Power Dressing - Cloth Can Listen
Scientists in the United States have created a cloth that gives a whole new meaning to the phrase power dressing. The team, led by Professor Yoel Fink of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has created a type of functional fibre that can hear and emit noise.
The new fibers are based on a similar plastic to that used in microphones. However, the researchers manipulated the fluorine content to ensure its molecules stayed lopsided. That imbalance makes the plastic piezoelectric, meaning it changes shape when an electric field is applied.
If you connected them to a power supply and applied a sinusoidal current, then it would vibrate. And if you make it vibrate at audible frequencies and put it close to your ear, you could actually hear different notes or sounds coming out of it.
