Sensors and Actuators A 274 (2018) 19–27

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Sensors and Actuators A: Physical

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/sna

Development of a smart garment for the assessment of cardiac

mechanical performance and other vital signs during sleep in
microgravity
Marco Di Rienzo ∗ , Emanuele Vaini, Prospero Lombardi
Dept. of Biomedical Technology, Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Several aspects of sleep physiology in microgravity are still unclear. In the frame of the Wearable Moni-
Received 12 December 2017 toring project, part of the Futura Mission of the Italian Space Agency, we developed a new smart garment
Received in revised form 24 January 2018 (MagIC-Space) for the monitoring of the cardiac mechanical activity and other vital signs during sleep in
Accepted 23 February 2018
space missions. The system is composed of 4 components: 1) a sensorized vest, including textile sensors
Available online 1 March 2018
for the detection of ECG and respiratory frequency, 2) an electronic module, collecting data from the vest
and including two accelerometers for the seismocardiogram measure, from which indexes of cardiac
Keywords:
mechanics are derived on a beat-to-beat basis, 3) an external probe for the assessment of the thorax skin
Biomedical electronics
Space physiology
temperature, and 4) a battery unit for the system power supply. From January till June 2015 seven inflight
Cardiac mechanics sleep recordings were made aboard the International Space Station by using two MagIC-Space systems.
Wearable monitoring system Data were collected to investigate the cardiovascular effects of microgravity during sleep. The positive
Seismocardiogram performance aboard and the good quality of the recorded signals (>96% of the collected data could be
Smart garment used for the subsequent analyses), validate the proposed system architecture and support its possible
exploitation in future flights and on Earth.
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction techniques. As known, this approach allows the quantification of a

During space missions microgravity eliminates the blood
weight. This phenomenon leads to a centralization of body fluids in
the thorax-head areas and to a significant reduction in the cardiac
load, with a consequent loss of heart muscle mass [1]. Moreover,
experiments in rats indicated that in unloaded hearts the myocar-
dial cells may decrease their contractility [2]. On this basis a certain
influence of microgravity on the mechanical performance of the
astronauts’ heart may be expected. Still, little knowledge is cur-
rently available on this issue [3].
From a methodological point of view, in space like on Earth
cardiac mechanics is commonly investigated by ultrasound, US,
Abbreviations: AC, Aortic Valve Closure; AO, Aortic Valve Opening; a.s.l., Above
Sea Level; BU, Battery Unit; CTI, Cardiac Time Intervals; ICT, Isovolumic Contraction
Time; IRT, Isovolumic Relaxation Time; ISS, International Space Station; LVET, Left
Ventricular Ejection Time; MC, Mitral Valve Closure; MO, Mitral Valve Opening; MU,
Measurement Unit; PEP, Pre Ejection Period; RRI, R-R Interval; SCG, Seismocardio-
gram; US, Ultrasound.
∗ Corresponding author at: Dept. of Biomedical Technology, Fondazione Don Carlo
Gnocchi ONLUS, Via Capecelatro 66, Milano, Italy.
E-mail address: mdirienzo@dongnocchi.it (M. Di Rienzo).
large number of cardiac features; however, the instrumentation is
expensive, provides spot measures, and apart from few applications
where a self-measurement is possible, requires a trained operator
for the examination. In space, the crew time is a precious resource
and the need to involve two astronauts for each US measure (the
subject under test and the operator), discourages the extensive use
of this approach for research purposes. In addition, US methods
do not allow a continuous monitoring of the cardiac mechanical
performance over time. A beat-to-beat estimation of some indexes
of cardiac mechanics during spontaneous behavior may rather be
obtained through the assessment of the seismocardiogram (SCG)
[4]. As detailed in the following, this signal is the measure of the
weak precordial vibrations produced by the beating heart, and its
analysis provides a quantification of cardiac contractility and relax-
ation for each heart beat.
In 2015, we exploited this technique to explore the dynamics of
cardiac mechanical performance during sleep in microgravity in the
frame of the Wearable Monitoring Project (WearMon). To the best
of our knowledge this is the first investigation on the beat-to-beat
features of the mechanical activity of the heart either on Earth and
in space. As part of the project we designed an innovative device for

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2018.02.034
0924-4247/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
20 M. Di Rienzo et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 274 (2018) 19–27
the monitoring of cardiac mechanics through the SCG assessment
and of other vital signs in space.
