New textiles to track medical conditionsWashington : Swedish scientists have made simple electronic circuitry using textile's threads to monitor the medical condition of those who wear the specially designed clothes.
This may sound complex, but it is a development of what already exists in the market.
In 1996, researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta in the US created a shirt studded with sensors capable of monitoring a patient's heartbeat, temperature and breathing.
Other researchers added tiny silicon chips to the textiles to create rudimentary computation.
But such devices must be sewn on or attached by some other means, leading to added expense and often making them susceptible to failures.
The computing fabrics now developed by Olle Inganäs at Linköping University in Sweden and his colleagues are waterproof, making it easier to incorporate various types of circuitry into them.
According to the online edition of science magazine AAAS, published by American Association for the Advancement of Science, Inganas' electronic circuitry finds a place in the textile's own threads.
