海角社区

Infancy is the most vulnerable time of life. Globally, 2.3 million children died in 2023 in the first 20 days of life, with approximately 6500 newborn deaths every day, according to the .

Sibei Xia, an assistant professor in 海角社区鈥檚 Department of Textiles, Apparel Design, and Merchandising, is leading pioneering research aimed at alleviating the stress of new parents.

Collaborating with 海角社区 human ecology professor Chuanlan Liu and Ph.D. student Yanbo 鈥淏onnie鈥� Zhang, the team is developing wearable technology that could redefine infant care.

As a mother, Xia understands the anxiety that comes with monitoring the well-being of a newborn.

鈥淚 was concerned about my son's fever and his vital signs when he was little,鈥� Xia said.

The team previously developed a temperature-detecting hat for infants and is now looking to expand to wearable technology that monitors other vital signs that concern parents.

From Concept to Prototype

The journey began with the adaptation of advanced textile technologies.

鈥淚n general, a baby's temperature is not as stable as an adult鈥檚. Usually, babies, especially newborns, will wear a hat to help them regulate their body temperature,鈥� Xia said.

Leveraging the capabilities of department鈥檚 knitting machines, Xia incorporated thermochromic yarns 鈥� a yarn that changes color in response to temperature 鈥� into an infant hat.

鈥淲ith our product, you don't have to use a thermometer to measure frequently. The hat will just continuously monitor the forehead temperature. Then, just by looking at it, you will be able to tell if it鈥檚 detecting a fever or not,鈥� Xia said.

This hat can provide immediate visual feedback about a baby鈥檚 body and environmental temperature changes.

鈥淚t will linearly change color between 38 through 40 degrees Celsius, or from 100 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. When the color of the fabric is lighter, it means the temperature is higher,鈥� Xia said.

They tested different yarn combinations, colors, and settings, before landing on a purple yarn.

"Temperature changes are crucial signs for certain infant health concerns," Zhang said.

Assessing Infant Health Beyond Temperature

鈥淲e are trying to expand the product category by taking in smart textile applications so that we can actually detect other vitals, such as breathing and also moisture on the surface of the body so that we can potentially and eventually build a device that can detect why baby cries.鈥� 

Sibei Xia, assistant professor
海角社区鈥檚 Department of Textiles, Apparel Design, and Merchandising

The team decided to learn more about customer needs and research a potential market for their new technology.

鈥淚t鈥檚 critical for development in the future and commercializing. That's the reason we participated in the NSF I-Corps program, to explore more about our customer needs,鈥� Zhang said.

The U.S. National Science Foundation鈥檚 Innovation Corps, or I-Corps, program is an immersive, entrepreneurial training program that facilitates the transformation of invention into impact. Zhang鈥檚 expertise is in customer behavior, merchandising, and marketing.

鈥淲hen we started the journey, I thought the most important thing or barrier we would have to handle to launch a scalable startup successfully was technology.  After the I-Corps training, we agreed that technology is only a tool; the success factor is to solve the problems of target customers. There is no scalable business if we do not solve a fascinating problem among the targeted customers,鈥� said Liu.

Through the I-Corps program, the team surveyed and spoke with more than 100 new parents, which revealed that fever wasn鈥檛 the only concern for new parents.

鈥淭here are other concerns, such as whether my baby is breathing or not and asking why the baby cries. We are trying to expand the product category by taking in smart textile applications so that we can actually detect other vitals, such as breathing and also moisture on the surface of the body so that we can potentially and eventually build a device that can detect why baby cries,鈥� Xia said.

They are currently working with companies utilizing smart textiles to come up with solutions to better capture vital signs for babies. Once they have a product finished, they plan to bring it to families to use.

鈥淒epending on the market size, if we outsource the production, the items could be on the market quickly. Nowadays, textile and apparel industries are shifting toward proof manufacturing, namely, collecting orders and then running production to avoid handling too much inventory,鈥� Liu said. 

鈥淲e will definitely talk to pediatricians or neonatal intensive units, or NICUs, to do some testing on babies,鈥� Xia said. 鈥淚 have been a new mom myself, so it was a challenge for me to monitor my baby. There was some stress of being new parents. Our intention for our product is to help release some of that stress.鈥�

Next Step

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