Influence of contact pressure and moisture on the signal quality of a newly developed textile ECG sensor shirt

A newly developed textile integrated sensor shirt, called “ITcares” (Intelligent Textile for CArdio REspiratory Sensing), is presented. Textile integrated ECG sensors are known to be highly depended on the electrode-skin-impedance. Two main influence factors on the skin-electrode impedance are: 1. contact pressure and 2. moisture. Systematic measurements were performed with additional sensors to evaluate the ECG signal quality. Furthermore, signal-to-noise ratios were calculated as a quantitative measure.