In the clay-animated movie, “The Wrong Trousers,” a pair of pants allows people to walk on walls and ceilings.
This film helped bring an idea to life: that robots in clothes could be beneficial for humans. Inspired by “The Wrong Trousers,” researchers in England made “The Right Trousers”, which were a pair of pants that had tiny electrical pumps that forced air into tiny tubes that could help the elderly and disabled people do things like standing up or improving blood circulation.
Now in labs across the world, material scientists, computer programmers, and fabric designers are working to create clothes like “The Right Trousers” to improve daily life or keep us healthy.
“We’re sort of at the pre-iPhone announcement [stage],” said Yoel Fink, a materials science professor at MIT. “It’s very, very exciting.”
Researchers in Australia made robotic textile fibers in June, which can make fabric move automatically. And just last year, MIT scientists fabricated computer programmable threads and built fiber batteries that were made from battery gels that could be inserted into clothing and power robotic textiles. The intelligence community even announced that they would be making specialized clothes for soldiers and spies soon.
Researchers say that clothing is entering a new era, where clothing acts more like a computer than fabric, sensing and reacting to your body movements and figuring out how to help. We can expect tons of other things from clothes in the future too, like trousers that assist the elderly, or athletic socks that increase blood flow.
In the past few years, companies have released clothes that can connect to cell phones. Google has partnered with brands like Levi’s, Yves Saint Laurent, and Adidas to create clothes with built-in sensors, allowing customers to do things like swiping their sleeves to play music.
But people are making even more. At the University of New South Wales in Australia, a senior lecturer named Than Nho Do has led his team to try and create shape-shifting fabrics. He stated that his team made tiny silicon tubes, similar to the size of yarn and inspired by muscle fibers, that can be weaved into sheets of fabric. These tubes, if triggered by some kind of stimulation, can take various programmed shapes.
However, there are still problems with this technology. The team must make the tubes even smaller for them to weave between fabrics easily. The team wants the tubes to have a diameter of 0.1 mm.
But to bring out the shapeshifting power in clothes, we need literal programming inside of the fabrics. They need to register information that the human skin gives off, absorb that information, and give the appropriate response.
Fink and other MIT researchers have made fibers with hundreds of silicone microchips that transmit signals. These are essential if, one day, clothes are going to track things like heart rate or foot swelling. And even better, the fabric will look exactly like the things we all wear today.
There are some more problems to look forward to, however. Researchers and scientists will have to find a way to make these clothes strong enough to withstand many cycles in the wash. Another problem has shown up too. Weighed down by the technology and other things, the clothing may be uncomfortable to wear or difficult to put on or remove. Researchers will have to find a way to make the clothing lightweight.
“Recent breakthroughs,” said Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, a professor of mechanical engineering at Yale University, “point toward a not-so-distant future where smart textiles will be a part of our everyday wardrobe.”
Source:
The Washington Post
Shapeshifting, robotic clothes could help people stand up – The Washington Post.pdf
This film helped bring an idea to life: that robots in clothes could be beneficial for humans. Inspired by “The Wrong Trousers,” researchers in England made “The Right Trousers”, which were a pair of pants that had tiny electrical pumps that forced air into tiny tubes that could help the elderly and disabled people do things like standing up or improving blood circulation.
Now in labs across the world, material scientists, computer programmers, and fabric designers are working to create clothes like “The Right Trousers” to improve daily life or keep us healthy.
“We’re sort of at the pre-iPhone announcement [stage],” said Yoel Fink, a materials science professor at MIT. “It’s very, very exciting.”
Researchers in Australia made robotic textile fibers in June, which can make fabric move automatically. And just last year, MIT scientists fabricated computer programmable threads and built fiber batteries that were made from battery gels that could be inserted into clothing and power robotic textiles. The intelligence community even announced that they would be making specialized clothes for soldiers and spies soon.
Researchers say that clothing is entering a new era, where clothing acts more like a computer than fabric, sensing and reacting to your body movements and figuring out how to help. We can expect tons of other things from clothes in the future too, like trousers that assist the elderly, or athletic socks that increase blood flow.
In the past few years, companies have released clothes that can connect to cell phones. Google has partnered with brands like Levi’s, Yves Saint Laurent, and Adidas to create clothes with built-in sensors, allowing customers to do things like swiping their sleeves to play music.
But people are making even more. At the University of New South Wales in Australia, a senior lecturer named Than Nho Do has led his team to try and create shape-shifting fabrics. He stated that his team made tiny silicon tubes, similar to the size of yarn and inspired by muscle fibers, that can be weaved into sheets of fabric. These tubes, if triggered by some kind of stimulation, can take various programmed shapes.
However, there are still problems with this technology. The team must make the tubes even smaller for them to weave between fabrics easily. The team wants the tubes to have a diameter of 0.1 mm.
But to bring out the shapeshifting power in clothes, we need literal programming inside of the fabrics. They need to register information that the human skin gives off, absorb that information, and give the appropriate response.
Fink and other MIT researchers have made fibers with hundreds of silicone microchips that transmit signals. These are essential if, one day, clothes are going to track things like heart rate or foot swelling. And even better, the fabric will look exactly like the things we all wear today.
There are some more problems to look forward to, however. Researchers and scientists will have to find a way to make these clothes strong enough to withstand many cycles in the wash. Another problem has shown up too. Weighed down by the technology and other things, the clothing may be uncomfortable to wear or difficult to put on or remove. Researchers will have to find a way to make the clothing lightweight.
“Recent breakthroughs,” said Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, a professor of mechanical engineering at Yale University, “point toward a not-so-distant future where smart textiles will be a part of our everyday wardrobe.”
Source:
The Washington Post
Shapeshifting, robotic clothes could help people stand up – The Washington Post.pdf
