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IONO-ELASTOMERS FOR WEARABLE ELECTRONICS 619

The Smart Outlet is a lightweight Bluetooth energy along the joint (see the right photo of Figure 7 (b)).
system embed with a Bluetooth wireless system and The lifetime of our device is approximately 13 hours.
coin battery, which transmits data from the patch to Work is progressing to dramatically reduce the foot-
a desktop, tablet, or phone. Figure 7 (a) illustrates print of the electronics to a postage-stamp size, such
the working procedures of our MSP. End users, such that it can be directly integrated with the polymeric
as athletes, rehabilitation patients, or anyone who component without wires.
would like to track their motion, attach the MSP
onto the targeted body parts, and the strain sensor Analysis of Market and Industry Need
will measure the strain motion and send the strain A global market size report (Figure 8 (a)) pre-
signal in real-time to a computer, tablet, or phone. dicts that stretchable conductive material will rapidly
The computer app provides real-time, quantitative become a billion-dollar market. The global market
performance measures to the end users, allowing size is predicted to reach $1.7 billion for flexible con-
them to monitor, track, and potentially improve their ductive materials by 2026 (39), $2 billion for flexible
motion performance. It is envisioned that the app can electronics by 2018 (40), $34 billion for wearable
be integrated with a myriad of existing data analysis technology by 2020 (41), and $87 billion for smart
software incorporating data analytics. textiles and/or fabrics by 2024 (42). In addition, the
We designed and fabricated our first-generation wearable technology market is expected to grow from
MSP minimal viable product prototype, and its $15.74 billion in 2015 to reach $51.6 billion by 2022 at
photo is in Figure 7 (b). As shown in the figure, one a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.51%
piece of our iono-elastomer is taped to a laboratory between 2016 and 2022 (43).
glove at the finger joint position, and the change in Our motion strain sensor addresses customer
finger strain is measured via a Bluetooth system. needs for wearable electronics in sports, which has
Finally, the result could be directly read out from the an even bigger market potential, as shown in Figure 8
pre-calibrated and custom programmed phone app, (b). Predictions for a global market size of $8.2 billion
where 0% elongation strain is read out when finger for sport devices is anticipated by 2019 (44), $184.5
is not bent (see left photo of Figure 7 (b)), and 38% billion for the sports apparel industry by 2020 (45),
elongation strain is read out when finger is rotated and $1.5 trillion for the global sports industry (46).

Figure 6. The microstructural rearrangement (a) when the iono-elastomer is stretched and (b) when the iono-elastomer is not stretched.
The figure was reproduced from and with permission of the American Chemical Society, copyright 2016 (36).