A new type of clothes may soon help you turn on the lights and music while also keeping you fresh, dry, fashionable, clean and safe from the latest virus and bacteria that's going around. Purdue University researchers have developed a new fabric innovation that allows wearers to control electronic devices through clothing.
According to a report published by the university's website, it is the first technique capable of transforming any existing cloth item or textile into a self-powered e-textile containing sensors, music players or simple illumination displays using simple embroidery without the need for expensive fabrication processes requiring complex steps or expensive equipment.
Ramses Martinez, an assistant professor in the School of Industrial Engineering and in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering in Purdue University, said: "The technology featured in the Advanced Functional Materials journal, provides its users with a new textile that resists rain, stains, and bacteria while they harvest the energy of the user to power electronics."
"These self-powered e-textiles also constitute an important advancement in the development of clothes, which now can be washed many times in a conventional washing machine without apparent degradation," he added.
Martinez said the new clothing is based on omniphobic triboelectric nanogeneragtors (RF-TENGs), which use simple embroidery and fluorinated molecules to embed small electronic components and turn a piece of clothing into a mechanism for powering devices. It is like having a wearable remote control that also keeps odors, rain, stains and bacteria away from the user.
"While fashion has evolved significantly during the last centuries and has easily adopted recently developed high-performance materials, there are very few examples of clothes on the market that interact with the user. Having an interface with a machine that we are constantly wearing sounds like the most convenient approach for a seamless communication with machines and the Internet of Things," he explained.
The technology is being patented through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. The researchers are looking for partners to test and commercialize their technology. Their work aligns with Purdue's Giant Leaps celebration of the university's global advancements in artificial intelligence and health as part of Purdue's 150th anniversary.
