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MIT’s “Smart Socks” can vantage of digital knitting technology, en
predict wearer’s posture ables rapid prototyping and can be easily
scaled up for large-scale manufacturing,
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Using a novel says Irmandy Wicaksono, a research assis-
fabrication process, MIT research- tant in the MIT Media Lab and lead author
ers have produced smart textiles that of a paper presenting 3DKnITS.
snugly conform to the body so they
can sense the wearer’s posture and Many applications
motions. The technique could have many applica-
tions, especially in health care and reha-
Incorporate a special type of plastic bilitation.
By incorporating a special type of plastic
yarn and using heat to slightly melt it — a For example, it could be used to produce
process called thermoforming — the re- smart shoes that track the gait of some-
searchers were able to greatly improve the one who is learning to walk again after an
precision of pressure sensors woven into injury, or socks that monitor pressure on a
multilayered knit textiles, which they call diabetic patient’s foot to prevent the for-
3DKnITS. mation of ulcers.
“With digital knitting, you have this free-
dom to design your own patterns and also
integrate sensors within the structure it-
self, so it becomes seamless and comfort-
able, and you can develop it based on the
shape of your body,” Wicaksono says.
The research will be presented at the IEEE
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Soci-
ety conference.
“PKG material Solution provider”
Work began in late ‘90s
The new socks are called “3DKnITS” (MIT) ( Wafer, LF (Etched/ Premold), Ceramic parts, Packaging accessories )
“Some of the early pioneering work on
They used this process to create a “smart” smart fabrics happened at the Media Lab
shoe and mat, and then built a hardware in the late ’90s. The materials, embed-
and software system to measure and in- dable electronics, and fabrication machines
terpret data from the pressure sensors in have advanced enormously since then,”
real time. co-author Prof. Joseph A. Paradiso says.
Machine learning “It’s a great time to see our research re-
The machine-learning system predicted turning to this area, for example through
motions and yoga poses performed by an projects like Irmandy’s — they point at an
individual standing on the smart textile exciting future where sensing and func-
mat with about 99 percent accuracy. tions diffuse more fluidly into materials
and open up enormous possibilities.”
Their fabrication process, which takes ad- next page
