Knittable Sensor Could Revolutionise Bandages

Simon McMaster, a New Zealand-born inventor and chemist, has developed a new knittable, wearable sensor, which could lead to the creation of bandages that measure their own tightness. The sensor will be demonstrated for the first time in the UK at the Wearable Technology Conference and Expo in March next year.

McMaster, founding scientist of Auckland-based Footfalls and Heartbeats Ltd., the company behind the invention, says an early application for the technology is compression bandages for use on chronic leg ulcers.

“We’re in the early stages of developing a design for a bandage that can potentially measure its own tightness and convey information to medical staff by a colour change, noise or another kind of alert,” said McMaster, who claims that it can be knitted on any machine.

The technology combines mathematically determined textile structures using electrically conductive yarn to form a repeatable and sensitive sensor network.

It uses the interactions of fibres within the yarn itself, to control the electrical resistance characteristics of the sensor structure.

Original article by Kris Sangani, Engineering and Technology Magazine, March 19, 2014.