Our body doesn’t always give the right alerts when exercising, and we can pass the point without even realizing it, increasing the risk of injuries in the case of heavier activities. For the technology of a fabric made by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich promises to issue alerts of exhaustion to its users.
The fabric is made with electronic threads, with an elastic rubber core, wrapped in a rigid, spiral wire, coated with plastic. The conductive material, as it moves, forms and stores an electric field that thickens the filament as it is stretched. From there, a sensor can then detect subtle movements, including in the electric field, detecting slower and irregular steps — to name a few signs of tiredness.
Therefore, the differences in movement and the difference in the electric field would predict fatigue. The fabric is just a prototype, and one that still needs to be tweaked and identified even more subtle signs of exhaustion.
But the fabric is a prototype. The researchers explain that there is still a need for more studies and data so that measures of exhaustion and tiredness are refined. While many sports wearables focus on providing the wearer with performance-related data, this material has safety as the ultimate goal, such as T-shirts and bras that warn of impending heart attacks. The novelty could be useful in rehabilitation medicine.