US scientists create cloth that can listen, produce sound
2010 07 13
From: Alternet.org
This could give a whole new meaning to the phrase power dressing. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a cloth that can hear and emit noise.
這可能給出一個全新的意思至權力裝飾的片語。在麻省理工學院的科學家們已創造一種布，能聽和發出聲音的。
The development, described in the August issue of Nature Materials, transforms the usual passive nature of textiles into a virtually all-singing, all-dancing version.
在8月號的自然材料描述，那發展改變平常的紡織品的被動性質，成為一幾乎全唱、全跳舞的版本。
The team, led by MIT professor Yoel Fink, has reached "a new milestone on the path to functional fibers: fibers that can detect and produce sound," MIT said in a statement.
由麻省理工學院教授Yoel Fink率領 的小組，已到達“一新的里程碑在功能性纖維的道路上：纖維可檢測和產生聲音，”麻省理工學院在一份聲明中說。
According to MIT, "applications could include clothes that are themselves sensitive microphones, for capturing speech or monitoring bodily functions, and tiny filaments that could measure blood flow in capillaries or pressure in the brain."
據麻省理工學院，“應用可能包括衣服本身是麥克風敏感的，用於捕捉言語或監測身體的機能，和微小細絲能夠量度血管中的血流量或大腦的壓力。”
The decade-old research project aims to "develop fibers with ever more sophisticated properties, to enable fabrics that can interact with their environment," MIT said.
那十年之久的研究項目的目標是“發展日趨複雜特性的纖維，使織物能與它們的環境互動，”麻省理工學院說。
The new space-age cloth, it said, can not only listen, but make sound.
新的太空時代的布，它說，不僅能聽，而且製造聲音。
"You can actually hear them, these fibers," Noemie Chocat, part of the lab team, said.
“你能實在地聽到它們的聲音，這些纖維，”實驗室團隊的部分Noemie肖卡說。
"If you connected them to a power supply and applied a sinusoidal current, then it would vibrate. And if you make it vibrate at audible frequencies and put it close to your ear, you could actually hear different notes or sounds coming out of it."
“如果你接駁它們到一電源和應用正弦電流，那麼它會震動。及如果你在可聽見的頻率使它振動，並把它接近你的耳朵，你能實際地聽到不同的音符或聲音從它出來。 “
The new fibers are based on a similar plastic to that used in microphones.
新的纖維是基於一類似用於麥克風的塑料。
However, researchers manipulated the fluorine content to ensure its molecules stayed lopsided. That imbalance makes the plastic piezoelectric, meaning it changes shape when an electric field is applied.
"In addition to wearable microphones and biological sensors, applications of the fibers could include loose nets that monitor the flow of water in the ocean and large-area sonar imaging systems with much higher resolutions," MIT said.
"A fabric woven from acoustic fibers would provide the equivalent of millions of tiny acoustic sensors."
Article from: Alternet.org
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麻省理工學院生產能說能聽的纖維
MIT produces fibers that can speak, hear
By Stephen Shankland News.CNET.com
Different-shaped fibers can emit sounds in a variety of ways. (Credit: MIT)
不同形狀的纖維可用多種方法發出聲音。 （來源：麻省理工學院）
The walls have ears, the saying goes--but at some point, so might people’s clothes. With the help of fiber research at MIT, fabrics of the future could both hear and make noises.
Yoel Fink, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his colleagues developed fibers that are active where most are passive. Specifically, through a new application of widely used technology called piezoelectrics, fibers can convert sound waves into an electrical signal and vice versa, MIT announced Monday.
Piezoelectric speakers have been around for a long time--beeping digital watches and those musical greeting cards use them, for example--but Fink’s approach uses fibers instead of a flat speaker. Key to the approach is making the fibers so that one side is different from the other, rather than being symmetric.
One edge of the fiber has more fluorine atoms running along it, and the other has more hydrogen atoms. This difference is responsible for the connection between the fibers’ movement--whether caused by sound or causing it--and its electrical properties.
A sample of the MIT piezoelectric fibers that shows their dimensions. (Credit: MIT)
麻省理工學院的一個壓電纖維樣本，顯示它們的大小。 （來源：麻省理工學院）
"Fabrics woven from piezoelectric fibers could be used as a communication transceiver," the researchers wrote, describing their approach in the July 11 issue of Nature Materials.
Sound isn’t the only sensitivity possible with smarter fabrics. MIT also has worked on cameralike fibers sensitive to light.
The fibers aren’t easy to make. They’re produced from much larger cylinders that are "drawn" through a small aperture at higher temperatures. The MIT group managed the task using a number of techniques, including the use of an electrically conducting graphite-based plastic and a strong electric field to align necessary molecules.
Don’t expect walking boom boxes anytime soon, though. Besides manufacturing and other practical constraints, the fibers today work only with kilohertz to megahertz sound frequencies, and humans employ much lower frequencies.
Article from: news.cnet.com
http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=11766
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