Therapeutic touch: Reactive clothing for anxiety

The emotional and physical health benefits that come by being touched in safe ways are well established. Therapeutic touch has been used for conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Sensory Processing Disorder and Dementia as a calming agent. Smart clothing and textiles have the potential to not only sense, monitor and collect data (inputs) but also to act on the body with embedded actuation capabilities (outputs) such as promoting mechanical, electrical and thermal tactile stimuli. Thus far, the emphasis in the design of wearables, including smart clothing, has been on inputs, with comparatively little research on the responsive output capabilities. This research presents design requirements for development of a user-friendly wearable product for compression therapy and reports development of a reactive undershirt with embedded textile-based pneumatic actuators that deliver tactile stimulation in response to change in emotional state to calm anxiety. The proposed design can offer novel ways of complementing care to empower people with dementia in everyday situations because of its ubiquitous nature and its affordance.