The rigid semiconductor chips in today’s electronics will, in the future, be replaced by flexible and stretchable electronic devices, which can be embedded in almost any material imaginable. These nanotechnology-enabled electronics will also be transparent. Electronic devices like music players, sensors, remote controls, cell phones and computers will be embedded into items of our daily lives – clothing, protective garments, packaging and furniture. They could also be attached to skin or even organs. According to Kenji Hata, group leader at the Nanotube Research Center at AIST in Tsukuba, Japan, “Nanotechnology allows a novel route to materials and structures that can be used to develop human-friendly devices with realistic functions and abilities that would not be feasible by mere extension of conventional technology. Our research suggests devices that can act as part of human skin or clothing, and can therefore be used ubiquitously. We believe that such devices could eventually find a wide range of applications in recreation, virtual reality, robotics and health care.” Hata’s team has developed a new type of stretchable electronic nanomaterial consisting of aligned single-wall carbon nanotube thin films that deform when stretched. This novel strain sensor can measure and withstand strain up to 280 percent, with high durability, fast response and low creep. “These important features allow the material to be used to precisely monitor large-scale and rapid human motion, as was demonstrated by embedding various strain sensors into clothing worn over the skin then using it to detect movement, typing, breathing and speaking,” says Hata. He says there are many potential applications for such technology: “When fixed to the chest, respiration could be monitored by the upward and downward slopes of the relative resistance associated with inhalation and exhalation (chest expansion and contraction). When attached to the throat, the device monitored phonation (speech) by detecting motion of the Adam’s apple. Such devices might be useful in a breathing monitor for the early detection of sudden infant death syndrome in sleeping infants.” The article can be viewed online at the link below.
http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=20880.php