Running shoe start-up adds graphene to its material mix

July 31, 2023  |  What's New?

Quebec-based running shoe brand Norda has incorporated graphene-enhanced material from Directa Plus into its shoes. Directa Plus founder, Giulio Cesareo, said he had tried on a prototype pair of Norda shoes made with the graphene material and that the footwear fitted perfectly.
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Nike’s ISPA pushes footwear innovation

July 17, 2023  |  What's New?

Nike’s ISPAnificio, an exhibition during Milan Design Week 2023, showcased the company’s ISPA shoe-making lab, taking giant steps in circularity. ISPA is a set of design principles—improvise, scavenge, protect, adapt—that breaks the mold of footwear design. The team designs shoes that can be…
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Thread-like pumps can be woven into clothes

June 26, 2023  |  What's New?

Many fluid-based wearable assistive technologies today require a large and noisy pump that is impractical, if not impossible, to integrate into clothing, so wearable devices are routinely tethered to unwearable pumps. But researchers at the Soft Transducers Laboratory (LMTS) in the School of Enginee…
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Electronic skin offers tactile feedback 

June 26, 2023  |  What's New?

A team of researchers at the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has recently introduced a thin, wearable electronic “skin” that provides tactile feedback to users in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) environments. Called “WeTac,” the wireless electro-tactile system is made …
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Scientists devise a sensing sweater for industrial robots

June 12, 2023  |  What's New?

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have designed a smart sweater for a robot that can immediately stop moving if it accidentally makes contact with an adjacent human worker. To keep from accidentally hurting their human coworkers, many industrial robots have sensors that detect physical con…
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Super-charged smart textile can multi-task

June 12, 2023  |  What's New?

Scientists have developed a simple metallic coating treatment for clothing or wearable textiles which can repair itself, repel bacteria from the wearer and even monitor a person’s electrocardiogram (ECG) heart signals. 
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Textile researchers prepare stem cells to become organ tissue

May 22, 2023  |  What's New?

Nearly 3,000 people died waiting for an organ transplant in 2022, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, and more than 100,000 people remain on the waitlist. Envisioning a future without the need for donor organs, a North Carolina State University (NC State) researcher is la…
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Smart fabric responds to both temperature and electricity

May 22, 2023  |  What's New?

Researchers at the University of Waterloo say that a smart fabric is the first to change both color and shape in response to two different stimuli. Inexpensively made with polymer nanocomposite fibers from recycled plastic, their new smart material is activated by both heat and electricity and is pr…
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New method to create engineered silk announced

May 8, 2023  |  What's New?

Scientists have long been intrigued by the remarkable properties of spider silk, which is stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. Now, Fuzhong Zhang, professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at Washington University, St. Louis, has made a significant breakthr…
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Magnetic biomedical devices can pop into shape as needed

April 24, 2023  |  What's New?

One of the challenges of minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery lies in getting surgical instruments into the patient's body via a narrow catheter. Scientists have set about addressing that problem with magnetic instruments that pop into and out of shape as needed. The experimental MaSoChain (magne…
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