LSU researcher develops hats to detect infant fevers

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Sibei Xia, assistant professor in the Department of Textiles, Apparel Design and Merchandising, received a grant from the Provost's Fund for Innovation in Research to develop thermochromic clothing to track newborns’ temperatures.

LSU researcher Sibei Xia said that when she had her son a few years ago, she was constantly worried about monitoring his temperature.

Now, with the development of a knit hat for babies that can detect fevers, Xia said there is a practical application of textile technology for mothers, parents or guardians.

"I have a son who, when he was a newborn and I was trying to monitor him, his status was something I was concerned with and so I think there is the need for new moms," Xia said. "And then we happened to get this yarn from a Chinese supplier with other functional yarns that we had and we just thought that could be an interesting application of that type of yarn."

Using thermochromic yarn that changes colors when exposed to different temperatures, Xia developed the hats as body-tracking wearable technology.

"When the body temperature turns to 37 or 38 degrees Celsius, the yarn that we have will change from a purple to beige color," she said. "We have a purple band on the hat and so whenever that is on the body, when the temperature increases, that band will turn to beige color to tell the moms or the nurse or whoever is monitoring the baby that there is a spike of temperature."

While thermochromic yarn has existed long before her technology, Xia said her work involved requesting the manufacturer to update the temperature threshold from 31 degrees Celsius, or 87.8 degrees Fahrenheit, to up to 38 degrees Celsius, 100.4 Fahrenheit.

For infants, Xia said, a temperature above 37.5 degrees Celsius, or 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit, is considered a fever.

Xia developed the prototype for the hat using a flatback knitting machine, a computer-controlled device that allows the operator to customize patterns and tension.

"It knits the band first and seamlessly engineers the body, like the whole shape of the hat, and then we just need to piece them together at the site," she said. "We did the color yarn only at the band area, most closely to where the temperature is being measured, and the rest of the hat is being knit with regular 100% cotton yarn to provide enough comfort."

Xia said that anyone can dye clothing using the color-changing pigment added to the synthetic fabric used in her prototype hat.

"You can actually dye your garment, a regular garment, with the pigment that is has so that it can change color," she said. "That type of dyeing recipe has been out there for a long time, the creative part that we apply here is changing the color threshold to have it apply to a more functional and medical application here."

Moving forward, Xia said her department will test different color combinations and knitting structures for the hats to determine the best way to visually depict temperature changes.

She said she hopes that the new knitting machine technology can be utilized for projects beyond her own work in textiles, helping to train fashion and design students.

"We aren't just developing the hats, we're allowing students to do some design work or fashion work because we're a fashion department," Xia said. "Students have been using them to develop some tapestries that have their creative designs to it and so there's a lot of potential entrepreneurship applications to that technology."

Once she has a more polished product to put forth, Xia said, hats will be given to mothers for testing and surveys will be sent out to determine their usefulness.

For now though, Xia said she'll have to start her tests at home with the impetus behind her unique hat design.

"I will definitely put it on my son first to see how well it works," she said.

Email James Wilkins at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter, @terelljwilkins.

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