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Smart textiles are defined as textiles that can sense and react to environmental conditions or stimuli from mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical or magnetic sources. 2

Passive Smart Fabrics Sense environmental conditions or stimulus Active Smart Fabrics Actuators and sensors Central control unit present Ultra Smart Fabrics Sense, react and adapt themselves to envt. Cognition, reasoning and activating capacities 3

Thermo regulating material Shape memory materials Chromic materials Luminescent materials Conductive material Membranes Voltaic materials 4

Paraffin phase change material Absorbs heat and stores it Change state to retain heat Paraffin enclosed into small plastic spheres with diameters of only a few micrometers to prevent dissolution Provide a thermal balance between the heat generated by the body while engaging in a sport and the heat released into the environment 5

Materials stable at two or more temperature states Different temperature states, they have the potential to assume different shapes Electro active polymers which can change shape in response to electrical stimuli Produce substantial change in size or shape and force generation for actuation mechanisms 6

Change their colour reversibly according to external environmental conditions Photochromic: external stimulus is light. Thermochromic: external stimulus is heat. Electrochromic: external stimulus is electricity. Piezorochromic: external stimulus is pressure. Solvatechromic: external stimulus is liquid or gas. 7

Emits lights according to external environmental conditions Photoluminescence: external stimulus is light Electroluminescence: external stimulus is electricity Chemioluminescence: external stimulus is a chemical reaction Triboluminescence: external stimulus is friction 8

Two types of materials, the metals and the polymers High wicking finishes (ink) with a high metallic content that still retains the comfort Direct use of conductive yarns Applications are electromagnetic interface (EMI) shielding and conducting Thermal conduction allows distribution of heat throughout the entire garment or suit 9

Membranes are constituted of polymers and their structure could be made of one or more layers Used in sportswear for the manufacture of breathable and impermeable clothes More breathability and extreme water repellence Lotus effect provides repellence of the aqueous products and also of the oleic product – useful for self cleaning garments 10

Storage of energy for electronic parts Use of solar cells Research underway to produce and store electricity from body movements and wrist rotation 11

Processing Trigger or Stimuli Sensing Actuation Response or Action CONTROLLING The sensors provide a nerve system to detect signals The processor analyzes and evaluates the signals The actuators act upon the detected and evaluated signal either directly or from a central control unit

Textiles that sensor the body for military or medical uses Smart shirt by the Professor Sundaresan Jayaraman The sensory Baby Vest The life shirt by Vivometrics Interactive Fabrics Comfort & Security The wearable computer 13

Smart shirt by the Professor Sundaresan Jayaraman Uses optical fibres to detect bullet wounds Medical sensing devices that are attached to the body plug into the computerised shirt Helps to determine who needs immediate attention within the first hour of combat Types of sensors used can be varied depending on the wearer's needs 14

The sensory Baby Vest To detect cardiac, pulmonary or other defects in newborn child The life shirt by Vivometrics LifeShirt System gathers data during the subject's daily routine, providing pharmaceutical and academic researchers with a continuous "movie" of the subject's health in real-life situations (work, school, exercise, sleep), rather than the "snapshot" generated during a typical clinic visit 17

Keyboard made in a single layer of fabric using capacitive sensing Some famous products are the KENPO jacket that possesses an integrated MP3 lectors and the IPods jeans by Levis A Swedish R&D team has developed a glove that incorporates a phone 18

Tightens and loosens the garments automatically according to needs Security tools developed using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags RFID tags are miniscule microchips - half the size of a grain of sand Listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code Automating the garment handling process, including: check-in, sorting, and checkout integration of GPS in garments for the detection of user position in case of disappearance or kidnapping 19

Some other applications 20  Wearable antennas

 Smart mp3 player

Light weight Durable Washable Integratable with human body Pierce resistant Water resistant yet breathable Tracking/communication systems Monitoring systems Usable in security authentication 22

Needs to be charged Bulky Expensive Yet to be commercially recognized 23

Smart textiles were presented as imaginary products and as a non competitive market Nowadays SFIT are an implanted customer interest and are presented as the future of the textile industry A lot of scientist are developing new solutions, ideas and concrete products Some approximations announce a market of 1 billion dollars by 2010 which certainly explains the current passion for these news topics 24

After the program has been downloaded, the programmed board can be disconnected from the computer The program will now run completely independently If required, though, the board can be reconnected to the computer and a new program downloaded No computer needed

Reference computer_interface#Human_BCI_research computer_interface#Human_BCI_research

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