wearable energy, multicomponent integration, and wireless communication.