After more than a decade of work at the Fibers@MIT lab, researchers have fabricated an autonomous programmable fibre computer in the form of an elastic fibre, which could monitor health conditions and physical activity, alerting the wearer to potential health risks in real-time.
FIBRE COMPUTER: Unlike a wearable, the fibre computer contains a series of microdevices, including sensors, a microcontroller, digital memory, bluetooth modules, optical communications, and a battery, making up all the necessary components of a computer in a single elastic fibre.
- It uses a type of thermoplastic elastomer that is several times more flexible than the thermoplastics used previously and this enabled a machine-washable, elastic fibre that can stretch more than 60% without failure.
- The clothing thus made was comfortable with the fibres nearly imperceptible to the wearer.
- Once the fibre computer is fabricated, the researchers use a braiding technique to cover the fibre with traditional yarns, such as polyester, merino wool, nylon, and even silk.
- In addition to gathering data on the human body using sensors, each fibre computer incorporates LEDs and light sensors that enable multiple fibres in one garment to communicate, creating a textile network that can perform computation.
- Each fibre computer also includes a bluetooth communication system to send data wirelessly to a device like a smartphone, which can be read by a user.
- The researchers leveraged these communication systems to create a textile network by sewing four fibre computers into a garment, one in each sleeve. Each fibre ran an independent neural network that was trained to identify exercises like squats, planks, arm circles, and lunges.
- In the not-too-distant future, the fibre computers will allow running of apps to get valuable health care and safety services from simple everyday apparel.
THE PROCESS: The researchers added four fibre computers to a top and a pair of leggings, with the fibres running along each limb. In the experiments, each independently programmable fibre computer operated a machine-learning model that was trained to autonomously recognise exercises performed by the wearer, resulting in an average accuracy of about 70%.
- Once the individual fibre computers communicated among themselves, their collective accuracy increased to nearly 95%.
REAL-WORLD TEST: The use of the fibre computer to understand health conditions and help prevent injury is undergoing a significant real-world test as well.
- US Army and Navy service members are conducting a monthlong winter research mission to the Arctic, covering 1,000 kilometers in average temperatures of -40 degrees Fahrenheit. Dozens of base layer merino mesh shirts with fibre computers will be providing real-time information on the health and activity of the individuals participating on this mission, called Musk Ox II.
RESEARCH TEAM: Yoel Fink, a professor of materials science and engineering at MIT, a principal investigator in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) and the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN), and senior author of a paper on the research, is joined on the paper by co-lead authors Nikhil Gupta, an MIT materials science and engineering graduate student; Henry Cheung MEng ’23; and Syamantak Payra ’22, currently a graduate student at Stanford University; John Joannopoulos, the Francis Wright Professor of Physics at MIT and director of the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies; Professor Anais Missakian from Rhode Island School of Design; Juliette Marion as well as others at MIT, Rhode Island School of Design, and Brown University.
SUPPORT: This research was supported, in part, by the US Army Research Office Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology (ISN), the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the US National Science Foundation, the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Fellowship, the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation Fellowship for New Americans, the Stanford-Knight Hennessy Scholars Program, and the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.
WHAT THEY SAID
Our bodies broadcast gigabytes of data through the skin every second in the form of heat, sound, biochemicals, electrical potentials, and light, all of which carry information about our activities, emotions, and health. Unfortunately, most — if not all — of it gets absorbed and then lost in the clothes we wear. Wouldn’t it be great if we could teach clothes to capture, analyze, store, and communicate this important information in the form of valuable health and activity insights?
— Yoel Fink (Senior Author)
Professor Materials Science and Engineering / Principal Investigator
MIT / Research Laboratory of Electronics and Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies
As a leader with more than a decade of Arctic operational experience, one of my main concerns is how to keep my team safe from debilitating cold weather injuries — a primary threat to operators in the extreme cold. Conventional systems just don’t provide me with a complete picture. We will be wearing the base layer computing fabrics on us 24/7 to help us better understand the body’s response to extreme cold and ultimately predict and prevent injury.
— Major Mathew Hefner
Commander
Musk Ox II
The MIT programmable computing fabric technology may become a gamechanger for everyday lives. Imagine near-term fiber computers in fabrics and apparel that sense and respond to the environment and to the physiological status of the individual, increasing comfort and performance, providing real-time health monitoring and providing protection against external threats. Soldiers will be the early adopters and beneficiaries of this new technology, integrated with AI systems using predictive physiological models and mission-relevant tools to enhance survivability in austere environments.
— Karl Friedl
Senior Research Scientist, Performance Physiology
US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine
