Flexible fibre sensor paves the way for truly smart textiles

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Smart textile technology developed by a research group in Switzerland could be used to develop everything from intelligent clothing to hospital bed sheets able to monitor a patient’s movements.  

Developed by a team at EPFL in Lausanne, the innovation is based on a specially developed sensor that can simultaneously detect different kinds of fabric deformation like stretching, pressure and torque.

The flexible fibre-shaped sensors developed by the group work in a very different way from conventional sensors. "Our technology works similar to a radar, but it sends out electrical impulses instead of electromagnetic waves," explained doctoral assistant Andreas Leber. "The system measures the time between when a signal is sent out and when it's received, and uses that to determine the exact location, type and intensity of deformation."

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The new fibre sensor has a number of advantages over conventional sensors which are fragile and break easily, which would be required in high numbers to cover a large area of fabric, and which are typically only able to detect one kind of deformation.

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