You may recall my previous idea of Sptangdex which went into very little detail as to how it worked. Further thought on the matter has led to more details on this. And yes, it's potentially pervy still, but it also has genuinely non-sexual applications, including medical ones, and as we all know, sexual desire is an engine for technological progress.
This is a smart textile based on much bigger than nanotechnology. It's based on a fibre which is able to alternate between locking itself in position and moving itself over a wide range of angles in three dimensions. The fibre consists of segmented units each able to respond to a signal which will instruct them to adopt one of four states, along with intermediate conditions. These are: passive (behave like an ordinary textile); mimic (copy the positions of the adjacent fibres); locked (adopt a specific orientation and maintain it) and active (move to a specific three dimensional orientation). There are states between these extremes. The entire fibre is coated in an elastane layer. Each unit can be programmed individually and corresponds to a specific address on the fibre. When woven together the fibres add a segment address according to their position in the cloth. It can be controlled by being addressed with an electromagnetic signal comprising the number of the fibre unit in the garment, with the segment address, and the state it is to adopt: passive, mimic, locked or active. Each of these is also given a number representing the tendency to be in a particular state and locked and active state instructions take two further arguments indicating the angle. These are similar to CPU opcodes, with passive as binary 00, mimic as 01, locked as 10 and active as 11. These opcodes are followed by two eight bit values describing the latitude and longitude of the next unit in terms of a ball and socket joint between the links. They can also return their angular even if passive
When woven into a garment with conventional textile used for the weft, the smart fibres constitute an address space of around 400 megalocations, each of which can both store and recall its current state. This can be used to correct posture and train the wearer in movement, and the resistance also allows the wearer to increase muscle strength and enables it to be used as a splint. However, the garment can also be hacked to control the clothing and therefore also the wearer (which is the pervy bit but security measures could make it less hackable). Each unit only responds if it receives its address - they are called by name, as it were, meaning that some parts of a sheet are active and others passive.
This has a number of uses. The passive return of information gives detailed data on the posture and position of the wearer. An elderly or infirm person who has been in the same position for a long time can have an alarm to alert emergency services. Pressure sores and compartment syndrome caused by casts can be prevented. Posture can be improved. Dancing, aerobics, Tai Chi, Yoga, Pilates and other movements can be taught through muscle memory. There is a remote control and sensor involved which can read data on posture and movement and aid that movement through something like labanotation.
The cloth is powered by temperature differentials and movement and shares the power among its units along each fibre.
Note that this is not nanotechnology. The size of each unit is around a hundred microns in diameter. It consists of a gimbal combined with sensors to record position, a battery, a central wire along which surplus power can be sent, a contractile socket to lock the segment, a thermocouple, piezoelectric crystals, a transmitter, a receiver and a processing unit similar to a CPU with a small instruction set.-- nineteenthly, Sep 11 2017 Sptangdex SptangdexCurrent idea's ancestor [nineteenthly, Sep 11 2017] Shape-changing headwear https://shenanitims...d-the-frog-mask.png [MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 11 2017] or possibly fiber as block based snake robots, ultraminiaturized. I think 300 "threads per inch" is ok as it is apparently deluxe for sheets. http://biorobotics..../projects/modsnake/ [beanangel, Sep 11 2017] I very much like the idea of a fabric in which each short piece can be programmed to (try to) orient itself in a particular way.
You'll struggle to make it in 100 microns, but you might be able to make rice-grain-sized modules.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 11 2017 // Note that this is not nanotechnology. The size of each unit is around a hundred microns in diameter. //
So it is nanotech, but just on a bigger scale.
<ponders m-f-d'ing the idea>
<ponders likelyhood of [19thly] going postal>
<decides aganst m-f-d, for now>-- 8th of 7, Sep 11 2017 So, by the logic used above, all tech is nanotech, just that some is bigger than others.
<ponders likelyhood of [8th] going postal>
Decides to post this anyway.-- normzone, Sep 11 2017 I'm still uncertain as to the base technology upon which this is created. Electro-active polymers perhaps?-- RayfordSteele, Sep 11 2017 or possibly the fiber as block based snake robots[link], ultraminiaturized.
I think 300 "threads per inch" is ok as it is apparently deluxe for sheets. That is far from nanotechnology-- beanangel, Sep 11 2017 Also far from manufacturable, given the battery craziness.-- RayfordSteele, Sep 11 2017 Dyson spheres are nanotech too then?-- nineteenthly, Sep 12 2017 Absolutely not but relative to our galaxy, yes.
Now, if we only knew how molecules fold shape as patterned charge moves along long molecular chains this might be viable.-- wjt, Sep 13 2017 I had in mind some kind of etching process akin to the manufacture of integrated circuits which would produce the likes of cogs and gears. I realise this isn't enough.-- nineteenthly, Sep 13 2017 Machine washable?-- notexactly, Feb 03 2018 Oh God, don't get me started [notexactly]! I was confronted with this yet again when I came across hoodie strings with earbuds in them the other day. It just brings incredibly stinky, stained people up on one side and fools with broken clothing on the other.
So yes it is machine washable but I've no idea how. It just has to be.-- nineteenthly, Feb 03 2018 random, halfbakery