Washable thread based strain sensor for smart textile

Here we report fabrication of a facile stretchable and washable thread-based strain/force sensor, which can be sewn into wearable textiles and is capable of measuring human physiological motion. The sensor fabrication is simple and low cost. The sensor has a gauge factor of ~5 and can measure displacement up to 50% of its initial length. The fabricated sensor is also unidirectional. Overall, the sensors show promise toward realization of smart textile for human motion and physiological monitoring in real-time.