A Patent Landscape Analysis of Textile Sensors for Muscular Activity Sensing of Stimulation

In the era of smart garments, textile electrodes for electromyography (EMG) or functional electric stimulation (FES) represent a very interesting and promising area of development and exploitation. In this frame, we conducted a patent landscape analysis of textile solution for EMG sensing and FES actuation, using Espacenet as a reference database and Orbit Intelligent platform as a data analysis tool. The landscape analysis focused on the following aspects: filing trends, top applicants in this domain, main publication countries, forward citations, and collaborations between applicants. Following the screening process, a total of 97 patent families were subjected to subsequent analysis. China and the United States account for the majority of patents. The main applicants by volume of the topic studied are universities or research public entities.