Wetbots

Patterns are everywhere, and now recognition is more popular than it's ever been. The performance of pattern recognition has been relegated to the domain of the living, the wetware among us. But advances in biocomputing, organic computing, neural-interfaced prosthetics, semibots, synthetic life, artificially intelligent unsupervised learning entitites, etc. have blurred the line of what we consider to be alive, and can be intelligent. Squishy robots they're called here --

From University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering, via phys.org:

Dr. Yashin said that patients recovering from a hand injury could wear a glove that monitors movement, and can inform doctors whether the hand is healing properly or if the patient has improved mobility.

Another use would be to monitor individuals at risk for early onset Alzheimer's, by wearing footwear that would analyze gait and compare results against normal movements, or a garment that monitors cardiovascular activity for people at risk of heart disease or stroke.

Research into 'materials that compute' advances as engineers demonstrate system performs pattern recognition
phys.org, Sep 2016
http://phys.org/news/2016-09-materials-advances-pattern-recognition.html