Smart Fabrics

Abstract

 Based on the advances in computer technology, especially in the field of miniaturization, wireless technology and worldwide networking, the vision of wearable computers emerged. We already use a lot of portable electronic devices like cell phones, notebooks and organizers. The next step in mobile computing could be to create truly wearable computers that are integrated into our daily clothing and always serve as our personal assistant. This paper explores this from a textile point of view. Which new functions could textiles have? Is a combination of textiles and electronics possible? What sort of intelligent clothing can be realized?  Necessary steps of textile research and examples of current developments are presented as well as future challenges.

 Today, the interaction of human individuals with electronic devices demands specific user skills. In future, improved user interfaces can largely alleviate this problem and push the exploitation of microelectronics considerably. In this context the concept of smart clothes promises greater user-friendliness, user empowerment, and more efficient services support. Wearable electronics responds to the acting individual in a more or less invisible way. It serves individual needs and thus makes life much easier. We believe that today, the cost level of important microelectronic functions is sufficiently low and enabling key technologies are mature enough to exploit this vision to the benefit of society. In the following, we present various technology components to enable the integration of electronics into textiles.

Principles Behind Elektex

                ElekTex is essentially a laminate of textiles comprising two conductive outer layers separated by a partially conductive central layer. The outer layers each have two conductive-fabric electrode strips arranged so that the upper conductive layer has tracks which make contact across its opposing top and bottom edges and the lower conductive layer has conductive tracks up its left and right sides. The partially conductive central layer provides the magic which makes ElekTex work. Its role is to act as an insulator in the resting state which, when touched, allows electrical current to flow between the top and bottom layer. Pressure applied to the ElekTex fabric causes two effects. First, the conducting fibres in the central layer are locally compressed allowing contact between neighbouring conducting fibres to form a conductive channel through the central layer. Second, the applied pressure brings the two outer layers into contact with the conductive channel running through the central layer allowing a local circuit to be established between the upper and lower layers.

Other Interesting "Smart Clothing"  

                              

                    There are also other "Smart Clothes" that are aimed at consumer use. For example, Philips, a British consumer electronics manufacturer, has developed new fabrics, which are blended with conductive materials that are powered by removable 9V batteries. These fabrics have been tested in wet conditions and have proven resilient and safe for wearers. One prototype that Philips has developed is a child's "bugsuit" that integrates a GPS system and a digit camera woven into the fabric with an electronic game panel on the sleeve. This allows parents to monitor the child's location and actions. Another Philips product is a live-saving ski jacket that has a built in thermometer, GPS, and proximity sensor. The thermometer monitors the skier's body temperature and heats the fabric if it detects a drastic fall in the body temperature.

Wearable Intelligence

Self-heating hats and glow-in-the-dark sweatshirts might correctly be labeled as ‘smart’, but how about a shirt that ‘knows’ whether you are free to take a cell phone call or retrieve information from a 1000 page safety manual displayed on your inside pocket? Such items, termed ‘intelligent’ clothing to distinguish them from their lowertech cousins, have proved more difficult to patch unobtrusively into everyday apparel. Indeed, the first prototype ‘wearable computers’ of the early 1990s required users to strap on a head-mounted visor and carry heavy battery packs in their pockets, leading some to question the appropriateness of the term ‘wearable’.

Sensitive Fabric Surfaces

                 Creating sensors that are soft and malleable and that conform to a variety of physical forms will greatly change the way computing devices appear and feel. Currently, creating beautiful and unusual computational objects, like keyboards and digital musical instruments, is  a difficult problem. Keyboards today are made from electric contacts printed on plastic backing. These contacts are triggered by mechanical switches and buttons. Digital musical instruments rely on film sensors, like piezoelectric and resistive strips. All these sensors require rigid physical substrates to prevent de-lamination, and the mechanical incorporation of bulky switches. This drastically limits the physical form, size and tactile properties of objects using these sensors.

Conclusion

                 What smart fabrics cannot is not as important as what it can. This intelligent textiles have managed to pervade into those places where you least expect to find them. That is the real charm of knowing them. It can engender a myriad of wild imaginations which are not impossible.