arXiv subjects

Wentian Yi

Publications and source records attributed to Wentian Yi.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Biomimetic Metamaterial-based Interface for Decoding Heterogeneous Mechanodermal Activity

Human skin acts as a dynamic biomechanical interface that conveys critical physiological and behavioural information through spatiotemporally distributed deformations. Due to the limited capabilities of current sensing technologies, the spatiotemporal diversity of its mechanical cues has remained underutilised to date, preventing these mechanisms from being used to capture and decode the full spectrum of underlying physiological states. In this work, we define this heterogeneous set of mechanical signals as mechanodermal activity (MDA) and introduce the biomimetic metamaterial-based interface (BMMI), an engineered auxetic metamaterial substrate that reproduces the microrelief and mechanoreceptor architecture of natural skin. The BMMI allows selective capture of diverse MDA signals from adjacent skin regions with simultaneous signal amplification and noise suppression, and permits straightforward modulation to accommodate various scenarios. Combined with bespoke algorithms, the wireless BMMI device decodes MDA accurately and robustly for multimodal communication interfaces, unleashing applications in healthcare monitoring and human-machine interaction.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2025

Physiology-informed layered sensing for intelligent human-exoskeleton interaction

Wearable exoskeletons hold transformative promise for restoring mobility across diverse users with muscular weakness or other impairments. However, their translation beyond laboratory environments remains limited by sensing systems that capture movement but not underlying physiology. Here, we present a soft, lightweight smart leg sleeve that achieves anatomically aligned, layered multimodal sensing by integrating textile-based surface electromyography (sEMG) electrodes, ultrasensitive textile strain sensors, and inertial measurement units (IMUs). Each sensing modality targets a distinct physiological layer: IMUs track joint kinematics at the skeletal level, sEMG monitors muscle activation at the muscular level, and strain sensors detect skin deformation at the cutaneous level. Together, these sensors provide real-time perception to support three core objectives: controlling personalized assistance, optimizing user effort, and safeguarding against injury risks. The system is skin-conformal, mechanically compliant, and seamlessly integrated with a custom exoskeleton ($<20$~g total sensor and electronics weight). We demonstrate: (1) accurate ankle joint moment estimation (RMSE = 0.13~Nm/kg), (2) real-time classification of metabolic trends (accuracy = 97.1\%), and (3) injury risk detection within 100~ms (recall = 0.96), all validated on unseen users using a leave-one-subject-out protocol. This work establishes a physiology-aligned sensing architecture that reframes exoskeleton perception from motion tracking to real-time physiological decoding, offering a pathway towards intelligent, adaptive, and personalized wearable robotics.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2025

AI-Driven Smart Sportswear for Real-Time Fitness Monitoring Using Textile Strain Sensors

Wearable biosensors have revolutionized human performance monitoring by enabling real-time assessment of physiological and biomechanical parameters. However, existing solutions lack the ability to simultaneously capture breath-force coordination and muscle activation symmetry in a seamless and non-invasive manner, limiting their applicability in strength training and rehabilitation. This work presents a wearable smart sportswear system that integrates screen-printed graphene-based strain sensors with compact electronics for wireless data transfer and a deep learning framework for real-time classification of exercise execution quality. By leveraging 1D ResNet-18 for feature extraction, the system achieves 92.1% classification accuracy across six exercise conditions, distinguishing between breathing irregularities and asymmetric muscle exertion. Additionally, t-SNE analysis and Grad-CAM-based explainability visualization confirm that the network accurately captures biomechanically relevant features, ensuring robust interpretability. The proposed system establishes a foundation for next-generation AI-powered sportswear, with applications in fitness optimization, injury prevention, and adaptive rehabilitation training.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2025

Wireless Silent Speech Interface Using Multi-Channel Textile EMG Sensors Integrated into Headphones

This paper presents a novel wireless silent speech interface (SSI) integrating multi-channel textile-based EMG electrodes into headphone earmuff for real-time, hands-free communication. Unlike conventional patch-based EMG systems, which require large-area electrodes on the face or neck, our approach ensures comfort, discretion, and wearability while maintaining robust silent speech decoding. The system utilizes four graphene/PEDOT:PSS-coated textile electrodes to capture speech-related neuromuscular activity, with signals processed via a compact ESP32-S3-based wireless readout module. To address the challenge of variable skin-electrode coupling, we propose a 1D SE-ResNet architecture incorporating squeeze-and-excitation (SE) blocks to dynamically adjust per-channel attention weights, enhancing robustness against motion-induced impedance variations. The proposed system achieves 96% accuracy on 10 commonly used voice-free control words, outperforming conventional single-channel and non-adaptive baselines. Experimental validation, including XAI-based attention analysis and t-SNE feature visualization, confirms the adaptive channel selection capability and effective feature extraction of the model. This work advances wearable EMG-based SSIs, demonstrating a scalable, low-power, and user-friendly platform for silent communication, assistive technologies, and human-computer interaction.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Wearable intelligent throat enables natural speech in stroke patients with dysarthria

Wearable silent speech systems hold significant potential for restoring communication in patients with speech impairments. However, seamless, coherent speech remains elusive, and clinical efficacy is still unproven. Here, we present an AI-driven intelligent throat (IT) system that integrates throat muscle vibrations and carotid pulse signal sensors with large language model (LLM) processing to enable fluent, emotionally expressive communication. The system utilizes ultrasensitive textile strain sensors to capture high-quality signals from the neck area and supports token-level processing for real-time, continuous speech decoding, enabling seamless, delay-free communication. In tests with five stroke patients with dysarthria, IT's LLM agents intelligently corrected token errors and enriched sentence-level emotional and logical coherence, achieving low error rates (4.2% word error rate, 2.9% sentence error rate) and a 55% increase in user satisfaction. This work establishes a portable, intuitive communication platform for patients with dysarthria with the potential to be applied broadly across different neurological conditions and in multi-language support systems.

eess.AS↗

arXiv2024

A deep learning-enabled smart garment for accurate and versatile sleep conditions monitoring in daily life

In wearable smart systems, continuous monitoring and accurate classification of different sleep-related conditions are critical for enhancing sleep quality and preventing sleep-related chronic conditions. However, the requirements for device-skin coupling quality in electrophysiological sleep monitoring systems hinder the comfort and reliability of night wearing. Here, we report a washable, skin-compatible smart garment sleep monitoring system that captures local skin strain signals under weak device-skin coupling conditions without positioning or skin preparation requirements. A printed textile-based strain sensor array responds to strain from 0.1% to 10% with a gauge factor as high as 100 and shows independence to extrinsic motion artefacts via strain-isolating printed pattern design. Through reversible starching treatment, ink penetration depth during direct printing on garments is controlled to achieve batch-to-batch performance variation < 10%. Coupled with deep learning, explainable artificial intelligence (XAI), and transfer learning data processing, the smart garment is capable of classifying six sleep states with an accuracy of 98.6%, maintaining excellent explainability (classification with low bias) and generalization (95% accuracy on new users with few-shot learning less than 15 samples per class) in practical applications, paving the way for next-generation daily sleep healthcare management.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2023

Ultrasensitive Textile Strain Sensors Redefine Wearable Silent Speech Interfaces with High Machine Learning Efficiency

Our research presents a wearable Silent Speech Interface (SSI) technology that excels in device comfort, time-energy efficiency, and speech decoding accuracy for real-world use. We developed a biocompatible, durable textile choker with an embedded graphene-based strain sensor, capable of accurately detecting subtle throat movements. This sensor, surpassing other strain sensors in sensitivity by 420%, simplifies signal processing compared to traditional voice recognition methods. Our system uses a computationally efficient neural network, specifically a one-dimensional convolutional neural network with residual structures, to decode speech signals. This network is energy and time-efficient, reducing computational load by 90% while achieving 95.25% accuracy for a 20-word lexicon and swiftly adapting to new users and words with minimal samples. This innovation demonstrates a practical, sensitive, and precise wearable SSI suitable for daily communication applications.

eess.AS↗

arXiv2023

Human Body Digital Twin: A Master Plan

A human body digital twin (DT) is a virtual representation of an individual's physiological state, created using real-time data from sensors and medical test devices, with the purpose of simulating, predicting, and optimizing health outcomes through advanced analytics and simulations. The human body DT has the potential to revolutionize healthcare and wellness, but its responsible and effective implementation requires consideration of various factors. This article presents a comprehensive overview of the current status and future prospects of the human body DT and proposes a five-level roadmap for its development. The roadmap covers the development of various components, such as wearable devices, data collection, data analysis, and decision-making systems. The article also highlights the necessary support, security, cost, and ethical considerations that must be addressed in order to ensure responsible and effective implementation of the human body DT. The proposed roadmap provides a framework for guiding future development and offers a unique perspective on the future of the human body DT, facilitating new interdisciplinary research and innovative solutions in this rapidly evolving field.

cs.AI↗