Photo: UBCO

Forget the smart watch. Bring on the smart shirt.

Researchers at UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering have developed a low-cost sensor that can be interlaced into textiles and composite materials. While the research is still new, the sensor may pave the way for smart clothing that can monitor human movement.

The embedded microscopic sensor is able to recognize motion through the stretching of the woven yarns that are treated with graphene nanoplatelets that can read the body’s activity, explains Prof. Mina Hoorfar.

“Microscopic sensors are changing the way we monitor machines and humans,” says Hoorfar, lead researcher at the Advanced Thermo-Fluidic Lab at UBC’s Okanagan campus. “Combining the shrinking of technology along with improved accuracy, the future is very bright in this area.”

This ‘shrinking technology’ uses a phenomenon called piezo-resistivity, an electromechanical response of a material when it is under strain. These tiny sensors have shown a great promise in detecting human movements and can be used for heart rate monitoring or temperature control.

The idea of clothing that can tell the user when to hydrate or rest could change the athletics industry.

The low-cost, stretchable sensors can also detect deformations at inaccessible places within composite laminates, says Prof. Abbas Milani, director of the UBC Materials and Manufacturing Research Institute.

With some refinement, it could be of use in the aircraft or automotive manufacturing industries.

“Integrating sensor technologies ... is becoming a real game-changer in the emerging era of smart manufacturing and current automated industry trends," says Milani.