MIT develops stretchable fiber computer for health monitoring

Researchers at MIT have developed a flexible fibre containing multiple tiny electronic devices, forming a self-operating, programmable computer that can track health and physical activity. The fibre includes sensors, a microcontroller, memory storage, bluetooth, optical communication systems, and a battery. Once woven into clothes, it is almost unnoticeable to the wearer.

While most wearable devices sit at specific spots like the chest, wrist, or finger, clothing covers larger areas of the body and lies close to vital organs. This makes garments an ideal way to collect and study health-related data.

The team stitched four fibre computers into a shirt and leggings, positioning them along the arms and legs. In tests, each fibre computer used a machine-learning model to independently identify exercises performed by the wearer, achieving an average accuracy of around 70%.

This innovation is the result of over ten years of research at MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), with major support from ISN. Earlier studies by the team showed how semiconductor components, memory, sensors, and other elements could be integrated into fibres and then turned into wearable fabrics.