Sports bands were a hit before, winning over users with their portability and intelligent recording. But scientists have come up with a new solution for users: putting these features on t-shirts. This way, users can know their health status only by wearing clothes in daily life.
But actually "intelligent clothing" is not an unfamiliar concept.
But before the method that people puts forward is to embroider circuit into dress. But because the circuit driving wires that make up the circuit cannot be cleaned and must be covered, this method is not suitable for everyday and long-term use. And if a health-tracking T-shirt had to have a heavy battery built into it, most people would probably give it up.
Now Trisha l. Andrew, a materials scientist, has found a breakthrough. She led a team of engineers at the university of Massachusetts Amherst who directly discovered how to store energy in fabrics.
According to Andrew himself, this is a special sewing technique that involves using a steam-coated conductive wire with a polymer film and then embroidering a flexible mesh of electrodes onto the fabric. When it has enough stored energy, it can power a variety of electronics, including temperature sensors, motion trackers and haptic feedback devices.
"This approach allows for mass production and" scale up while maintaining cost-effectiveness, "says Andrew.
As ACS Applied Materials &Interfaces describes this technology in its latest issue, "through it, a smart garment can monitor your vital signs or guide you through a city through gentle tactile taps."
The team has also teamed up with the personalized health monitoring centre of the Amherst Institute for Applied LifeSciences to create a suit that tracks patients' gait and joint movements throughout the day, providing vital data on injuries and disease.
After years of waiting, smart clothes seem to be coming to our lives right away.
This is not just an experiment.