Scientists have created a piece of fabric that can hear.
The new study reimagines the response of fabric to sound, however. Researchers made it out of a material that turns any movement of the fabric into an electrical signal – and it can do that with sounds.
In testing, the fabric was able to pick up a wide variety of sounds, vibrating in proportion with the noises that happened around it. “This shows that the performance of the fiber on the membrane is comparable to a handheld microphone,” said Grace Noel, a co-author on the paper.
They then wove that acoustic fabric into more traditional yarns, creating a piece of textile that could be draped and washed just like a traditional fabric.
Comments are closed.