Speak to the collar, the shirt's playing its own tune

Richard Macey
October 27, 2007

POWER walking may never be the same again. Australian researchers are developing shirts that will generate electricity whenever the wearer moves.

The shirts would directly power mobile telephones, portable music players and other small electrical appliances.

People would never again have to worry about their phones or MP3 player failing because of a flat battery, said the leader of the CSIRO project, Dr Adam Best.

The effort has been given a boost by the Defence Department awarding his team $4.4 million to show that the technology is feasible.

Dr Best, of the CSIRO's Energy Technology Division, predicted the first power shirts - or flexible integrated energy devices - could be developed within five years.

The secret behind the idea involves piezo electrical materials. "Whenever you bend or deform piezo electrical material it creates an electrical charge."

If a shirt could be woven from the fabric, the constant vibration would "produce electricity as you move".

The power would be fed into flexible batteries that would also be woven into the shirt. Appliances, including mobile phones and palm pilots could then be plugged into the shirt.

The technology could revolutionise appliances such as mobile phones. By adding printed flexible circuit boards, they, too, could be woven into clothing.

"We see no reason why you couldn't do that," said Dr Best, saying the day may not be far off when people could make phone calls simply by talking into their collars.

The flexible integrated energy device is one of eight advanced research projects chosen by the Defence Department for funding under its Defence Capability and Technology Demonstrator Program.

Dr Best predicted soldiers could use the shirts to power radios and electronic devices carried on modern battlefields.

Such smart clothing could also power "back-to-base" medical monitoring equipment used by the elderly and the ill.

While the initial Defence Department funding was only aimed at seeing whether such a shirt would work, latter research, requiring an investment partner, would seek to develop a shirt light and comfortable enough to be worn.

To be a commercial success it would have to be no heavier than a woollen jumper and would need to be washable - problems the researchers are yet to solve.

The team includes Dr Richard Helmer, of the CSIRO's textile and fibre technology division in Geelong, who has been leading another project to develop a musical shirt. The wearer only has to strum the motions, as if playing an air guitar, to beat out a tune.

"We are using some of the technology he has put into his air guitar," said Dr Best, who believed Australia was leading the world in power-shirt research. Flexible integrated energy devices would change the way people shop.

"Instead of buying that mobile phone, you would buy a funky shirt that does the same thing."

