New smart fabric created to store data invisibly for you

With everything turning ‘smart’ now, scientists have created smart fabric that can store invisible data in our clothes without the use of any sensors.

Developed at the University of Washington (UW), the new fabric can store data from security codes to identification tags invisibly without the need of any on-board electronics or sensors.

The scientists were influenced by the magnetic traits of off-the-shelf conductive thread that can be manipulated to store either digital data or visual information such as numbers or letters. The data stored can be read through an inexpensive instrument called magnetometer that is embedded in smartphones and measures direction and strength of magnetic fields.

Google and Levi’s working together on smart jacket

“We are using something that already exists on a smartphone and uses almost no power, so the cost of reading this type of data is negligible,” said the senior author Shyam Gollakota.

He further explained, “This is a completely electronic-free design, which means you can iron the smart fabric or put it in the washer and dryer. You can think of the fabric as a hard disk – you’re actually doing this data storage on the clothes you’re wearing.”

UW News reported that while demonstrating an example, the scientists stored a passcode to an electronic door lock on a piece of conductive fabric sewn to a shirt cuff. The door was unlocked by waving the cuff in front of an array of magnetometers.

Even after machine washing, drying and ironing at temperatures up to 360°F, the fabric retained its data. Other accessories were also created including a tie, belt, wristband, and necklace. They too, decoded the data by swiping a smartphone across them.

Moreover, Science Daily wrote that the scientists also developed a glove with the fabric that can interact with smartphone through gestures while it’s in one’s pocket. With each gesture, a specific task can be performed such as playing or pausing music; helping us not having to constantly take out phones from our pockets.