Textile embedded strain sensor makes it through the wash

The research is published in Nature. In the paper the team said the sleeve demonstration 'shows the potential of the strain-mediated contact in anisotropically resistive structures (SCARS) technology for the development of unobtrusive, wearable biomechanical feedback systems and human–computer interfaces.'

Flexible fibre sensor paves the way for truly smart textiles

Stretchy but tough fibres have potential for robotics and textiles

"Current soft strain gauges are really sensitive but also really fragile," said Oluwaseun Araromi, a Research Associate in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering at SEAS (John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) and the Wyss Institute and first author of the paper. "The problem is that we're working in an oxymoronic paradigm - highly sensitivity sensors are usually very fragile and very strong sensors aren't usually very sensitive. So, we needed to find mechanisms that could give us enough of each property."

In the end, the researchers created a design likened to a Slinky.