Research and Design of Smart Care-Giving Clothing for Disabled Elderly

Abstract In current society, smart clothing technology has become a critical way to improve the life quality of the elderly. This work conducted a category product evaluation and user demand system through the bibliometrics method, product evaluation analysis, focus group interviews and questionnaires. Based on the system, we designed smart clothing from the aspects of the clothing structure, hardware, software program and intelligent terminal platform to meet the needs of disabled elderly people and their caregivers in multiple scenarios. According to the test results of the smart clothing, the average error of temperature and humidity monitoring is 0.20°C and 2.88%RH. The time of putting on-taking off clothing in 6 representative daily scenarios was reduced by 51.67%. The daily body checking times, uncomfortable behaviours, and the anxiety of caregivers was decreased by 42.31%, 28.52% and 74.37%. Compared with ordinary clothing, six of the eight comfort performances are basically the same, and two are slightly worse.