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New study to develop smart textiles powered by body movement for
remote health monitoring
Dr Ishara Dharmasena, of the School of Mechanical, Electrical and
Manufacturing Engineering (MEME), has been appointed a Research
Fellow by the Royal Academy of Engineering and awarded funding of
£500,000 to develop a new technology that overcomes these challenges.
For the next five years, he will focus on creating sensor-containing super-
smart textiles that can be used for remote health monitoring.
Dr Dharmasena will look to make these electronically-active clothing
from textile yarns that capture energy from body movements and
generate electricity using very small power generators known as
‘Triboelectric Nanogenerators’ (TENGs).
Absorbing the movement from the body, these super-smart textiles will
not only power electronic components, but also act as self-powered
functional sensors that are able to accurately sense the movements of
targeted body parts.
This futuristic textile system will then wirelessly communicate the data to
a mobile device – resulting in a highly efficient, durable, light-weight,
wearable, low-cost rehabilitation monitoring product.
Dr Dharmasena hopes to have two fully-functioning smart textile
demonstrators at the end of the project: the first being a tight-fitting T-
shirt/base layer, and the second being a bandage that can be worn like a
normal support bandage.
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