A process that turns ordinary clothing into biosensors

When human muscle contracts, it emits electrical signals in the form of ions.

Engineers have devised a method of taking ordinary textile made of a cotton/polyester blend and turning the fabric into sensors that measure electrical impulses generated from muscle movement.

This could become a much better solution in measuring muscle activity for physical rehabilitation or for other medical applications.

Engineers involve depositing a microscopic layer of silver over a piece of fabric to make the material conductive and therefore receive the electrical signal from the muscle.

The silver layer is applied to the fabric in a process similar to screen printing a graphic onto a T-shirt, and it's applied to just the areas of the clothing that touch the muscle being measured. Then the gold layer is deposited by an electrochemical method. The patches of sensors are then attached to wires and a portable electromyography device that measures muscle contractions.

The silver layer provides a baseline conductivity, but the gold protects the skin from the silver toxicity, improves the signal and the biocompatibility, and reduces the cost of manufacturing with gold.

A piece of clothing treated with the process through 15 washes, and they didn't affect the sensors' efficacy.

This sensor-equipped clothing is yet another example of the popular trend of wearable technologies that constantly monitor health throughout the day, such as the Apple Watch.