In this article, after a short introduction to the WearMon project
and the SCG signal, we describe the development of the system.
In particular, we illustrate the architecture of the new device, and
practical and normative issues needed for the design of wearable
systems for the biomedical data collection in microgravity.
2. The WearMon project
The WearMon project was part of the Futura Mission, a research
programme organized and funded by the Italian Space Agency
which allowed the execution of experiments aboard the Inter-
national Space Station, ISS, during the Expedition 42/43 from
November 2014 to June 2015.
Our project had a double objective. The first objective was of
technological nature, and is relevant to this paper. It consisted in the
development and validation of a smart garment (the MagIC-Space
system) for the collection during sleep in space of the electro-
cardiogram (ECG), respiratory frequency, skin temperature, and
seismocardiogram (SCG). From the latter signal, indexes of the car-
diac mechanical performance are derived (see details in the next
section).
The second objective, of biological nature, consisted in the
exploration of various aspects of sleep physiology in micrograv-
ity, including the study of the beat-to-beat dynamics of cardiac
mechanics, based on data collected by the above device aboard
the ISS. The Italian crewmember (female, age: 38 years) of the
Expedition was assigned the experiment and seven inflight sleep
recordings were made in the period January–June 2015.
3. The seismocardiogram
3.1. Signal morphology
The SCG is the non-invasive measure of the small thorax vibra-
tions produced at every heartbeat by the cardiac contraction
and relaxation. This signal may be detected by placing a MEMS
accelerometer on the sternum of the subject. SCG is a three-
dimensional signal [5], having a magnitude of few milli-gs (where
g is the acceleration of the terrestrial gravity, i.e. 9.8 m/s2 ). Usually,
only the dorso-ventral component of acceleration is considered for
Fig. 1. Upper panel: the ECG complex. Lower panel: the SCG waveform with the fiducial points considered for the parameter extraction, and the derived cardiac time intervals
(see abbreviations in the text).
the SCG assessment (corresponding to the Z-axis of our sensors)
and in our project we complied with this traditional approach.
The typical SCG waveform is shown in Fig. 1. It is characterized
by several peaks and valleys, and some of these displacements are
associated with the opening and closure of the aortic valve (AO and
AC) and the opening and closure of the mitral valve (MO and MC).
The correspondence between those SCG fiducial points and the real
cardiac events was previously verified by the simultaneous collec-
tion of SCG measures and ultrasound images of the heart valves
[6].
3.2. Feature extraction
From the R and Q peaks in the ECG and the AO, AC, MO and
MC fiducial points in the SCG waveform it is possible to estimate
the RR interval, RRI (i.e. the time interval between consecutive R
peaks) and the following Cardiac Time Intervals, CTIs, considered
as indexes of the cardiac mechanical function:
- The Pre Ejection Period (PEP), corresponding to the time delay
from the Q wave in the ECG to the AO fiducial point in the SCG;
- the Isovolumic Contraction Time (ICT), corresponding to the time
delay from MC to AO;
- the Left Ventricular Ejection Time (LVET), corresponding to the
time delay from AO to AC;
- the Isovolumic Relaxation Time (IRT), corresponding to the time
delay from AC to MO.
PEP, ICT, LVET are indexes of heart contractility while IRT is an
index of heart relaxation [7].
4. The magic-space system
The monitoring system for the WearMon project had to be sim-
ple to use, unobtrusive and not interfering with the sleep comfort.
Thus the development of a smart garment was deemed to be a
good solution for those requirements. In the design of the MagIC-
Space device we took advantage of a previous experience that we
gained by the development of a sensorized vest for the assessment
of ECG, respiration and body motion (the MagIC system [8]). Over
the years, the applicability of the original device has been tested
on more than 100 subjects, including healthy subjects during daily
 M. Di Rienzo et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 274 (2018) 19–27
Fig. 2. The MagIC-Space system and its components.
activities, physical exercise, jet flight maneuvers [8,9], and while
exposed to high-altitude environments (at the base and advanced
camps on Mount Everest, 5400–6800 m a.s.l.; and at the Margherita
Hut on Monte Rosa, Italian Alps, at 4554 m a.s.l.) [10]. The validity
of the ECG measure obtained by the system was positively tested
in a clinical trial on 40 cardiac patients [11].
