A recent paper in Nature has demonstrated that electronic textiles can be made to detect many different types of contact in one. Researchers from China have created a new technique to spin fibres called silk fibroin-based ionic hydrogel (SIH) fibres, which electronically respond in characteristic ways when they are in contact with heat, water and human touch. Starting with silk cocoons and various liquid baths, Yingying Zhang and colleagues used a continuous wet spinning method to create the fibres and then move them into a textile that was electrically conductive. In a new paper in Nature Communications, they demonstrate the typical electrical responses that the textile has to fire, water and human touch. They say the woven textiles – which are transparent or translucent in appearance – can specifically pinpoint finger touch, allowing a garment itself to become a human-computer interface.

source: Lu, H., Zhang, Y., Zhu, M. et al. Intelligent perceptual textiles based on ionic-conductive and strong silk fibers. Nat Commun 15, 3289 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47665-y