• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Scientists Invent Fabric That Can 'Hear' Your Heartbeat

Home> News

Published 19:43 18 Mar 2022 GMT

Scientists Invent Fabric That Can 'Hear' Your Heartbeat

This fabric can detect all sorts of sounds, from the croak of a cough in a quiet library to heavy traffic.

Cameron Frew

Cameron Frew

Researchers have created an 'acoustic fabric' which can detect your heartbeat.

While all fabrics respond to sound, the vibrations are usually far too small to be picked up, measured on a scale of mere nanometers.

However, this new fibre is different: it's flexible, and when woven into a fabric, it bends with the material like seaweed on the ocean's surface, capable of capturing formerly imperceptible signals.

Advert

The acoustic fabric can detect your heartbeat.
Greg Hren/MIT

The acoustic fabric was developed by engineers at MIT, alongside collaborators from the Rhode Island School of Design.

According to an MIT news release, the fabric works similarly to a microphone, 'converting sound first into mechanical vibrations, then into electrical signals, similarly to how our ears hear'.

Its designers used a 'piezoelectric' material in the fabric which produces an electric signal when bent or mechanically deformed, in turn converting sound vibrations into electric signals.

Advert

This fabric is capable of detecting all sorts of sounds, whether it's the croak of a cough in a quiet library, or the beeping, roaring cars in heavy traffic, or even a person's heartbeat - if the fabric was woven into the shirt, that is.

The fabric would be woven into shirts and more.
Fink Lab/MIT

The team's findings with the fabric were detailed in a study published in Nature, with lead author Wei Yan hoping the material will have diverse uses.

"Wearing an acoustic garment, you might talk through it to answer phone calls and communicate with others," Yan, an assistant professor at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said.

Advert

"In addition, this fabric can imperceptibly interface with the human skin, enabling wearers to monitor their heart and respiratory condition in a comfortable, continuous, real-time, and long-term manner."

The team looked to the human auditory system for inspiration, initially trying to create a fabric 'ear'. However, 'such a fabric would have to incorporate stiff, or high-modulus, fibres to effectively convert sound waves into vibrations', the news release explains.

The fibre bends with the fabric like seaweed on the ocean’s surface.
Greg Hren/MIT

From here, the team developed a layered block of materials known as a preform, made from a piezoelectric layer in addition to ingredients to enhance the material’s vibrations in response to sound waves.

Advert

When testing its sensitivity to sound, the material 'vibrated and generated an electric current proportional to the sound played'.

"This shows that the performance of the fibre on the membrane is comparable to a handheld microphone... it feels almost like a lightweight jacket - lighter than denim, but heavier than a dress shirt," Grace Noel, a co-author on the study, said.

However, its applications could, and should go beyond clothing. "It can be integrated with spacecraft skin to listen to [accumulating] space dust, or embedded into buildings to detect cracks or strains," Yan said.

"It can even be woven into a smart net to monitor fish in the ocean. The fibre is opening widespread opportunities."

Advert

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]  

Featured Image Credit: Finke Lab/MIT

Topics: Science, Technology, Fashion

Cameron Frew
Cameron Frew

Entertainment Editor at UNILAD. 2001: A Space Odyssey is the best film ever made, and Warrior is better than Rocky. That's all you need to know.

X

@frewfilm

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

17 mins ago
an hour ago
2 hours ago
  • 17 mins ago

    Scientists explain why 'mankeeping' is the reason women are 'quiet-quitting' relationships

    It's all to do with a 'male friendship recession' where women are apparently picking up the slack...

    News
  • an hour ago

    Where to watch 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later as 28 Years Later is released

    The third instalment of the franchise hits theatres in America on June 20

    Film & TV
  • an hour ago

    Scientists issue disturbing warning with exactly how much time we have left to limit climate change

    Scientists have described it as 'crunch time' to reach a previously set target

    News
  • 2 hours ago

    Influencer found dead before husband took his own life allegedly shared disturbing Facebook post hours earlier

    Zaria Khadejah Carr allegedly made a plea before her death hours later in Georgia

    News
  • Scientists develop vaccine that could wipe out world's deadliest cancer
  • Mystery surrounding Earth's 'heartbeat' that shakes every 26 seconds has scientists baffled
  • Scientists reveal what the length of your fingers really says about you and it might be surprising
  • $1.5 billion space probe captures never before seen view of the Sun that could change everything