MIT scientists make ‘smart’ clothes that warn when you’re getting sick

By Stephen Beech

New "smart" clothes warn the wearer when they are sickening for something.

American scientists have developed a fiber computer and networked several of them into a garment that learns to identify physical activities.

The next generation of smart clothing has been created in conjunction with the American military.

The gear has been tested by U.S. Army and Navy personnel during a month-long winter research mission to the Arctic.

Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed an autonomous programmable computer in the form of an elastic fiber, which could monitor health conditions and physical activity, alerting the wearer to potential health risks in real time.

The clothing containing the fiber computer was "comfortable" and machine washable while the fibers were nearly imperceptible to the wearer, according to findings published in the journal Nature.

Unlike on-body monitoring systems known as “wearables” - which are located at a single point such as the chest, wrist, or finger - the research team explained that fabrics have the advantage of being in contact with large areas of the body close to vital organs.

The fiber computer contains a series of microdevices - including sensors, a microcontroller, digital memory, optical communications, and a battery - making up all the necessary components of a computer in a single elastic fiber.

The researchers added four fiber computers to a top and a pair of leggings, with the fibers running along each limb.

Each fiber computer also includes a Bluetooth communication system to send data wirelessly to a device such as a smartphone, which can be read by a user.

In experiments, each independently programmable fiber computer operated a machine-learning model that was trained to recognize exercises performed by the wearer, resulting in an average accuracy of about 70%.

However, once the research team allowed the individual fiber computers to communicate among themselves, their collective accuracy increased to nearly 95%.

Study senior author Professor Yoel Fink said: “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.

“What we found is that the ability of a fiber computer to identify human activity was only about 70% accurate when located on a single limb, the arms or legs.

"However, when we allowed the fibers sitting on all four limbs to ‘vote,’ they collectively reached nearly 95% accuracy, demonstrating the importance of residing on multiple body areas and forming a network between autonomous fiber computers that does not need wires and interconnects."

The use of the fiber computer to understand health conditions and help prevent injury has undergone rigorous testing by military personnel, covering 1,000 kilometers in the Arctic amid freezing temperatures.

Dozens of base layer merino mesh shirts with fiber computers provided real-time information on the health and activity of the personnel participating in the mission, called Musk Ox II.

U.S. Army Major Mathew Hefner, commander of Musk Ox II, said: “As 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 - a primary threat to operators in the extreme cold.

"Conventional systems just don’t 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’s response to extreme cold and ultimately predict and prevent injury.”

Karl Friedl, U.S. Army senior research scientist of performance physiology, says that the MIT programmable computing fabric technology may become a “game-changer for everyday lives.”

He said: “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.

"Soldiers 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."

Fink said: “The convergence of classical fibers and fabrics with computation and machine learning has only begun.

“In 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."

He added: "Helping to keep our service members safe in the harshest environments is an honor and privilege."