Power up your health with self-sustaining electronics

Breakthrough in smart fabric for sensing and energy harvesting

By Media Relations

Imagine a coat that captures solar energy to keep you cozy on a chilly winter walk, or a shirt that can monitor your heart rate and temperature. Picture clothing athletes can wear to track their performance without the need for bulky battery packs.

University of Waterloo researchers have developed a smart fabric with these remarkable capabilities. The fabric has the potential for energy harvesting, health monitoring and movement tracking applications.

The new fabric can convert body heat and solar energy into electricity, potentially enabling continuous operation with no need for an external power source. Different sensors monitoring temperature, stress and more can be integrated into the material.

It can detect temperature changes and a range of other sensors to monitor pressure, chemical composition and more. One promising application is smart face masks that can track breath temperature and rate and detect chemicals in breath to help identify viruses, lung cancer and other conditions.

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