From T-shirts with changing messages to carpets that can detect your position, the future of smart textiles seems to come straight out of a sci-fi novel.
Researchers now claim they have created a smart fiber that can achieve just that, without the need for a battery pack.
A team of Chinese researchers have developed textile-based electronics that utilize the human body as part of a circuit to harness electromagnetic energy from the environment.
This innovation could pave the way for a “body-bound” fiber electronics technology that functions without electronic chips or batteries and could be applied in various scenarios.
Co-author Chengyi Hou from Donghua University in Shanghai explained, “When electromagnetic energy passes through a fiber, it is converted into different forms of energy, including visible light or radio waves. Therefore, the fiber not only emits light but also produces an electrical signal when in contact with the human body.”
Hou highlighted that these radio signals are programmable by manipulating different aspects of the system, such as the fiber’s contact area with the body and its diameter.
The team stated that this method resolves a major challenge in integrating electronic systems into textiles, which is the necessity of rigid components.
Hou mentioned, “We have successfully achieved mass production of this new type of fiber electronics, which is as thin and soft as traditional fibers. The next step is to implement it.”
The team has created prototypes like a wearable cloth display with a cloth keyboard, intended for individuals with hearing impairments to aid in communication, as well as textile controllers for gaming.
Additionally, they developed a wireless tactile carpet that illuminates underfoot, providing emergency lighting at night and wirelessly transmitting signals to control household devices like lights.
Read more about the study here. The team assures that the fiber is constructed from three layers of inexpensive materials, making it durable, washable, and sweat-resistant.
An accompanying article suggests that this technology can also be utilized in robots, robotic prosthetics, and capturing haptic information to enhance human interactions and object recognition.
Dr. Luigi Occhipinti, a research director at the University of Cambridge specializing in smart electronics, biosystems, and AI, acknowledged the potential of this approach.
He stated, “By being constantly surrounded by various electromagnetic fields, we are developing innovative electronic textiles with skin sensors and unconventional electronics, powered uniquely through energy harvesting. This has the potential to unlock a new realm of self-powered wearable electronics for continuous health monitoring.”
Source: www.theguardian.com
