The trend to create a variety of "smart" things is increasingly gaining momentum. “Computerization” of familiar things undoubtedly makes our life easier and more convenient, but various kinds of wearable electronics can easily be forgotten at home or lost, which cannot be said about clothes. Without it, no one leaves the house, so scientists from Harvard University have developed a "smart" fabric that can be used to produce clothing. Interestingly, no additional sensors are built into the fabric. She herself is a "one big sensor".
A study on new fabric manufacturing technology has been published in Advanced Materials Technologies. "Smart" fabric consists of a layer of silicon, located between two layers of silver conductive fabric. The conductivity of silicon is much less than the silver fabric, and such a “sandwich” forms a capacitive sensor. This sensor detects movement, detecting changes in the ability to hold a charge of an electric field between two electrodes. When the fabric is stretched, the silicon layer becomes thinner, and the layers of conductive fabric converge.
At the stage of testing technology experts have developed a glove. The sensor recorded not only "fitness readings", but also hand movements, including how many degrees each finger was bent. According to scientists, it is possible to make sportswear and clothing for patient monitoring out of such a fabric. As the author of the research Ozgur Atalay,
“Our work shows extremely promising results for tracking movements and creating“ clothes with built-in trackers. ” For example, a golfer who wears clothes made from “smart” cloth will be able to understand whether he has the right posture and stand for a strike, and any athlete is able to track his progress without using additional gadgets. ”
The article is based on materials .
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