Smart fabric identifies objects through electrical charge

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A collaboration between Dartmouth College and Microsoft Research has resulted in a smart fabric that uses an electrical charge to identify non-metallic objects.

Known as Capacitivo, the prototype sensing device features a 12 x 12 grid of diamond-shaped electrodes made from conductive fabric attached to a cotton substrate. When an object is placed on top of the smart fabric, the system detects changes in charge caused by the electrical field of the object. This information is then cross-referenced with data stored in the system using machine learning.

In the study, which was presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2020), Capacitivo achieved 94.5 per cent accuracy when tested on 20 different objects of varying shape, size and material. According to the researchers, the smart fabric could be used to locate lost items around the home, such as a book or a pair of spectacles.

"This research has the potential to change the way people interact with computing through everyday soft objects made of fabrics," said Xing-Dong Yang, an assistant professor of computer science at Dartmouth and senior researcher for the study.

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