Your New Tee Shirt Could See, Hear, and Talk to You

New fiber technology developed by MIT scientists means that our clothing could see, hear, and even talk to us.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on July 13 2010

Image from MIT

If you saw someone talking to his shirt, you’d probably think he wasn’t quite right in the head. But new fibers developed by MIT Labs could create clothing that’s far more intelligent than your average tee. These new clothes could see and hear—and even talk back.

The process for creating the high-tech fibers is similar to stretching out saltwater taffy: MIT scientists create a thick rod, called a preform, into which they place layers of graphite electrodes. The rod is heated and stretched into long strands, creating tiny fiber particles that are ultrasensitive to light and sound.

The possibilities for the new technology are nearly endless: the fibers can be used to create hidden microphones, which can be instantly converted to loudspeakers. The fibers can also be threaded into the human body to image organs, or monitor blood flow.

Currently, these smart clothes require an electric outlet, but the fibers’ inventor, Yoel Fink, claims that before long, the fabric may be able to power itself—and even provide juice to external devices.

It’s not too likely you’ll find talking clothes on the racks of your local Macy’s anytime soon, but the technology is likely to find early adopters within the U.S. Army and the medical world. In a decade or so, the technology may come to civilian clothing, and we can use our clothing to make calls instead of using cell phones.

“This is a trend that we will see more and more in the future: our clothes becoming very high-tech,” Eli Yablonovitch, a scientist who reviewed the study of the fibers, told Discovery News. “But we also have to ask ourselves if all of our clothes need a plug.”

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