A piece of fabric woven with special strands of material that harvest electricity from the sun
and motion.
Credit: Georgia Tech
A fabric designed to power wearable devices by harvesting energy from both sunlight and body movements can be produced on a standard industrial weaving machine, according to a new study.
Scientists in China and the United States have demonstrated how a glove-size piece of the "smart textile" could continuously power an electronic watch or charge a mobile phone using ambient sunlight and gentle body movements.
The fabric is based on low-cost, lightweight polymer fibers coated with metals and semiconductors that allow the material to harvest energy. These fibers are then woven together along with wool on high-throughput commercial weaving equipment to create a textile just 0.01 inches (0.32 millimeters) thick. [Top 10 Inventions that Changed the World] https://www.livescience.com/56139-textile-harvests-energy-from-body-movements.html
