This Smart Fabric Can Help Athletes Improve Performance and Avoid Injuries

Athletes and fitness enthusiasts often end up with injuries, some of which can be severe enough to end a career or hobby. Many of those are obviously from significant trauma, like a football player tearing a hamstring. But the more common injuries are caused by repetitive stress that goes unnoticed. If your form is off when you’re lifting weights, you might not even realize you’re causing damage to your joints over time. But a new smart fabric sensing system developed by researchers from Dartmouth College can monitor movement and provide an opportunity for correction.

This wearable movement monitoring technology relies on inexpensive, off-the-shelf fabric that already exists. That fabric is made from a combination of nylon, elastic fibers, and yarns plated with a layer of silver to make them conductive. By measuring changes in the resistance of the fabric, the researchers were able to detect both stretching and pressure. That data can, in turn, be used to calculate the angle of the wearer’s joints. All that’s needed to collect the data is a standard microcontroller, which could potentially be as small as a button.

That fabric is also lightweight and washable, which means it’s comfortable to wear for long periods of time. That is an important factor when you consider the potential applications. A tennis player could, for example, wear a shirt made from this fabric during their matches. Then, afterwards, the data can be analyzed to improve their performance. A physical therapy patient could wear clothes made from the fabric so that their therapist can evaluate the progress they’re making. A power lifter could wear it during workouts to ensure that their form is correct in order to avoid injuries. Most importantly, the fabric is affordable and clothes made from it could be on the market relatively soon.