A review on the recent developments in design and integration of electromyography textile electrodes for biosignal monitoring

Due to recent developments in wearable sensor technology, textile electrodes are routinely being employed in electromyography (EMG) for continuous monitoring of the biosignals from the muscles. However, the performance of such smart textile-based health monitoring devices depends on several factors such as, the sensitivity (impedance), durability (reusable/washable), users' comfort ability, integrability, and automatability. In this article we review the characteristics and the performance of the EMG textile electrodes, in the context of functional textile materials, smart textile materials, and smart textile systems for biosignals monitoring. The functional textile materials are confined to signal transmission alone, whereas, the smart textile materials include signal transducers and sensors. The more advanced smart textile systems include signal conditioning circuits with displays. Nowadays, textile-based sensors embedded in garments are becoming a part of users' normal life, in particular, the textile systems that continuously monitor the vital physiological signals from muscles are being sought after in healthcare settings.