MIT researchers are developing hearing and singing fibers

Yoel Fink and his team at the MIT’s Research Lab of Electronics are developing a new digitally inspired fiber which can detect and produce sound. This acoustic fiber, which picks up sound and can act as a speaker, is made using piezoelectric microphone (plastic commonly used in microphones), which changes shape when an electric field is applied to it. This plastic contains graphite and on heating the conducting plastic maintains higher viscosity, yielding a thicker fluid than metal. This may sound simple, but the entire process of reaching the ultimate fabric may just take longer. Yet the researchers have figured out the possible applications for the fabric, which they believe could range from use in wearable microphones and biological sensors to high-res sonar imaging systems or musical clothing.

hearing and singing fabric mit

Via: Talk2myShirt/UberGizmo