{"687624":{"#nid":"687624","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Wearing the Future","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIf you walked through the Smithsonian American History Museum in the mid-2000s, you might have seen the \u201cSmart Shirt,\u201d the very first garment to seamlessly combine textiles and electronics.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDubbed a \u201cwearable motherboard,\u201d it acted as a hub for sensors that could collect a range of biometric data.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat shirt foretold a future where health and biometric data could be collected unobtrusively through wearable technology. And it was created by engineers at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhat we have is all these nice data buses that are the fabric threads. And we can connect any kind of sensors to them,\u201d said Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.mse.gatech.edu\/people\/sundaresan-jayaraman\u0022\u003ESundaresan Jayaraman\u003C\/a\u003E, the shirt\u2019s co-creator. \u201cWe were able to route information in a fabric for the first time, just like a typical computer motherboard. That\u2019s why we called it the \u2018wearable motherboard.\u2019\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJayaraman and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.mse.gatech.edu\/people\/sungmee-park\u0022\u003ESungmee Park\u003C\/a\u003E created the shirt in response to a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) call for ideas to protect soldiers in battle. They envisioned a comfortable, flexible garment infused with fiber optics to detect gunshot wounds and vital signs. The data would help medics rapidly triage battlefield injuries in the critical minutes when emergency care is the difference between life and death.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECreating a shirt made it easy: no bulky electronics to add to the gear soldiers carried. Just a piece of clothing to wear under their fatigues. Park and Jayaraman developed a way to weave the garment on a loom, making mass production and consistency far easier.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe original sleeveless shirt is tucked into the Smithsonian archives now. But it\u2019s possible to follow the thread of that first smart textile to the work happening in the pair\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.mse.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Materials Science and Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E (MSE) lab today.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/coe.gatech.edu\/magazine\/2025\/fall\/wearing-future\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERead the full story in Helluva Engineer magazine.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFrom smart textiles to brain-computer links, Georgia Tech engineers are designing wearables that connect humans and machines more closely than ever to sense, respond, and heal.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"From smart textiles to brain-computer links, Georgia Tech engineers are designing wearables that connect humans and machines more closely than ever to sense, respond, and heal."}],"uid":"27446","created_gmt":"2026-01-22 22:08:09","changed_gmt":"2026-01-29 15:14:33","author":"Joshua Stewart","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-01-22T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2026-01-22T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"679067":{"id":"679067","type":"image","title":"matt-flavin-haptic-patch-neck-web.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003EWorn on the neck, and paired with a smartphone, these haptic actuators designed in Matt Flavin\u0027s lab can help people with vision loss navigate their environment. (Photo: Chris McKenney)\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1769119705","gmt_created":"2026-01-22 22:08:25","changed":"1769119705","gmt_changed":"2026-01-22 22:08:25","alt":"a patch of haptic actuators shown on a user\u0027s neck","file":{"fid":"263183","name":"matt-flavin-haptic-patch-neck-web.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/01\/22\/matt-flavin-haptic-patch-neck-web.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/01\/22\/matt-flavin-haptic-patch-neck-web.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":979324,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/01\/22\/matt-flavin-haptic-patch-neck-web.jpg?itok=tBqR766K"}}},"media_ids":["679067"],"groups":[{"id":"660369","name":"Matter and Systems"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193652","name":"Matter and Systems"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71891","name":"Health and Medicine"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jstewart@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJoshua Stewart\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ECollege of Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jstewart@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}