Acoustic fabrics

An MIT team has designed an “acoustic fabric,” woven with a fiber that is designed from a “piezoelectric” material that produces an electrical signal when bent or mechanically deformed, providing a means for the fabric to convert sound vibrations into electrical signals. Image: Greg Hren

The team wove the fiber with yarns to produce panels of drapable, machine-washable fabric. Image: Greg Hren

The acoustic fiber can be woven with conventional yarns using a traditional loom. Image: Courtesy of the researchers

In addition to wearable hearing aids, clothes that communicate, and garments that track vital signs, acoustic fabrics serve as dust-sensing spacecraft skin, and crack-detecting building coverings.

Two panels of acoustic fabric sewed to the back of a dress shirt are able to determine the direction of sudden sounds such as handclaps.