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IONO-ELASTOMERS FOR WEARABLE ELECTRONICS 623

range of motion, which is critical for basketball jump market and industry demands for our stretchable
shots, soccer kicks, and baseball pitches, for example. conductive materials and motion strain sensor.
The interviewees in sensors for sports and rehabil-
itation are technical experts in the rehabilitation field Potential Economic, Environmental, and Societal
and end users, such as basketball players. The main Benefits
takeaway messages of the interviews are twofold. The broader impacts of our material and device
Firstly, data provided from current rehabilitation inventions are multifold, including societal, environ-
diagnosis tools are convoluted and difficult to inter- mental, and economic benefits. Sports clothing, as well
pret. Secondly, most of the sensors in those fields can as military, police, firefighter, and industrial uniforms,
only be used indoors. It follows that a more accurate will benefit from integration of our patented highly
and location independent sensor is required, which extensible, flexible conductive materials for use as sen-
suggests that our device is a solution for the major sors and electrical connectors for communication and
unresolved problems raised by the customers. other added functionalities. Aside from this potential
From the customer discovery interviews, we also societal benefit, our stretchable conductive material
defined the two potential commercialization value is made of environmentally friendly raw materials,
chains shown in Figure 10. The preferred route is which will help reduce waste and assist in global sus-
to form a start-up and seek venture capital for toll tainable development. Finally, the raw material cost
manufacturing and direct marketing to customers. for our stretchable conductive material is compara-
The alternative path is to license our technology to tively low. This suggests uncompetitive advantages
an existing company, such as those already inter- in commercialization by both unique capabilities
viewed in our customer discovery work (e.g., Reebok, as well as competitive price points as compared to
Nike, Under Armour) for incorporation into their existing products. While stretchable, skin-mountable,
emerging product lines of performance wearable and wearable strain sensors have tremendous poten-
technologies. tial economic, environmental, and societal benefits,
In summary, we used both literature and customer challenges still remain to be overcome, for which we
discovery interviews to confirm that there are both refer to a recent review (50) and publication (51).

Figure 10. Proposed commercialization value chains: licensing or start-up.