Feng se comes from Aofei Temple
Qubits reports | Official account QbitAI
Using a mobile phone as a car key and using Apple Pay induction to pay, do you not feel strange anymore?
But in the future, you may not even need to pay your phone to complete these operations:
You can complete the payment with a wave of the sleeve, open the door and sit in to start the car!
The premise is that you only need to wear clothes, a dress with NFC function.
Yes, that's right, a recent University of California study successfully enabled wearers to digitally interact with nearby NFC devices by integrating advanced magnetic metamaterials into everyday clothing.
△ The relevant research has been published in the Nature sub-journal
Moreover, compared to the traditional NFC function, which can only take effect within 10cm, such clothes have a signal within 1.2 meters.
Wow, is this the welfare of lazy or forgetful human beings?
Add NFC to everyday clothing
NFC, the full name of near-field communication, needless to say, at least everyone has used to brush the access control and take the subway.
This wireless communication technology is cheap, light in weight and long in life, making it ideal for use on wearable devices.
Flexible magnetic sensing elements can be placed on clothing and these elements can be tuned to the NFC band.
The starting point of this researcher is to establish a whole-body intelligent connection on the human body, so it is also necessary to arrange wireless sensors (S1, S2, S3) in different places for signal collection and transmission to form a magnetic induction network.
This allows the NFC function to extend the signal range of only 10 cm to 4 feet, or about 1.2 meters.
It sounds like a difficult implementation, but there are three problems that everyone must be concerned about: magnetic field interference, folding clothes, and power supply.
Come one by one.
First, the magnetic induction element consists of a microelectronics-free loops (microelectronics-free loops) that are arranged and dispersed, flexible, and flat.
Its internal structure avoids human interference through electric field limitation and quasi-static magnetic field.
△ Look at the shape, you can call it "magnetic sensor sticker"
The groud layer prevents the generated electric field from entering the human body.
△ Schematic diagram of the structure of "magnetic sensor sticker"
Secondly, the researchers found through experiments that whether the component is bent, folded or kneaded, its performance will not change, that is, it can maintain spectral stability.
They can also be made into a variety of shapes to achieve optimal signal transmission and power distribution.
In terms of power supply, there are no surprises, or a wired external power supply is required to connect with the NFC reader.
In order to make the size smaller, the wireless sensor does not have its own battery, and also relies on this external power supply.
Can be "pasted" directly on ready-made clothing
Inspired by the production of modern low-cost vinyl clothing, this magnetic induction element does not require complex sewing technology and wire connections, and the cost of the material itself is not high, and it can be directly "pasted" to ready-made clothes through hot pressing.
When running, sensors on the pants can measure data such as ankles, knee bending, speed, etc., while exchanging them with the heart rate and other statistics tracked by the shirt.
It is worth noting that although the top and pants are not conjoined, the data "connection" can be achieved by placing the induction "sticker" below.
Vertically crossed arms like the following can also achieve "human-to-human" communication.
And then we can communicate silently like the Avatars?
According to the first paper, in addition to the several application scenarios shown at the beginning, this technology is very suitable for application in the medical field, such as integrating various sensors in the clinic into patients' clothes to achieve centralized monitoring.
However, there are also disadvantages, such as the current material can only "survive" in cold water for 20 minutes, in order to withstand the washing frequency of daily clothes, it is also necessary to develop more durable magnetic induction materials.
I don't know if this technology will really be able to reduce the burden that modern electronic products bring to our lives as the author hopes.
You, expect not?