Those of you who may have seen the comedy juggling troupe "The Flying Karamazov Brothers" in the last few years would have witnessed one performer moving about on stage wearing coveralls and shoes festooned with sensors that were, in turn, wirelessly coupled to an array of MIDIs and drum synthesizers. Of a similar theme, but far less whimsical, is the Smart Shirt being developed by Sensatex/LifeLink Inc., Dallas, TX, from a project that began at the Georgia Institute of Technology. It was in the School of Textile and Fiber Engineering that a professor and his team created a fabric interwoven with conductive and optical fibers that could provide a continuous stream of data via wireless transmission about the wearer's vital signs while the wearer went about his daily activities, akin to medical data recorders in use today. The original design, funded by DARPA, would alert medical personnel to a field soldier's injuries, helping expedite the traffic in triage stations. Sensatex/LifeLink wants to expand the shirt's applications to monitoring infants, who might be susceptible to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and elderly patients, particularly those who are in nursing homes or receive some sort of at-home care. The Smart Shirt's capabilities would include tracking blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation in the blood, and other vital signs. Circle 400.

At last month's Assembly Technology Expo in Chicago, actuator manufacturer Tol-O-Matic, Hamel, MN, demonstrated technology for accurate position and velocity control for their pneumatic actuators. The key component, mounted at one end of a Tol-O-Matic band cylinder, is a proportional magnetic particle brake using magneto-rheonetic fluid from Lord Corporation, Cary, NC. The micro-particles of ferrous material suspended in the fluid carrier respond to an external magnetic field, changing the fluid to a near-solid, with response times within milliseconds. This allows the PrecisionAire actuator to stop precisely at programmed points to ± 0.010 in., in stroke lengths up to 18 feet. The actuator's carrier is moved by air switched through inexpensive pneumatic on/off valves, while a toothed belt links the carrier to a rotary encoder and the brake. The brake only acts as a speed limiter during acceleration and constant velocity, but during deceleration, it operates in coordination with controlled redirection of air flow to the carrier's piston. The process minimizes the work done by the brake and overcomes horsepower limitations traditionally experienced on belt-driven electric systems. Circle 401 - Tol-O-Matic, Circle 402 - Lord Corp.