From the line: laura thomas
Newswise – Everyday clothing may soon be able to capture and record body movements, according to new research published by the Universities of Bristol and Bath.
Harmless low voltage is passed through conductive threads that are sewn into the seams of the garment to create an electrical circuit. Their resistance varies with the wearer’s body movement. The work opens up new possibilities for creating digital clothing that senses and captures movements far more accurately than using current phones and smart watches.
The paper, presented today (3 July) at the Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) conference in Copenhagen, lays the foundation for e-textile designers and textile manufacturers to create cutting-edge garments that can enhance exercise, physiotherapy and rehabilitation.
Professor Mike Fraser of University of Bristol Computer Science School commented: “We are excited by the opportunity for garment manufacturers to apply our designs in sewing sleeves and other garments.
“We have shown that common overlocks can do a good job of sensing seam movement in standard garment manufacturing. This design avoids the need for a separate power source by combining the seam with a charging coil, wirelessly drawing energy from the mobile phone carried in the pocket.
“This means that advanced motion sensing garments can be created without changes to existing manufacturing processes.
“We have also shown that smartphone apps using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can use this movement data to match body movements to specific postures or gestures, such as physiotherapeutic exercises.”
The team has produced a short film for the conference explaining how the technology works.
paper:
‘Seamsleeve: Strong Arm Movement Sensing through Powered Stitching’ by Olivia Ruston, Advait Sharma and Mike Fraser in Proceedings of the Conference on Designing Interactive Systems 2024, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Video:
Seamsleeve: Strong Arm Movement Sensing Through Powered Stitching (youtube.com)
Credit: Olivia Ruston
Contact: Laura Thomas
(email protected)
07977983814
