Researchers are using traditional kitting and braiding fabrication techniques to produce electrically conducting, wearable fabrics capable of sensing a wide range of human movement. The ability to arrange different types of fibres with predetermined spatial organisation gives us the colour, vibrancy and comfort we encounter in traditional textiles.
A knitted textile based on the polymeric composite fibres, produced at the Australian National Fabrication Facility, is highly sensitive, stable and able to detect a wide range of human movement. The team demonstrated a working device with remote sensing capabilities using a knee sleeve prototype of the fabric that ‘talks’ to a commercial wireless receiver. These fibres are not only stretchable but also conduct electricity. This combination of properties allows the fibres to respond to body movement.
For energy storage the materials that make up a battery have been braided into appropriate arrangements to deliver energy storage capabilities. “These advances are made possible by the combination of skills that ARC Centres of Excellence bring together to tackle challenging areas,” he said. “We are able to take fundamental advances in materials science and engineering and to realise wearable structures for use in sports training and rehabilitation applications.”
https://youtu.be/sLwKWtnfIzc http://www.electromaterials.edu.au/news/fashion-first-researchers-knit-talking-textile/
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