Smart fabric lets you know when your body is starting to get tired

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich have developed a fabric that can identify movements and show signs of fatigue to its wearers when used to make clothing such as sports trousers and shorts. The work on the prototype was published in the journal Advanced Materials.

Have you ever thought about walking or working in a service that requires physical exertion and getting an alert on your cell phone that you are tired and better to take a break before getting injured?

The smart fabric is produced with threads containing an elastic and conductive rubber core, surrounded by a stiff, spiral thread, covered with a thin layer of plastic. Both wires are conductors.

As the device moves, an electric field is created and stored. This fibrous component has a special property: it thickens when stretched.

Thanks to this special feature, the loads generated are measured by a very sensitive sensor that can detect even small movements.

But how can the cloth tell if someone is tired?

The ability to tell if someone is exhausted is measured by the difference in the electric field produced by stretching and contracting the fabric, for example, during a walk.

In the tests, the researchers noticed that as the participants began to show signs of fatigue, the steps became slower, shorter, and irregular.

These differences in motion and the difference in the electrical field produced as a result are indicative for estimating fatigue.

But fabric is a prototype. The researchers explain that more studies and data are needed to refine measures of fatigue and fatigue.