Researchers Eye Embroidery as Low-Cost Solution for Making Wearable Electronics
hubie writes:
Researchers Eye Embroidery as Low-Cost Solution for Making Wearable Electronics:
Embroidering power-generating yarns onto fabric allowed researchers to embed a self-powered, numerical touch-pad and movement sensors into clothing. The technique offers a low-cost, scalable potential method for making wearable devices.
"Our technique uses embroidery, which is pretty simple - you can stitch our yarns directly on the fabric," said the study's lead author Rong Yin, assistant professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science at North Carolina State University. "During fabric production, you don't need to consider anything about the wearable devices. You can integrate the power-generating yarns after the clothing item has been made."
[...] The researchers relied on a method of generating electricity called the "triboelectric effect," which involves harnessing electrons exchanged by two different materials, like static electricity. [...]
"You can embroider our yarns onto clothes, and when you move, it generates an electrical signal, and those signals can be used as a sensor," Yin said. "When we put the embroidery in a shoe, if you are running, it generates a higher voltage than if you were just walking. When we stitched numbers onto fabric, and press them, it generates a different voltage for each number. It could be used as an interface."
Since textile products will inevitably be washed, they tested the durability of their embroidery design in a series of washing and rubbing tests. After hand washing and rinsing the embroidery with detergent, and drying it in an oven, they found no difference or a slight increase in voltage. [...]
Journal Reference:
Yu Chen, Erdong Chen, Zihao Wang, et al., Flexible, durable and washable triboelectric yarn and embroidery for self-powered sensing and human-machine interaction, Nano Energy, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2022.107929
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