Smart Clothes

•The term “smart clothing” denotes the presence of embedded electronics in clothes.
•Smart clothes include conductive fabrics that can power microelectronic devices, superhydrophobic materials and synthetic fabrics that can conserve body heat and promote increased blood circulation.
•Smart clothing is of great interest to the world’s militaries, which often try to pack as much functionality as possible into a single soldier’s equipment.

•Other possible features of smart clothing include the ability to detect chemicals in the air, quickly harden on contact with a speeding bullet, change color or opacity, generate power from the wearer’s movement, record the wearer’s speech and activity.
•With conductive or optical sensors woven into T-shirts, shorts and underwear, smart clothes will be able to pick up a greater range of body signals, at much higher sensitivities, than rigid sensors.
•Early prototypes can measure heart rate through ECG sensors on a T-shirt or EEG sensors in a beanie hat can monitor brain activity.
•Tight clothes such as cycling shorts can also measure how hard muscles are working, and sensors on the chest can measure respiration rate, based on chest movements as the wearer breathes. They can also detect changes in body temperature and signs of stress such as sweating.
•Smart socks that can predict the onset of diabetic foot ulcers. The socks are made from fibers that contain plastic optical fibers. The fibers shine a light on the skin to measure how well blood is pumping through the capillaries, sluggish flow can be a sign of ulcers.
•Pyjamas embedded with sensors to detect breathing rate could also help people who suffer from sleep apnea, triggering an alarm if breathing is interrupted.

Applications

Motion Detecting Pants

•These smart pants work via a loom that helps sew the wires and fabric together. Sensors embedded in the fabric measure the speed, rotation and flexibility of the pants with every movement.
•Wireless signals are sent from the pants to a computer to display the activity.

Biosensor Underwear

•US scientists have developed durable biosensors that can be printed directly onto clothing, to allow continuous biomedical monitoring outside hospitals. The aim is to enable constant monitoring of blood pressure and heart rate.

Heart Sensing Bra

•The heart sensing bra uses electronic modules and silver coated electrodes to pick up a person’s heart rate and transmit the data to a watch worn on the wrist.

Smart Shoes

•Nike+ running shoes come with a sensor that tracks your run, then sends the data to your iPod. It even has its own social network and can automatically tweet and post a status report on Facebook.

References: newscientist ; readwrite