How smart are your clothes? And how can their future intelligence impact your health?
As fitness trackers and virtual reality devices become increasingly complex, yet smaller and accessible, Ontario researchers are working on making these devices even more advanced.
Wearable technology and cyborgs are up for discussion during the next Partners in Research Live Event, co-organized by Research Matters. The web panel takes place on Wednesday, April 26 from 12-12:45 p.m., and is free and open to the public. Questions can be submitted live within the panel or emailed in advance to liveevent@pirweb.org.
The panel includes three researchers from Western University and the University of Windsor discussing their research on smart devices and materials that can one day be used for surgery, flexible signage, surgically implanted and wearable sensors, and artificial nerves, skin, and muscles.
Western University’s Ana Luisa Trejos examines the design, integration, and evaluation of mechatronic devices and systems for surgery, therapy, and rehabilitation. She researches the development of smart devices for minimally invasive surgery and wearable technology for the treatment of chronic pain.
Simon Rondeau-Gagne at the University of Windsor explores the next frontier of electronics, experimenting with stretchable materials. His research team has already been successful in creating a polymer that can be “re-healed†with heat and wants to develop self-healing materials that don’t require an outside stimulus.
Rondeau-Gagne is working with University of Windsor’s Tricia Carmichael to integrate these materials into stretchable electronics, using her expertise in the field. Carmichael’s research team recently created a new type of clear rubber, impermeable to gases, that can be used for displays. The ultimate goal for Rondeau-Gagne and Carmichael is to find a material that is stretchable, can take repeated use, self-repairs, and handles heat produced by the transistors and circuitry embedded in it.
While smart clothing can monitor the body’s condition in real-time—particularly helpful for elder care—the researchers also see stretchable electronics helping to restore a damaged spinal cord, or to enable car doors to self-repair after being dented.
Register for Wednesday’s Live Event here.
The post Researchers talk wearable tech, cyborgs at upcoming web panel appeared first on Research Matters.
