Everyday clothing may soon be able to capture and record body movements better than phones and smart watches, according to researchers at two UK universities.

Scientists at universities in Bristol and Bath are passing harmless low voltages through conductive threads that are stitched into garment seams to create electrical circuits. Their resistance changes with the movement of the wearer’s body.

The work opens up possibilities to make digital clothing that senses and captures movements much more accurately than is possible using current phones and smart watches.

The paper, presented at the Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) conference in Copenhagen last week, lays the foundations for e-textile designers and clothing manufacturers to create garments that could enhance exercise, physiotherapy and rehabilitation.

“We’re excited by the opportunity for clothing manufacturers to implement our designs in sleeves and other garment seams,” said Mike Fraser, a professor at the University of Bristol’s School of Computer Science (www.bristol.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/2025/computer-science). “We’ve shown that common overlocked seams in standard garment constructions can do a good job of sensing movement. The design avoids the need for a separate power source by pairing the seam with a charging coil, drawing the energy wirelessly from a mobile phone placed in the pocket.”

He said this meant advanced motion sensing garments could be made without altering existing manufacturing processes.

“We have also shown that smartphone apps using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can use this movement data to match body movement to specific postures or gestures such as physiotherapeutic exercises,” he said.

The paper “SeamSleeve: Robust Arm Movement Sensing through Powered Stitching” by Olivia Ruston, Adwait Sharma and Mike Fraser was presented at last week’s conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The researchers have made a video to explain the technology at www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TQbwAmQMrw.