Wellington
Nano technology's been touted as the next big thing…..for quite a while now when you thinkabout it.
But so far there's been precious little product that found its way into everyday use; notcounting cosmetic products with nano particles that no one's too sure what effect they have.
However British-based Kiwi Simon McMaster may be onto a use of nano technology, which hedescribes as 'bucket chemistry' in developing a fabric that's able to register a person's vitalsigns.
Up till now, being able to measure factors such as heart rate or respiration via a piece ofclothing required the incorporation of fine, usually comparatively brittle, wires into thefabric.
McMaster, who as a mature student obtained a B.Sc in chemistry from the UK's Open University, andhas just completed a Textile Technology masters degree at the Royal Melbourne Institute ofTechnology, has figured out a way to measure electrical potential by tweaking the fabric itself.
"It's about the way the fabric itself is knitted, along with the way we will carry out the nanoparticulate deposition," he says. This is the foundation piece of IP that he and Wellington-basedbusiness director Karen Bender are obtaining patents for under their company '
"The way we create the structure affects the signal from the electrically conducted fibre,"McMaster says.
He says many uses of nano technologies use a "top down approach". From thatpoint of view, others have attempted to put miniaturized electronics into a garment.
"Using chemistry, we're using a bottom up methodology," says McMaster. "We've taken a basictextile, mucked around with its structure and added nano at the molecular level. We've produced arobust, durable fabric that doesn't feel or look any different to the original textile."
The technology allows registering of vital body signs, and one use will be to allow monitoring ofpeople who are unable to monitor themselves. Think the elderly and the very young.
Such information can, through a wireless device, be sent to a doctor or nurse.
Another market is athletes, whose coaches are keen on measuring and monitoring anything that canbe. The nano impregnated fabric is also potentially capable of measuring bio-electrical factors suchas muscle activity, and biomedical elements such as joint movement; with no wires involved.
While McMaster heads to complete a PhD at Leeds University and further develop the IP, linkinginto the design school's strong base of nano researchers and knowledge, Bender is working with IRLand local Wellingtonian researchers to validate his initial research.
"We want them to prove its repeatability," says McMaster. "Then hopefully we'll have a prototypepiece of clothing by the end of the year."
Some electronics and power supply will be required to collect and "we need others to do that typeof work for us," he says.
Footfalls and Heartbeats' business model will be to licence the technology, though "we may keepone of the vertical streams for ourselves."
"We want to get the technology out and be innovative in that space. There are some markets wehaven't even thought of yet."
McMaster, along with a very understanding partner, have up till now bootstrap funded the fabric'sdevelopment. The company is now at the point where it requires $150,000 - $200,000 of outsideinvestment to develop the prototype.
He's confident of obtaining the funding, as knitting's a very simple technology, and theincorporation of nano particles doesn't require much of a change.
"It's a very culturally well-known form of clothing," he says. "People know already know whatknitted fabric feels like, and we're not changing its feel."
Perhaps it could be called a knitted nano technology. The company can see an end-market potentialfor its fabric that, without wires, can measure a body's electrical potential.
There's even the possibility of using the body's movements itself to generate electricity, but asMcMaster says, that's a way down the track.