Over the past decade, wearable technology such as smart wristbands, watches, rings, and patches have gained immense popularity. According to The Economist, smartwatches are catching on as fast as early mobile phones in the United States, and the most recent study on wearables estimates that about one in four Americans owns a smartwatch or fitness tracker. Wearables have successfully entered the mainstream, and their popularity doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. In 2021, the global wearables market was valued at $116 billion, and analysts forecast it will grow to $265 billion by 2026. The success of these devices is primarily due to the insights they offer users about their health.

Levi's launched a new denim smart jacket with Google's Project Jacquard technology. The Trucker Jacket allows users to interact with an Android device with a gesture or touch to their sleeve. Jacquard is a Google project built to experiment with fiber electronics. The Trucker Jacket looks like an average jean jacket but it contains a small electronic tag which connects to a section of conductive fibers, all built into the sleeve. The tag connects by Bluetooth to an Android smartphone, and the conductive fibers act as a touchpad. The Jacquard app lets users determine what the four different gestures, brushing in, brushing out, double-tapping, and covering the area, do.

By Laure-Anne Pessina and Nicola Nosengo Scientists at EPFL have developed a tiny pump that could play a big role in the development of autonomous soft robots, lightweight exoskeletons and smart clothing. Flexible, silent and weighing only one gram, it is poised to replace the rigid, noisy and bulky pumps currently used. The scientists' work has just been published in Nature. Soft robots have a distinct advantage over their rigid forebears: they can adapt to complex environments, handle fragile objects and interact safely with humans. Made from silicone, rubber or other stretchable polymers, they are ideal for use in rehabilitation exoskeletons – such as the ones being developed in the NCCR Robotics "Wearable Robotics" research line – and robotic clothing.

Three independent groups of researchers have designed powerful artificial muscles that are around 100 times stronger than ours. The synthetic muscles are are designed around coiled or coiling fibres that can stretch and contract just like their natural counterparts. The muscle designs could have various applications -- from developing smart clothing that changes in response to the weather, to prosthetic limbs and robots. Three independent groups of researchers have designed powerful artificial muscles that are around 100 times stronger than ours. The same basic principle underpins the brawny robots developed by each research team -- that coiled materials can stretch just like natural muscles.