Fibers That Can Hear, Sing, Generate Electricity

MIT Scientists Create Fibers That Can Hear, Sing, Generate Electricity
by Bridgette Meinhold, 07/13/10




Research scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are singing a new tune with a new type of interactive fiber that has the ability to detect and create sound. For associate professor Yoel Fink and his team at MIT’s Research Lab of Electronics, the threads used in textiles and even optical fibers are too passive to be truly useful. It may have taken a decade, but the researchers have finally developed a far more sophisticated version, one that enables fabrics to interact with their environment.


SOUND OFF

Featured in the August issue of Nature, the acoustic fibers have innumerable potential applications, from microphone-like clothes that capture speech or monitor bodily functions to microscopic filaments that can measure blood flow or brain pressure.

Unlike regular optical fibers, which are made from a “preform” (a large cylinder, comprising a single material, that is heated up, stretched, then cooled), the fibers in Fink’s lab are composed of several different materials, all of which must maintain their integrity through the heating and stretching process.

more

http://www.ecouterre.com/20221/mit-scientists-create-fibers-that-can-hear-sing-generate-electricity/

:evilgrin:

This is Andrew Lloyd Weber's dream. He can finally fire the actors and just let the costumes tour.

Saturday Night Live nailed it years ago.

Elvis Presley's Coat:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7595102238327850565#