With respect to the original device, MagIC-Space was impor-
tantly enhanced (a) by entirely redesigning the electronic and
textile components of the system to meet the space qualifica-
tion requirements, optimize the system performance, simplify the
instrument setup and facilitate the experiment execution, and (b)
by including the measure of the SCG, body rotation and skin tem-
perature.
The MagIC-Space architecture was composed of four elements
(see Fig. 2): 1) a sensorized vest, 2) a miniaturized electronic mod-
ule (the Measurement Unit, MU), 3) a thermometric probe to be
connected to the MU, and 4) the Battery Unit, BU for the MU power
supply.
Two MagIC-Space systems (hereafter globally termed ẗhe pay-
load)¨ were used aboard the ISS for the experiments.
Fig. 3. Panel A: the vest structure. Panel B: detail of the textile sensors in the inner part of the compression zone.
21
4.1. The sensorized vest
The body of the vest was made of knitted cotton (jacquard fab-
ric). As shown in Fig. 3, in correspondence with the breast the fabric
structure was kept looser to guarantee a better comfort. Just below,
there was a compression zone with increased adherence obtained
by the addition of elastane. Two ECG textile electrodes and one
textile plethysmograph were inserted in the inner part of the com-
pression zone.
The ECG electrodes were made of textile silver-coated conduc-
tive fibers, and were integrated into the vest on the left and right
sites of the thorax at a level corresponding to the fifth intercostal
space; the contact between textile electrodes and the thorax was
guaranteed by the adherence of the compression zone.
The textile plethysmograph was placed under the electrodes. It
completely surrounded the thorax and detected changes in its cir-
cumference from which the respiratory frequency was derived. This
sensor was obtained by a custom processing of the same conductive
fibers so to obtain an elastic conductive string sensitive to stretch.
Pathways, also in this case made of the conductive fibers, connected
the above transducers with the MU, which was secured to the vest
at the sternum level for the SCG detection. The MU adherence to
the thorax was obtained by a strip of Velcro and two crossed elastic
straps.
As detailed hereafter, a thermometric probe for the measure of
the thorax skin temperature was also fastened to the vest.
The vest cut and the level of adherence were adjusted for the
astronaut build. In this respect, it should be considered that the
fluid centralization caused by the weightlessness (see Introduction)
may increase the thorax circumference. This phenomenon is max-
imal during the first days of arrival aboard and then progressively
diminishes over time. However, the amount of the circumference
increase with respect to pre-flight measurements cannot be pre-
dicted with precision in advance. Thus one of the vests of the
payload was half size larger than it was required from the astro-
naut dimension on ground, while the second vest was an additional
size larger. The position of the electrodes in the MagIC-Space vest
was based on the results of a previous study we carried out on
the assessment of the thorax and the garment deformations during
selected movements [8]. Through this analysis we identified the
22 M. Di Rienzo et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 274 (2018) 19–27
Fig. 4. Panel A: Block diagram of the Measurement Unit, Battery Unit and Skin Thermometer electronics. Panel B: the MU with its external connections.
best electrode location that minimize the shifts between electrode
and skin during motion, origin of most ECG artifacts.
4.2. The measurement unit and the thermometric probe
The MU has a weight of 70 g and a dimension of 75 × 50 × 18 mm.
This unit collects external inputs from the textile sensors and from
the thermometric probe, and integrates those signals with data
originating from the internal sensors, as illustrated hereafter. Dur-
ing the monitoring all data are temporarily stored on the local
memory and, at the end of the recording, are transferred to an
external computer via a USB port. MU is powered by the BU.
The block diagram of MU is schematized in Fig. 4. The core of
the system is the microcontroller (MSP430F5438A by Texas Instru-
ments) endowed with 16 kB of RAM, 256 kB of flash memory and a
CPU clock at 24 MHz.
MU has three internal sensors: an analog three-axial accelerom-
eter (LIS344ALH by ST, range: ±2 g, noise density: 50 ␮g/Hz1/2 ), a
digital three-axial accelerometer (MMA8451Q by NXP, range: ±2 g,
14-bit, noise density: 99 ␮g/Hz1/2 ) and a three-axial gyroscope
(L3GD20 by ST, ±250 dps, 16-bit, noise density: 0.03 dps/Hz1/2 ). The
two accelerometers are both dedicated to the measure of the SCG,
while the gyroscope was included to measure body rotations.
