• Energy generating fiber developed uses piezoelectricity to emit and detect sound

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    Maybe a shirt that can sing, hear and generate electricity in the future isn’t a sci-fi dream after all, taken that a few research scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new fiber, with an ability to detect and create sound! At MIT’s Research Lab of Electronics, Professor Yoel Fink and his team came up with these fibers after years of development and work. For them perhaps, the fibers we use today weren’t interesting enough, leading to the creation of this. These fabrics can interact with the environment. The fibers are composed of several different materials which maintain their integrity through the heating and stretching process, unlike perform made optical fibers.


    The fiber core is made of a plastic that uses piezoelectricity and changes shape when exposed to an electric field and generates electricity when under mechanical strain. Connecting the fibers to a power supply applied sinusoidal current cause vibrations which are audible. They can also detect sound, measure pressure and flow. The future of textiles is here.
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    [Ecouterre]

    Posted in Topics:Alternative Energy, Tags: , on July 14, 2010