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T-shirt that can ‘hear’ your heartbeat built by MIT engineers

MIT engineers from the USA have developed a shirt that can hear and monitor your heart rate in real-time, Daily Mail reported. 

Scientists from MIT University have developed a new t-shirt that can ‘hear’ your heartbeat in real-time. The acoustic fabric of the shirt functions like a microphone by converting sound waves into mechanical vibrations. Similar to human ears, the shirt converts your heartbeat into electrical signals.

The cost of the fabric and shirt has not yet been disclosed as the idea is still in the development phase.

Forget the latest Apple Watch or Fitbit, scientists are now developing a t-shirt that can ‘hear’ your heartbeat and monitor your cardiac rhythm in real-time. The ‘acoustic fabric’ is pictured
This graphic shows how scientists have created a t-shirt that can ‘hear’ your heartbeat. It works by first converting sound into mechanical vibrations and then into electrical signals, in a way that is similar to how our ears hear

The fabric used to make the shirt is made from piezoelectric material that generates an electrical signal whenever it is bent. This property of the fabric provides the t-shirt with the means to convert sound waves into electric signals.

Lead author Wei Yan, of MIT, said that

‘This fabric can imperceptibly interface with the human skin, enabling wearers to monitor their heart and respiratory condition in a comfortable, continuous, real-time, and long-term manner.’

Yan added ‘Wearing an acoustic garment, you might talk through it to answer phone calls and communicate with others.’

The fabric’s fibre is designed from a ‘piezoelectric’ material that produces an electrical signal when bent, providing a means for the t-shirt to convert sound vibrations into electrical signals

 

The fabric (pictured) can capture sounds ranging in decibel from a quiet library to heavy road traffic, and determine the precise direction of sudden sounds like handclaps
It can also be made to generate sound, such as a recording of spoken words, that another fabric can detect

 

The engineers claim that a directional sound-sensing fabric can be helpful for those with hearing problems to tune in to a speaker amid a noisy environment.

 

Piezoelectric materials generate electrical signals in response to mechanical vibration and can be used to build sensors. A single-fibre sensor with high sensitivity and flexibility is shown

Also Read: No jeans, t-shirts: new dress code issued for male, female teachers

 

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