BATON ROUGE - A researcher and assistant professor at LSU is developing a specialized fabric that can detect small changes in temperature—something that could possibly save infant lives. 

Sibei Xia, assistant professor in the LSU Department of Textiles, Apparel Design, and Merchandise, is working on a type of "smart clothing" made with yarn that changes color based on body temperature, according to the LSU AgCenter.  

“If the newborn’s temperature goes really high, it’s going to change the hat to a beige color so that we don’t have to necessarily measure the temperature that often or use other technologies to monitor temperature,” Xia said.  

The prototype, a hat made of the thermosensitive yarn, changes from purple to beige when the yarn reaches 36 degrees Celsius, or 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit. With further advancements, Xia hopes to increase the range to 37.5 to 38.5 degrees Celsius. 

“If we broadcast the technology, we will have a lot of creative ideas, and then we could work collaboratively for potential applications, not only in functionality, such as wearable technology, but also creative design,” Xia said.