WeeCare: Towards Handheld Bladder Fullness Sensing with a Conformable Pad
2026-05-25 • Human-Computer Interaction
Human-Computer Interaction
AI summaryⓘ
The authors developed WeeCare, a soft, handheld pad that can tell how full the bladder is by measuring electrical signals through fabric electrodes. This tool aims to help people who can't feel their bladder fullness and need regular catheter use. They tested WeeCare using computer models, lab experiments with fake bladders, and a real human test to see how well it detects bladder filling and emptying. The main challenge is that moving the pad around can affect the measurements, so they focused on making it reliable despite this.
bladder dysfunctionelectrical impedance tomographyfabric electrodescatheterizationvoidingbladder fullnessin-silico simulationin-vitro phantomin-vivo measurement
Authors
Zhikai Qin, Siqi Zhang, Junyi Zhu, Justin Chan
Abstract
Patients with bladder dysfunction often lose the sensation of bladder fullness and cannot void naturally, forcing reliance on fixed-schedule catheterization that is uncomfortable and risks complications. We present WeeCare, a handheld conformable pad with fabric electrodes for on-demand bladder fullness sensing using electrical impedance tomography (EIT). The central challenge is that repeated removal and reattachment can introduce variation in electrode position and contact quality. We assess WeeCare along three axes: in-silico simulations characterizing electrode layout and noise robustness, in-vitro phantom experiments across urine salinities and filling levels, and an in-vivo human measurement for bladder fullness sensing, voiding, and filling dynamics.