Kirigami-Enabled Wearable Health and Crowd Monitoring System

Recently, massive events are gathering bigger crowds than ever before. During such events, minor incidents can escalate to big tragedies. Consequently, crowd monitoring and management have become an important research topic in pursuing innovative technologies that can help mitigate such risks. In this paper, a novel crowd monitoring system is fully developed and verified. The system is wearable and has a simple manufacturing process. It includes processing and communication modules and vital-sign sensors (temperature, skin hydration, and heart rate). Wearability is achieved using an innovative Kirigami-based, stretchable Printed Circuit Board (PCB) with a remarkable stretchability, up to 65%. Moreover, the system has a two-way wireless communication module enabling a smartphone interface. The system receives the vital signs from the sensors, analyzes the sensor’s data, sets off an alarm to the user in case of emergency, and submits the collected information to a management center. Thus, data collected from many individuals in the crowd may be analyzed to detect big scale crises and potentially help prevent tragedies. The developed wearable system was successfully tested in Makkah city, and its sensitivity to crowd density was demonstrated.