The redundancy in the accelerometers was implemented to
minimize the risk of a loss in the SCG measurement. The two sen-
sors are simultaneously active during the acquisition so that in
case of fault of one of them, the other may still provide a contin-
uous SCG data stream. In order to further reduce the probability
of simultaneous faults, we selected two accelerometers character-
ized by different technologies (analog and digital) and produced by
different manufacturers.
Three front-end circuits, FEs, are dedicated to the amplification
of the analog signals and their filtering (for ECG by a 1st order high
pass filter with fc = 0.05 Hz, and a 3rd order low pass filter with
fc = 40 Hz; for thorax movements by a 1st order band pass filter
ranging from 0.01 Hz to 3.38 Hz; for the analog accelerometer by a
1st order band pass filter ranging from 0.02 Hz to 44 Hz). FEs out-
puts are digitalized on 12 bits by the AD converter integrated into
the microcontroller. A specific component (MAX14502 - Maxim
Integrated) handles the interface between the microcontroller, the
Secure Digital (SD) drive and the USB serial output.
The MU user interface includes 1) a dual color LED for the display
of the system status and error messages through color and blinking
codes, and 2) an event button to allow the astronaut to mark the
timing of specific events on the recorded data (e.g. the start and end
of the pre-sleep free floating phase, or the wake up moment).
The ECG, the three axes of the analog and digital accelerometers
and the three axes of the digital gyroscope were sampled at 200 Hz,
the respiratory signal at 50 Hz and the skin temperature at 1 Hz.
The Real Time Clock of the system was constantly powered by a
dedicated button cell, even when the system was not used. Before
flight this clock was set at the Greenwich Mean Time (i.e. the time
zone used aboard the ISS). This allowed us to directly match the
time stamps included in the recordings with the onboard astronaut
schedule and reports.
4.2.1. The skin resistance measure
As seen in the previous section, the MagIC-Space system detects
ECG by the textile electrodes embedded into the vest. Obviously,
the electrical resistance occurring between the electrode and the
subject’s skin may affect the ECG quality. In order to reduce this
resistance, and thus improve the signal quality, a thin layer of con-
ductive paste had to be put on the ECG textile electrodes before
each recording, and removed at the end of the monitoring by a
wet tissue. If the electrodes are not cleaned before the subsequent
application of the fresh paste, the skin-electrode resistance signifi-
cantly increases with a consequent reduction in the signal-to-noise
ratio. Thus a specific circuit was included in the MU for checking
the skin-electrode resistance at the start of each data collection. In
case of an abnormal value, an alert was sent to the astronaut by a
specific blinking code of the bicolor LED of the MU. We found that
the skin resistance has a typical value of few hundreds of ohm in the
optimal setup, it may reach 1M for electrodes without conductive
paste or with residual dried paste from previous experiments, and
 M. Di Rienzo et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 274 (2018) 19–27 23

Fig. 5. Example of raw signals. Panel A: The complete set of the collected signals (apart from temperature). From top to bottom: ECG, respiration, SCG detected by the analog
accelerometer, SCG detected by the digital accelerometer and the X, Y and Z axes of the gyroscope. The inset illustrate the orientation of the accelerometers and gyroscope
with respect to the body. Panel B: ECG and SCG measured by the analog and the digital accelerometers during a physiological episode of tachycardia. Panel C: same signals
than in panel B during a physiological episode of bradycardia.

values above 2M in the case of damaged sensors. On the basis of
the resistance value, different messages were sent to the astronaut
and different actions were required (change of the vest, cleaning of
the electrodes, application of more conductive paste).
4.2.2. The thermometric probe
The probe consisted of a cable with a sensorized head at one
end and the plug to the MU at the other end. To simplify the exper-
imental setup the probe was fastened to the vest. In particular, the
sensorized head was accommodated into a small textile pocket
properly located in the inner part of the compression zone, just
below the sternum (see Fig. 3 panel B). In the middle of the pocket
there was a hole to allow a direct contact of the sensor with the tho-
rax skin. The probe cable was sewn to the inner side of the vest, with
the final part of the cable exiting the vest neck for the connection
with the MU.
The sensorized head was composed of a small round PCB of
roughly 1cm diameter that included a solid state thermometer and
a Low Drop-out voltage regulator for the power supply control. The
PCB was entirely encapsulated with a medical grade elastomer so
to allow a safe contact of the sensor with the skin.
4.3. The battery unit
Fire is one of the most critical risks aboard the ISS, and any source
of energy is a potential contributor to the fire hazard.
The MagIC-Space electronics is battery-powered. On Earth the
batteries are commonly located in the same case of the electron-
24 M. Di Rienzo et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 274 (2018) 19–27
Fig. 6. A 25-min segment of beat-to-beat RRI and indexes of cardiac mechanics
excerpted from the first sleep recording made aboard the ISS. See text for the defi-
nition of abbreviations.
ics and, in many instances rechargeable batteries are used. On the
contrary, for space applications the batteries should be separated
from the electronics to limit the effects of possible explosions and
should be preferably located in a metal case. In addition, the use
of rechargeable batteries is discouraged because it would require
the direct connection of the developed system with the ISS infras-
tructure (to power the battery charger) and this would importantly
increase the number of tests to be performed for obtaining the flight
certification.
For the MagIC-Space power supply we chose two AA 1.5V pri-
mary (i.e. non-rechargeable) lithium-metal batteries, each having
a capacity of 3Ah. Those batteries have been selected for their light
weight, compactness and the high density of stored energy (9 Wh
in total). In space applications the use of lithium batteries is com-
mon but is also matter of concern, since it is known that under
specific circumstances they become unstable [12], and susceptible
to catastrophic events such as combustion and explosion. These
failures may occur because of thermal runaway phenomena trig-
gered by anomalous heat accumulation within the battery [13]. In
the discharge phase, batteries produce heat which is normally dissi-
pated outside of their enclosure, but if they operate in a overheating
regime (e.g. because of an excessive current demand, or in case of
a short circuit) or if exposed to an excessive external temperature,
the increasing internal temperature can evolve in a thermal run-
away phenomenon. In this case there is a production of gases that
increment the battery internal pressure and may lead to the battery
explosion and to the leakage of flammable compounds. In addition,
it should be considered that structure and functionality of the bat-
teries may also be impaired by vibrational and thermal stresses
possibly occurring inside the cargo crafts during the transportation
to the ISS.
In the development of our system we implemented specific
countermeasures to prevent as much as possible the occurrence
of battery failures, and in the unfortunate case, to mitigate the
failure effects. The prevention measures included the design of
an ad-hoc electronic control circuit, placed inside the BU. Part of
the circuit provided the MU with the regulated voltage, while the
remaining part was dedicated to the protection of the batteries from
the discharge into reversal and external shorts. Also the battery
temperature, voltage and current were monitored and in case of
abnormal values, the whole system would have been switched off.
The hazard mitigation was obtained 1) by wrapping the batter-
ies with a special textile non-flammable material able to absorb a
possible electrolyte leakage, and 2) by inserting the batteries inside
a separate aluminum case to confine the possible fire derived from
their malfunction. In the aluminum case a series of small vents were
drilled and covered by a gas-permeable membrane. This was done
to allow the exit of possible gasses originated from a battery failure
and keep the pressure inside the case at a safe level.
4.4. The firmware and the real-time failure handling
A direct communication between the researcher on Earth and
the astronaut aboard the ISS is difficult, and the astronaut, although
trained, has a limited knowledge of the specific hardware to be used
for each experiment (any crew member carries out many different
experiments every day) and has strict timing constraints. Thus all
possible steps must be taken to reduce the possibility of malfunc-
tions during the experiments, and in the case of failures, a clear
feedback should be sent to the astronaut for the recovery action. In
this context, it should be also considered that the space station is a
harsh environment for the electronic devices because of the pres-
ence of charged particles and high energy radiations which are not
blocked by the atmosphere [14,15]. Those phenomena may impor-
tantly interfere with the functioning of the semiconductors and
with the dataflow inside the electronic circuits. Thus, the firmware
of the MagIC-Space microcontroller included not only the code for
the management of the whole system, but also a diagnostic tool for
the automatic detection of 1) possible hard failures in the power
supply section, in the board temperature, and in the connection
with the vest and thermometric probe, and 2) possible soft failures
in the functioning of sensors, in the acquisition process and the
in the data storage on the SD card. Recovery from a possible stall
of the microcontroller was implemented by a re-boot procedure
triggered by the watchdog timer.
For each detected failure the diagnostic tool was programmed
1) to log the error in a file for a subsequent evaluation by the ground
team, and 2) to alert the astronaut by a blinking code of the dual
color LED in the MU. In case of hard failures, the affected component
(either vest, MU or BU) should have been substituted by the cor-
responding backup item (two systems were on board). Conversely,
for most soft failures a system restore was obtained by an automatic
selective reset of the affected piece of hardware without requiring
any human intervention. The only exception was the case of poor
ECG quality, described in the previous section, which required an
astronaut action (the cleaning of the electrode or the application of
the conductive paste).
5. Utilization of the system and performance
Following the sequence of checks, analyses and laboratory tests
imposed by the safety procedures, the two MagIC-Space systems
received the flight safety certificate from NASA and on January 12,
2015 were transported to the ISS by the SpaceX-CRS5 cargo craft.
The payload was used in seven inflight sleep experiments at
mission days 53, 55, 56, 80, 116, 142 and 192. In each experimental
session the astronaut (a) wore the MagIC-Space system and acti-
vated the data recording few minutes before going to sleep; (b)
free floated for 5 min to obtain baseline pre-sleep values; (c) went
to sleep; and (d) on the following morning, halted the recording
at the wake up, put off the garment and transferred data from the
MagIC-Space device to a laptop for the data downlink to Earth. The
experimental protocol was approved by the Ethical Review Board
of our Institution and the NASA Institutional Review Board.
 M. Di Rienzo et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 274 (2018) 19–27 25

Fig. 7. An additional example of RRI and indexes of cardiac mechanics with the corresponding power spectra. The arrow indicates the spectral peaks in correspondence with
the respiratory frequency.

5.1. Overall performance
The payload allowed the detection of the vital signs in all the 7
scheduled sleep recordings aboard the ISS for a total of 42 monitor-
ing hours corresponding to about 166,000 heart beats. The quality
of the recorded signals was estimated by a score defined as 100
minus the artifacts rate of the entire dataset. In the SCG signal
the artifacts were automatically detected by a custom algorithm
previously described and validated [16]. In the remaining signals
the artifacts were identified by a visual inspection. The resulting
quality score was equal to 96.5, thus indicating that more than
160,000 beats were made available for the subsequent extraction
of the cardiac features indicated in Section 3.2 (ICT, PEP, LVET and
IRT). Through the use of MagIC Space we have been able to provide
the first ever representation of the dynamics of indexes of cardiac
mechanics during sleep with a single beat resolution.
Fig. 5 shows the typical quality of the collected raw signals at
normal heart rate and during the physiological episodes of tachy-
cardia and bradycardia which frequently occur during sleep. In the
panel A of the figure it is also apparent that synchronization occurs
between the MC-AO complex in the SCG and a marked displace-
ment in the Y component of the gyroscope signal. This indicates
that the heart contraction and the subsequent opening of the aor-
tic valve not only cause an acceleration on the dorso-ventral axis of
the body but also produce a micro rotation along the longitudinal
axis and with a lesser strength on the transversal axis. No rotation
appears along the dorso-ventral axis. This phenomenon has been
recently explored and investigated on ground by Jafari Tadi et al.
[17].
26 M. Di Rienzo et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 274 (2018) 19–27
A segment of the beat-to-beat profile of the indexes derived
from the analysis of the ECG and SCG signals collected during the
first inflight experiment is displayed in Fig. 6. Fig. 7 illustrates addi-
tional profiles with the corresponding power spectral densities
estimated by the Welch’s method. This dataset shows the influence
of respiration in the spectra of all indexes with the exclusion of the
ICT, while the power in the Low Frequency band (0.04–0.15 Hz) is
predominantly present only in the RRI spectrum.
The complete analysis of the collected data is still in progress
and will be the subject of a separate article.
5.2. System usability
In the post-flight audit the astronaut reported that the device
had been easy to use and with an intuitive user interface. It should
be considered that all the sensors which needed to be placed in
contact with the skin were integrated into the garment, thus the
astronaut had only to put on the system and start the monitoring,
without taking care of the sensor positioning and wiring. This strat-
egy led to a reduction in the setup time and complexity during the
experiment preparation aboard the ISS.
5.3. The vest
The smaller vest was used in the first in-flight experiment, and
the larger vest in the second experiment. It was found that the larger
vest was more comfortable thus the astronaut kept wearing this
vest also for the remaining 5 experiments over a timespan of 3
months. No appreciable signal degradation was observed over time
and no issue was reported about cleanliness and odor during the
repeated use.
5.4. The MU and BU
The first MU was used for the first 6 experiments. During the
setup of the seventh experiment, a pin of the MU connector to the
vest was bent, and the unit had to be substituted by the second MU.
This was the only problem encountered throughout the execution
of the whole set of experiments.
As to the batteries, a potential risk for the completion of the
experimental plan was a battery degradation caused by the thermal
and mechanical stress exerted by the cargo craft during transporta-
tion to the ISS (see Section 4.3). Actually, more than 30 recording
hours were obtained using a single BU, i.e. a pair of AA batteries.
This length was in line with the duration we expected from fully
efficient cells, and indicates that transportation had no negative
impact on the battery packs.
6. Discussion and conclusion
A smart garment was developed for the monitoring of ECG,
thorax respiratory movements, skin temperature and cardiac
mechanical performance during sleep in space. The good quality of
the recorded signals, the accomplishment of the scheduled exper-
iments and the positive feedback on the device usability represent
the successful achievement of the technological objective of the
WearMon project.
The exploitation of the MagIC Space system yielded the first ever
representation of the dynamics of indexes of cardiac mechanics
during sleep on a beat-to-beat basis. In addition, to the best of our
knowledge this is the first use in space of a smart garment with
embedded textile sensors for the vital signs recording.
The overall performance of the system during the 6-month stay
in microgravity was globally positive and the only impairment was
the bent pin on a MU connector. This suggests that in case of re-
flight of the system, only the methodology of connection should be
enhanced, maybe through the use of scoop proof connectors.
The positive outcome of the project in the demanding experi-
mental environment of the Futura Mission make it also conceivable
a possible future use of the device to monitor the astronauts over
the entire 24 h aboard the ISS. In this scenario, during the waking
hours the SCG could be measured whenever the subject remains
spontaneously still. Indeed, the physical activity usually produces
accelerations 10–100 times greater than those caused by the car-
diac activity and therefore when the subject is moving the motion
component of acceleration masks the SCG component. However,
in a previous study carried out on ground during a standard work-
ing day, we demonstrated that subjects stay still for at least 5 s
several tens of times per each waking hour [18]. Thus, although
discontinuously, the SCG may be frequently measured even during
the day hours. Obviously at night the physical activity is extremely
reduced and, like in the present study, SCG can be estimated from
each cardiac cycle.
Finally, a comment on the possible applicability on ground of
MagIC Space. On Earth, about 25% of western population is affected
by sleep disorders which are commonly studied using complex
devices under the assistance of specialized operators and requir-
ing long time for the instrument setup. A ground version of the
payload might simplify the monitoring of the patients during sleep,
and through its integration in telemedicine platforms also facilitate
their surveillance at home.
Funding
This work was supported by the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI)
under grants ASI2013-061-I.O for the hardware development and
space experiments, and in part under grant ASI2013-079-R.O for
the software development and data analysis.
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Biographies
Marco Di Rienzo received his MSc degree in Electronic Engineering from Politecnico
di Milano in 1980. He is coordinator of technology research in cardiovascular, sensors
and telemedicine areas of Fondazione Don Gnocchi and Adjunct Professor of Medical
Informatics at the University of Milan. He is author of more than 130 articles in
peer-reviewed journals.
Emanuele Vaini received his MSc degree in Biomedical Engineering from Politec-
nico of Milan in 2010. He is researcher at the Dept. of Biomedical Technology of the
Fondazione Don Gnocchi. His research interests include the development of algo-
rithms for the analysis of cardiovascular signals and software for the evaluation of
cardiac patients through wearable devices.
Prospero Lombardi received his MSc degree in Electronic Engineering from Politec-
nico di Milano in 2013 and the PhD in Information Technology in 2017. Since 2013 he
is researcher at the Dept. of Biomedical Technology of the Fondazione Don Gnocchi.
His activity is mainly focused on the development of hardware for the monitoring
of cardiovascular variables.