Textile integrated electrostimulation-heating system intended for a wheelchair

Abstract

The textile integrated electrostimulation and heating insert (10) intended for a wheelchair, to be placed in the backrest of the seat and in its seat, is made of a polyester fabric covered with a polyurethane layer, to which six vibration motors (2) are attached on the side of the wheelchair user, four of which are intended to be placed in the backrest of the wheelchair and two to be placed in the seat of the wheelchair, provided with leads in the form of machine embroidery made of stainless steel wire, made in the shape of rounded, symmetrical zigzags, attached with a zigzag stitch of this wire to the underside of the polyester fabric, which leads are connected to an electric heating circuit (1) in the form of machine embroidery made of steel wire like the leads, also in the shape of rounded, symmetrical zigzags, made on the underside of the polyester fabric of the insert (10) and attached to this fabric also with a zigzag stitch of this wire.The insert also contains four ellipse-shaped textile electrodes (3) measuring 50x30 mm, machine-embroidered from continuous-filament polyamide yarn containing 1-15% silver by weight, meeting the requirements of the standard. Each electrode (3) is an independent element made of polyester fabric coated with a polyurethane layer and is placed in a pocket attached to the edge of the wheelchair's backrest, below the armrest. Each electrode (3) has a lead to a microcontroller (4) programmed in the Arduino Uno R3 programming platform, battery-powered, containing the program to control the insert (10), located in a housing (5) attached to the side of the wheelchair seat, at the height of the wheelchair user's hand.Inside the housing (5) there is also a battery (9) connected to the input of the electric circuit (1), and in the wall of the housing (5), three buttons (6, 7, 8) are mounted on the outside for manual switching on, respectively: heating by means of the electric circuit (1), electrostimulation of the muscles of selected body parts by means of electrodes (3) and stimulation of the muscles of the spine and buttocks by means of vibration motors (2). The insert (10) is placed in a cover (11) made of polyester fabric covered with a layer of polyurethane and additionally a layer of polyurethane sponge is placed inside the cover (11).

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