Smart Fabrics &

Interactive Clothing

By
Akhil K

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

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Classifications
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

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Smart materials used
Thermo regulating material
Shape memory materials
Chromic materials
Luminescent materials
Conductive material
Membranes
Voltaic materials

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Thermo regulating material
• 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
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Shape memory material
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

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Chromic Materials
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.

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Luminescent Materials
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
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Conductive materials
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
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Membranes
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
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Voltaic materials
Storage of energy for electronic parts
Use of solar cells
Research underway to produce and store
electricity from body movements and
wrist rotation

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Electronic textiles
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

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Military textiles
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

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Medical textiles
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

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Interactive Fabrics
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

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Comfort and security
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
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Wearable computers
Objective is the integration of a
complete computer screen, CPU and
keyboard in a wearable garment
Universities and research
organisations are developing a
wearable computer system that is a
better powered computer system worn
on the user's body (on a belt,
backpack or vest)

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

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Drawbacks
Needs to be charged
Bulky
Expensive
Yet to be commercially recognized

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Conclusion
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

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Reference
http://health.howstuffworks.com/bionic-arm.htm
http://www.smartextiles.co.uk/_wearcomp.htm
http://www.luminex.it/
http://www.eleksen.com/
http://science.howstuffworks.com/ffw.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoskeletons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-computer_interfac
e#Human_BCI_research
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4411591.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/165596.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5140090.stm

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Questions
&
Comments
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