Motion-Sensing Cotton Dyes

If there's a downside to wearable devices, it's that they're easy to spot, but the Cambridge Graphene Centre and Jiangnan University have developed a new technology that could turn wearables invisible. Rather than a wristband or even a small chip hidden in clothing, the Cambridge Graphene Centre's new wearable technology is the material of the clothing itself. Specifically, the researchers have developed a way to turn cotton into a motion sensor through the use of graphene.

The team created the graphene textiles by modifying flakes of graphene so that they would firmly stick to cotton fibers, in much the same way as dye. This graphene ink subsequently turns the cotton into a conductive textile that can be used to create smart clothing.