Researchers Create New Fabric That Can Hear Your Heartbeat

The fabric can pick up sounds ranging in volume from a quiet library to heavy road traffic, and determine the direction of sudden sounds like handclaps.

MIT photo of acoustic fiber and fabric with fiber.

Photographer: Fink Lab MIT/Elizabeth Meiklejohn RISD/Greg Hren/PA Media
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Researchers have created a fabric that can hear your heartbeat.

The material works like a microphone and converts sound into vibrations, and then into electrical signals, similarly to how our ears hear.