Wearable tech: how the human body can help power the future of smart textiles

Whether it is a T-shirt that can display changing messages or a carpet that can sense where you are standing, the future of smart textiles has often seemed rooted in science fiction. Now researchers say they have created smart fibres that can do exactly those things – and they do not even require a battery pack. Researchers in China say they have created fibre-based electronics that harness electromagnetic energy in the atmosphere, using the human body as part of the circuit. This makes a "body-coupled" fibre electronic technology that does not need electronic chips or batteries to work and which, the team say, could be used for a host of applications. "When electromagnetic energy travels through the fibre, it is converted by fibres into other forms of energy, including visible light and radio waves. So, in addition to emitting light, the fibre emits electric signals when touched by [a] human body," said Chengyi Hou, a co-author of the research from Donghua University, Shanghai.