Evaluation of Smart Gloves with Wearable Elements for Nighttime Bicycle Rider Safety: Focus on Hand Compression and Mobility

This study aimed to assess the wearability of bicycle riders' gloves with different sizes of wearable elements attached, focusing on the nighttime safety of cyclists.Eight healthy Korean males participated in the following three glove conditions: Control, basic cycling gloves without wearable elements, Smart A, where a wearable device element (size: 40 51 15 mm, weight: 9.0 g) was added to the back of the gloves, and Smart B, with a smaller wearable device element (38 48 12 mm, weight: 7.0 g).Each trial consisted of 20 min (10-min rest while sitting on a stationary bike, placed their hands on the handlebars, and 10-min exercise while performing five different hand movements at 2-min intervals while pedaling at 50-60 rpm).Clothing pressure on the back of the hand, and the center between the thumb and index finger and hand temperature were continuously measured, along with subjective comfort ratings with 5-min interval.Results showed that compared to the control gloves, both Smart A and B conditions produced significantly higher clothing pressure on the center of the hand (p < 0.05), especially during hand postures involving backward wrist extension, which approximately averaged 60 mmHg in clothing pressure.However, clothing pressure on the hand skin between the thumb and index finger was lower for Smart A and B than Control, indicating that overall clothing pressure on the back of the hand did not uniformly increase for Smart A or B conditions.Regarding subjective comfort, Smart A caused significantly higher discomfort than the Control during pronounced forward or backward wrist movements, likely due to the larger surface area of the wearable element for Smart A compared to Smart B. In conclusion, even with the addition of a hard wearable element with a volume of 22 cm, cross-sectional area of 18 cm, height of 1.2 cm, and weight of 7 g (Smart B), there was no substantial increase in hand discomfort.Instead, the reduction in pressure on the hand area between the thumb and index finger suggests that the wearable element does not negatively impact hand movements.