Researchers have developed new motion sensors that could herald a near future of ubiquitous, fully integrated and affordable wearable technology.\u201cFor sensor technology, you need it to be flexible, you need it to be affordable and you need it to be scalable,\u201d said Richard Liang, director of the High-Performance Materials Institute and professor at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis new technology is versatile and the sensors are affordable to print. It\u2019s a big innovation that presents many possibilities down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a paper, published in the journal Materials and Design, engineers from FSU\u2019s High-Performance Materials Institute, in collaboration with scientists from Institut National des Sciences Appliqu\u00e9es in Lyon, France, detail the properties and cost-effective manufacturing process of an advanced series of motion sensors made using buckypaper\u2014razor thin, flexible sheets of pure, durable carbon nanotubes.<\/p>\n
The low-profile design could be integrated into bedsheets to monitor quality of sleep, shoes to track step count and posture or workout clothes to measure intensity of exercise.<\/p>\n
Researchers also foresee potential applications beyond the realm of wearable technology. In the field of soft robotics, the material could facilitate advances in the production of responsive, self-correcting artificial muscles, the researchers said.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the scalable sensors represent another step toward the long-predicted future of an \u201cinternet of things,\u201d where virtually all of an individual\u2019s computers, devices, garments, furniture and appliances are digitally connected to freely exchange information in the cloud.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost projects don\u2019t have this many possible applications. This material could be used in structural health monitoring, wearable technology and everything in between. I\u2019m excited because this is something that can affect a lot of people in their everyday lives,\u201d said the lead author of the study Joshua DeGraff.<\/p>\n
The novel sensor structure combines a strip of seven micron-thin bucky paper with silver ink electrodes printed from a common, commercially available ink-jet printer.<\/p>\n
While the technology might not be ready for prime time quite yet, researchers are energised by its promising future.<\/p>\n
These new buckypaper sensors represent a marked improvement on current industry standards, with most sensors being either too crude or too inflexible to reliably monitor complex structures like the human body, the researchers added.<\/p>\n
IANS<\/p>\n
Picture courtesy: Alamy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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