3 Questions: The rapidly unfolding future of smart fabrics
In an opinion piece published in the journal Matter, members of the Fibers@MIT research group recently laid out a detailed vision for how the rapidly growing field of advanced fibers and fabrics could transform many aspects of our lives. For example, “smart clothing” might continuously monitor temperature, heart rate, and other vital signs, then analyze the data and give warnings of potential health conditions. Headed by Professor Yoel Fink, the group is developing fibers and fabrics with advanced computational properties. MIT News asked PhD student Gabriel Loke, who was the article’s lead author, along with Fink and six others, to elaborate on the team’s outlook. Q: The paper you just published describes a vision for a fabric computer. Could such computers help to address a pandemic situation like the one we confront now? A: The current pandemic has revealed the need for new paradigms to assess the health of large populations in...