{"id":4364,"date":"2025-03-13T07:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T07:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=4364"},"modified":"2025-03-13T07:38:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T07:38:00","slug":"next-up-fiber-computers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=4364","title":{"rendered":"Next Up: Fiber Computers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By KIM BELLARD<\/p>\n

I know: you\u2019re pretty proud for being into \u201cwearables\u201d to help monitor your health and other functions. You\u2019ve got some apps on your smartphone. You use a smartwatch. Maybe you\u2019ve tried one of the many iterations of smart glasses, like Google Glass<\/a> or Meta\u2019s Ray Bans<\/a>. You were disappointed when Humane\u2019s AI pin bit the dust<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Forget all that. With fiber computing, your clothes can be your wearable.<\/p>\n

A new paper from MIT researchers<\/a> discussed the ability to use \u201csingle fiber computers\u201d that can be woven directly into clothing. According to the MIT press release<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The fiber computer contains a series of microdevices, including sensors, a microcontroller, digital memory, bluetooth modules, optical communications, and a battery, making up all the necessary components of a computer in a single elastic fiber. \u00a0<\/p>\n

It also has embedded lithium-ion batteries that power it.<\/p>\n

MIT has a lab devoted to fiber computing (fibers@mi<\/a>t), led by Professor Yoel Fink, who has been working on it for over ten years. According to its website: \u201cOur research focuses on extending the frontiers of fiber materials from optical transmission to encompass electronic, optoelectronic and even acoustic properties,\u201d with the goal of fibers that can See, Hear, Sense and Communicate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The lab has had many accomplishments, but the mismatch between the shape of a chip and the shape of a fiber became a problem. Co-lead author Nikhil Gupta, an MIT materials science and engineering graduate student explains the problem:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But we hit a wall in terms of the complexity of the devices we could incorporate into the fiber because of how we were making it. We had to rethink the whole process. At the same time, we wanted to make it elastic and flexible so it would match the properties of traditional fabrics.<\/p>\n

The solution: \u201cIn this new design, the researchers map the 2D pad alignment of each microdevice to a 3D layout using a flexible circuit board called an interposer, which they wrapped into a cylinder.\u201d Mr. Gupta says: \u201cThis advance was crucial for us in terms of being able to incorporate higher functionality computing elements, like the microcontroller and Bluetooth sensor, into the fiber.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is a machine-washable, elastic fiber that can stretch more than 60 percent without failure, Try that<\/em> with your smartwatch.<\/p>\n

These advances allow them to build these fiber computers into clothing. Each fiber computer incorporates LEDs and light sensors that enable multiple fibers in one garment to communicate, creating a textile network that can perform computation. They also have a Bluetooth communication system that can stream information wirelessly to other devices, such as a smartphone.<\/p>\n

Why clothing? Professor Fink points out:<\/p>\n

Our bodies broadcast gigabytes of data through the skin every second in the form of heat, sound, biochemicals, electrical potentials, and light, all of which carry information about our activities, emotions, and health. Unfortunately, most \u2014 if not all \u2014 of it gets absorbed and then lost in the clothes we wear. Wouldn\u2019t it be great if we could teach clothes to capture, analyze, store, and communicate this important information in the form of valuable health and activity insights?<\/p>\n

Well, they did. They added four fiber computers to a top and a pair of leggings, and had the wearer perform various exercises, such as squats, planks, arm circles, and lunges. Using a machine-learning model, each such fiber computer recognized the exercises with an average accuracy of about 70%; when the four fibers were allowed to communicate, the accuracy went up to 95%.<\/p>\n

Professor Fink says that this demonstrates \u201cthe importance of residing on multiple body areas and forming a network between autonomous fiber computers that does not need wires and interconnects.\u201d He predicts: \u201cIn the not-too-distant future, fiber computers will allow us to run apps and get valuable health care and safety services from simple everyday apparel.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll soon find out. The team is working with DARPA, the Army, and the Navy to conduct tests in the Artic. Service members will wear shirts with fiber computers in a monthlong winter study, tracking their health and activity over 1000 kilometers and an average temperature of \u2013 40F.<\/p>\n

Again, try that<\/em> with your smartwatch. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a leader with more than a decade of Arctic operational experience, one of my main concerns is how to keep my team safe from debilitating cold weather injuries \u2014 a primary threat to operators in the extreme cold,\u201d says U.S. Army Major Mathew Hefner, the commander of the project. \u201cConventional systems just don\u2019t provide me with a complete picture.We will be wearing the base layer computing fabrics on us 24\/7 to help us better understand the body\u2019s response to extreme cold and ultimately predict and prevent injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karl Friedl, U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine senior research scientist of performance physiology, says the technology may become a \u201cgamechanger for everyday lives.\u201d He goes on to add:<\/p>\n

Imagine near-term fiber computers in fabrics and apparel that sense and respond to the environment and to the physiological status of the individual, increasing comfort and performance, providing real-time health monitoring and providing protection against external threats.\u00a0Soldiers will be the early adopters and beneficiaries of this new technology, integrated with AI systems using predictive physiological models and mission-relevant tools to enhance survivability in austere environments.<\/p>\n

Professor Finks is excited: \u201cWe are excited to see glimpses of this future in the upcoming Arctic mission through our partners in the U.S. Army, Navy, and DARPA. Helping to keep our service members safe in the harshest environments is a honor and privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not quite in this future yet. The fiber computers don\u2019t have much memory or computing power, and it\u2019s not clear how they would be recharged. There are going to be real-world setbacks. Mass production and cost haven\u2019t yet been considerations. But, Professor Finks believes: \u201cThe convergence of classical fibers and fabrics with computation and machine learning has only begun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let it begin.<\/p>\n

Kim is a former emarketing exec at a major Blues plan, editor of the late & lamented\u00a0<\/em>Tincture.io<\/em><\/a>, and now regular THCB contributor<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By KIM BELLARD I know: you\u2019re pretty proud for being into \u201cwearables\u201d to help monitor your health and other functions. You\u2019ve got some apps on your smartphone. You use a smartwatch. Maybe you\u2019ve tried one of the many iterations of smart glasses, like Google Glass or Meta\u2019s Ray Bans. You were disappointed when Humane\u2019s AI…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}