Have you ever put your MP3 player in the laundry ? If so, I bet it was damaged when you found it back. Infineon however is going to make chips that are wearable and still work after being washed or dry-cleaned and they even survive ironing.
For now they only have a MP3 player available but the company said that also chips for GPS, Bluetooth, automobile sensors, GSM or 3G phones and keyless entry systems, could be built into clothes.
 Infineon's innovation is its packaging technology, which wraps copper wires in silver and then in polyester, insulating the electronics. The dense computing electronics must also be woven into the relatively loose weave of the fabric. "Infineon is the first company to come up with a package that completely integrates electronics into textiles," Schoenrock said. |
The most sophisticated prototype Infineon has created is a 1.25-inch-square MP3 player, controlled by a half-inch-square chip, that is woven into a jacket. The 8g unit uses a small battery and a multimedia card (MMC), but is otherwise invisible to the user, all its functions being controlled by voice commands.
Infineon said the MP3 player would cost about $10 to manufacture and would take three to four years to emerge as a product.
Pretty cool stuff, but I'm however afraid it will take some time till everyone has a MP3 player in his favorite sweater. Read the entire story on Cnet.com here.
Source: Cnet.com
