Academics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed smart textiles which conform to the body and could be of assistance within sectors such as healthcare. By incorporating a type of plastic yarn and using heat to slightly melt it — a process called thermoforming — the researchers were able to greatly improve the precision of pressure sensors woven into multilayered knit textiles, which they call 3DKnITS.
To produce the smart textile, a digital knitting technology – which MIT says is capable of rapid prototyping – wove two layers of conductive yarn which sandwich a piezoresistive knit, which changes resistance when squeezed.
This pattern is replicated throughout product designs – be it a garment (like a sock or shoe) or an accessory (like a mat). It is where the functional fibres intersect that they create a pressure sensor that, within trials, has proven effective in measuring a user’s movement.
To translate movement into data, the academics developed a system that displays pressure sensor data as a heat map. Those images are fed to a machine-learning model, which is trained to detect the posture, pose, or motion of the user based on the heat map image.
During trials, the system detected a user standing on a sensor-laden mat and the yoga poses they went on to make with an accuracy of more than 99 percent. Within socks and shoes, the smart textiles can relay data on a wearer’s gait, which could help in either a sporting or rehabilitation setting.
“With digital knitting, you have this freedom to design your own patterns and also integrate sensors within the structure itself, so it becomes seamless and comfortable, and you can develop it based on the shape of your body,” commented Irmandy Wicaksono, a Research Assistant in the MIT Media Lab and lead author of a paper presenting 3DKnITS.
Looking ahead, the researchers are said to be exploring other potential applications for the technology. Already, they’ve worked with contemporary dancers to integrate it within a carpet capable of translating steps into notes and soundscapes.
