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Home > Press > Threads that sense how and when you move? New technology makes it possible: Engineers created thread sensors that can be attached to skin to measure movement in real time, with potential implications for tracking health and performance
Scanning electron microscopy of carbon ink-coated threads. Straight thread on left. Bending the coated threads creates strain (right), which changes their electrical conductivity - a quantity that can used to calculate the degree of deformation (scale bar 200 microns)
CREDIT
Yiwen Jiang, Tufts University
Abstract:
Engineers at Tufts University have created and demonstrated flexible thread-based sensors that can measure movement of the neck, providing data on the direction, angle of rotation and degree of displacement of the head. The discovery raises the potential for thin, inconspicuous tatoo-like patches that could, according to the Tufts team, measure athletic performance, monitor worker or driver fatigue, assist with physical therapy, enhance virtual reality games and systems, and improve computer generated imagery in cinematography. The technology, described today in Scientific Reports, adds to a growing number of thread-based sensors developed by Tufts engineers that can be woven into textiles, measuring gases and chemicals in the environment or metabolites in sweat.