Smart Textile Based Wearable Sensors for Monitoring Isolation‐Related Affective States: A Step Towards Loneliness Prediction

Loneliness is a significant psychosocial factor that negatively impacting the health and quality of life of individuals, with social isolation recognized as a major risk factor. This paper presents a wearable, textile based multi‐sensing system to continuously monitoring physiological changes associated with isolation related affective states which toward future loneliness detection. The system integrates flexible, non‐invasive textile sensors for electrocardiogram (ECG), electromyography (EMG), respiration, skin temperature, and galvanic skin response (GSR) within textile, enabling continuous physiological monitoring and analyses for analyzing loneliness resulting from isolation. In our pilot study, physiological signals are recorded dunder three controlled affective arousal conditions: Low emotional arousal induced by quiet sitting, moderate emotional arousal associated with social conversation, and high emotional arousal elicited by positive emotional arousal. Experimental results demonstrate distinct physiological patterns across conditions, including reduced heart rate variability, more regular respiration, lower skin conductance activity, and decreased muscular engagement under low emotional arousal compared with socially interactive and highly arousing states. This scalable and cost‐effective solution supports proactive monitoring and assessment of loneliness for users, offering potential for timely interventions by caregivers, and clinicians. The work advances emotion‐aware wearable systems for geriatric care and mental health support.