Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T06:43:23.676Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Smart Textiles: Wearable Electronic Systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Sungmee Park  and
Sundaresan Jayaraman
Get access

Abstract

Protection and aesthetics are the two common dimensions or attributes typically associated with textiles as clothing. However, with the rapidly changing needs of today's consumers, a third dimension is emerging—that of “intelligence”—that is being integrated into fabrics to produce interactive textiles, or i-textiles. This new class of wearable electronic systems is being designed to meet new and innovative applications in the military, public safety, healthcare, space exploration, sports, and consumer fitness fields. In this article, the concept of i-textiles is presented, along with the building blocks for its realization. This is followed by an overview of the design and development of the Smart Shirt, an “intelligent” garment that provides an extremely versatile framework for the incorporation of sensing, monitoring, and information-processing devices. The key applications of the Smart Shirt technology and their impact in transforming healthcare are discussed. Finally, the need to advance this paradigm and identify opportunities to transform passive textiles into the new generation of interactive, or “smart,” textiles is discussed.

Keywords

adaptive textilesadvanced fabricsresponsive textile structuressmart shirtsmart textiles
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Bulletin , Volume 28 , Issue 8: Advanced Fabrics , August 2003 , pp. 585 - 591
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Gopalsamy, C., Park, S., Rajamanickam, R., and Jayaraman, S., J. Virtual Reality 4 (1999) p. 152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.The Georgia Tech Wearable Motherboard™: The Intelligent Garment for the 21st Century, http://www.smartshirt.gatech.edu (accessed April 2003).Google Scholar
3.Park, S. and Jayaraman, S., in Smart Fibers, Fabrics and Clothing: Fundamentals and Applications, edited by Tao, X. (Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2001) p. 226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.DARPA BAA on Electronic Textiles, http://www.darpa.mil/baa/BAA01–41.htm (accessed April 2003).Google Scholar
5.SOFTswitch, http://www.softswitch.co.uk (accessed April 2003).Google Scholar
6. “Musical Jacket Project,“ www.media.mit.edu (accessed April 2003).Google Scholar
7.Post, E.R., Orth, M., Russo, P.R., and Ger, N.-shenfeld, IBM Sys. J. 39 (3&4) (2000) p. 840.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. “Infineon's MP3 Player,” http://www.siliconstrategies.com/story/OEG20020426S0101 (accessed April 2003).Google Scholar
9.Akao, Y., Ono, S., Harada, A., Tanaka, H., and Iwasaka, K., Quality 13 (3) (1983) p. 61;Google Scholar
Akao, Y., ed. Quality Function Deployment (Productivity Press, Cambridge, MA 1990).Google Scholar
10.Rajamanickam, R., Park, S., and Jayaraman, S., J. Textile Inst. 89 (3) (1998) p. 44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Kitazawa, M., Kreidl, J.F., and Steele, R.E., eds., in Proc. SPIE Plastic Optical Fibers, Vol. 1592 (SPIE—The International Society for Optical Engineering, Bellingham, WA, 1991).Google Scholar
12.Chai, Y., Handbook of Fiber Optics: Theory and Applications (Academic Press, New York, 1990).Google Scholar
13.Park, S., Gopalsamy, C., Rajamanickam, R., and Jayaraman, S., Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Vol. 62 (IOS Press, Amsterdam, 1999) p. 252.Google Scholar
14.Park, S. and Jayaraman, S., Atlanta Med. 74 (4) (2001) p. 24.Google Scholar
15.Jayaraman, S., J. Textile Inst. 81 (2) (1990) p. 185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar