Flexible electrostatic breakdown energy harvesting textile with customized concave–convex structure enables smart health management and interactive system

Intelligent electronics facilitate critical information exchange between humans, environments, and machines, promoting health tracking systems and human–machine interaction, which can be engineered through wearable devices by harvesting energy from human activity or the environment. However, comfort and portability remain challenges. Herein, we delicately proposed a self-powered intelligent textile sensor (SITS) with a concave–convex configuration that converts ubiquitous sliding motion into a recognizable signal via electrostatic breakdown effect resulting from the periodic gap of surface structure. Parametric analysis was also discussed, including sliding distance, loads, and speed, suggesting that sufficient contact and sliding distance are beneficial for optimizing performance. Moreover, the feasibility of surface roughness recognition was successfully demonstrated by sliding the SITS on 17 kinds of textiles, which served as a slip-sensor. Finally, integrating a self-designed flexible circuit with the SITS successfully applies the SITS to a fully flexible wireless smart pedometer and smart gait recognition system, leveraging the relative sliding motion between arm swing and clothing when walking, and sliding contact in an abnormal gait, respectively. Furthermore, an exceptionally smart mouse interactive system has been developed that can efficiently and accurately access Word documents and execute a series of shortcuts by utilizing the general sliding operation between the mouse and a customized mouse pad, demonstrating the huge potential of the SITS in supporting a smarter life. The novel structure, flexibility, and portability of the SITS allow smart textile systems to be constructed in a low-power, energy-efficient manner, paving the way for greater intelligence and an improved quality of life.