An environmentally friendly carbon-printed contactless smart diaper
- Author
- Joryan Sennesael (UGent) , Arno Moerman (UGent) , Frederick Bossuyt (UGent) , Bjorn Vandecasteele (UGent) , Charlotte Raepsaet (UGent) , Dimitri Beeckman (UGent) , Hendrik Rogier (UGent) and Patrick Van Torre (UGent)
- Organization
- Project
- Abstract
- Nowadays, with the aging polation, the number of people in homes for the elderly is dramatically rising. Nearly all of them suffer from a degree of incontinence and wear diapers on a daily basis, leading to a lot of super absorbent polymer waste material. Smart diapers increase patient comfort owing to timely diaper changes. At the same time, the absorbent content of smart diapers can be reduced substantially, compared to regular diapers as less margin for late changes is needed. From the medical perspective, smart diapers also reduce painful incontinence-associated dermatitis caused by prolonged exposure to saturated diapers. This paper proposes a novel contactless smart diaper system that allows caregivers to remotely read out information about diaper contents. The developed system is based on capacitive coupling to a printed structure in the diaper, including multiple detection zones distributed across its length. By printing the sensing pattern into the diaper in carbon ink, a low cost, mass producible and environmentally friendly sensor is obtained. A 4-port differential transmission-measurement technique is employed, resulting in a higher system reliability than many existing smart diaper systems relying on impedance-measurements only. The paper includes both lab- and in-field measurements to demonstrate the successful detection of moisture.
- Keywords
- Sensors, Intelligent sensors, Moisture, Ink, Carbon, Reliability, Older adults, Electrodes, Strips, Couplings, Disposable sensors, moisture sensing, smart diapers, SYSTEM
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01JEAT7KZ8E2HEGWTXFG4P91ZZ
- MLA
- Sennesael, Joryan, et al. “An Environmentally Friendly Carbon-Printed Contactless Smart Diaper.” IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, vol. 25, no. 2, 2025, pp. 3309–19, doi:10.1109/jsen.2024.3505775.
- APA
- Sennesael, J., Moerman, A., Bossuyt, F., Vandecasteele, B., Raepsaet, C., Beeckman, D., … Van Torre, P. (2025). An environmentally friendly carbon-printed contactless smart diaper. IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, 25(2), 3309–3319. https://doi.org/10.1109/jsen.2024.3505775
- Chicago author-date
- Sennesael, Joryan, Arno Moerman, Frederick Bossuyt, Bjorn Vandecasteele, Charlotte Raepsaet, Dimitri Beeckman, Hendrik Rogier, and Patrick Van Torre. 2025. “An Environmentally Friendly Carbon-Printed Contactless Smart Diaper.” IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL 25 (2): 3309–19. https://doi.org/10.1109/jsen.2024.3505775.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Sennesael, Joryan, Arno Moerman, Frederick Bossuyt, Bjorn Vandecasteele, Charlotte Raepsaet, Dimitri Beeckman, Hendrik Rogier, and Patrick Van Torre. 2025. “An Environmentally Friendly Carbon-Printed Contactless Smart Diaper.” IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL 25 (2): 3309–3319. doi:10.1109/jsen.2024.3505775.
- Vancouver
- 1.Sennesael J, Moerman A, Bossuyt F, Vandecasteele B, Raepsaet C, Beeckman D, et al. An environmentally friendly carbon-printed contactless smart diaper. IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL. 2025;25(2):3309–19.
- IEEE
- [1]J. Sennesael et al., “An environmentally friendly carbon-printed contactless smart diaper,” IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 3309–3319, 2025.
@article{01JEAT7KZ8E2HEGWTXFG4P91ZZ,
abstract = {{Nowadays, with the aging polation, the number of people in homes for the elderly is dramatically rising. Nearly all of them suffer from a degree of incontinence and wear diapers on a daily basis, leading to a lot of super absorbent polymer waste material. Smart diapers increase patient comfort owing to timely diaper changes. At the same time, the absorbent content of smart diapers can be reduced substantially, compared to regular diapers as less margin for late changes is needed. From the medical perspective, smart diapers also reduce painful incontinence-associated dermatitis caused by prolonged exposure to saturated diapers. This paper proposes a novel contactless smart diaper system that allows caregivers to remotely read out information about diaper contents. The developed system is based on capacitive coupling to a printed structure in the diaper, including multiple detection zones distributed across its length. By printing the sensing pattern into the diaper in carbon ink, a low cost, mass producible and environmentally friendly sensor is obtained. A 4-port differential transmission-measurement technique is employed, resulting in a higher system reliability than many existing smart diaper systems relying on impedance-measurements only. The paper includes both lab- and in-field measurements to demonstrate the successful detection of moisture.}},
author = {{Sennesael, Joryan and Moerman, Arno and Bossuyt, Frederick and Vandecasteele, Bjorn and Raepsaet, Charlotte and Beeckman, Dimitri and Rogier, Hendrik and Van Torre, Patrick}},
issn = {{1530-437X}},
journal = {{IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL}},
keywords = {{Sensors,Intelligent sensors,Moisture,Ink,Carbon,Reliability,Older adults,Electrodes,Strips,Couplings,Disposable sensors,moisture sensing,smart diapers,SYSTEM}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{3309--3319}},
title = {{An environmentally friendly carbon-printed contactless smart diaper}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1109/jsen.2024.3505775}},
volume = {{25}},
year = {{2025}},
}
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