Anchor Lede: Your clothing could, one day, communicate much more than your fashion sense.

Randy Atkins: Because, if John Volakis, Director of Ohio State University’s ElectroScience Laboratory, has his way your shirt will be part antenna.

John Volakis: The actual fabric is going to look the same, you won’t know the difference, but it will be conductive.

Randy Atkins: So it can send and receive signals like a smart phone, only better, because Volakis says a lot of antenna can be woven into your clothes.

John Volakis: If there’s a signal there, and the signal is very low, you now have a much stonger antenna on your body that will overcome the low signal from the tower.

Randy Atkins: And if the signal’s good, Volakis says sending even live high resolution video would be seamless. Benefits could include home monitoring of patients, but the technology is still in early stages of development and testing. With the National Academy of Engineering, Randy Atkins, WTOP News.

• Wired Textiles for a Phone
• ElectroScience Laboratory
• Antennas in Your Clothes