How a fabric patch uses static electricity in your clothes to let you chat with AI and control smart devices

There could soon be a new way to interact with your favorite AI chatbots—through the clothing you wear. An international team of researchers has developed a voice-sensing fabric called A-Textile. This flexible patch of smart material turns everyday garments into a kind of microphone, allowing you to speak commands directly to what you’re wearing. This lets you communicate with AI systems such as ChatGPT or smart home devices.

Wearable devices that sense and interact with the world around us have long been the stuff of science fiction dreams. However, traditional sensors currently in use are often bulky, rigid and uncomfortable. They also lack sensitivity, meaning they struggle to hear soft or normal speaking voices, making it hard for AI to understand commands.

The researchers addressed this issue by exploring triboelectricity, the principle behind static electricity. A-Textile is a multi-layered fabric, and as you move the layers, they rub together to create a tiny electrostatic charge on the fabric. When you speak, the sound waves cause the charged layers to vibrate slightly, generating an electrical signal that represents your voice. To boost the signal, the team embedded flower-shaped nanoparticles into the fabric to help capture the charge and prevent it from dissipating. This ensures it is clear enough to be recognized by AI.

The signal is then sent wirelessly to a device, such as a smartphone or a computer, that hosts a deep learning model the team developed, which recognizes the commands generated by the fabric. One of the technology’s best aspects is that it doesn’t require the wholesale redesign of clothing. You can simply sew or attach an A-Textile patch to any common garment, like a collar or shirt sleeve.

“This work develops voice-AI clothing by combining advanced materials, device design, and DL [deep learning] to transform everyday garments into intuitive voice-AI interfaces,” wrote the researchers in a paper about their technology. published in the journal Science Advances.

Putting A-Textile to the test

In tests, the prototype A-Textile generated an output of up to 21 volts and recognized commands with 97.5% accuracy, even in noisy environments. The system could also interact directly with ChatGPT and control smart home appliances, such as turning a lamp on and off, using only voice commands.

But these applications may only be the beginning, according to the team. “It is believed that the integration of imperceptible voice AI systems into clothing will provide easy access to AI while providing previously unexplored application prospects in various areas such as health care, fitness monitoring, and personalized assistance.”

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