A couple of my prior entries, the smart bikini and buzz off hat, were about clothing that was capable of doing a little more than covering us up (yes, I know it was a bikini and a hat) and being stylish. So I set off to discover what else could be categorized in the smartwear world. (Note: I’m something of an obsessive autodidact, once something like this interests me, it becomes my mission to learn everything possible about it.)
Whenever I explore a new area like this, I find it helpful to establish some sort of framework to view the area through. My initial explorations have led me to establish some high-level categories to lump smart clothing innovations.
- Material innovations
- Phase Change – Uses phase changes (solid to liquid) for benefit
- Shape Memory – Uses current to form (or reform) to a set shape
- Chromic – Uses external stimulus (light, heat, liquid, pressure) to change properties (color is most frequent)
- Conductive – Uses high metallic content to gain benefit (insulation, EMI shield, sensing, etc.)
- Integration innovations
- Energy – Photovoltaic (solar) cells, batteries, and hand generators
- Electronic/Communication – mobile communication devices, ipods, and gps with an emphasis on hands-free
- Chemical – Weatherproofing, insect repellent, and stain resistance
- Sensor – Primarily medical or athletic performance monitoring sensors/devices
As I learn more, no doubt these categories will be revised, but this is the starting place. Over the next few blog entries, I’ll share what I’ve learned about each category with as many examples as I can find.
Technorati Tags: Geek Chic Smart Clothes Smart Wear
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[…] As referenced in a previous post, there are a bunch of interesting materials being developed that are ending up in apparel. The examples already given are the “buzz off hat” with insect repellent embedded in the material and the smart-kini (ok, I just made that up) sensor bikini that provides the wearer information about UV exposure. Phase change materials are a distinct class that do something interesting and valuable. I was talking to a colleague about this recently and she indicated that she’d love to have clothing where the sleeves would “grow.” The example she provided was that it’s warm in the Denver summer, but if you change elevation much it gets cold fast and that she’s constantly carting around extra clothing for this reason. Well, phase change materials don’t “grow”, but they do have the powerful property of being able to absorb, store, and release heat by changing from solid to liquid and back again. PCMs, in combination with micro-encapsulation, have made these heat absorbtion, storage, and release properties available for use in fabrics. Several companies now have make this technology available to manufacturers including Outlast, Microtek, and TCP Reliable. Here are some examples: […]
[…] As in the prior posts, the meta discussion and detailed discussion on phase change material, we’re going to delve into conductive clothing today. Conductive clothing is quite simply cloth with some sort of conductive material (most commonly a metal) woven into it as a thread. A recent article describes a shirt with metal (stainless steel in this case) in the weave used as the principal monitoring device for heart patients; it is capable of acting as the sensor array for an electrocardiogram. If you’ve never experienced this, I can assure you that a shirt is preferrable to the adhesive sensors applied directly to the skin (especially if you’re hirsute like me…) Another common use of conductive clothing is in the electric powerline maintenance business. These brave souls work with live high voltage powerlines (up to 800kV AC) to perform preventative maintenance and repairs as necessary. A clothing shell with conductive material coupled with other equipment allows the person to become charged with the current passing through the garment rather than the person. An emerging use similar to the monitoring shirt mentioned above is the “smart shirt” by Sensatex. It’s a combination of conductive and nano technology where the shirt effectively becomes a system bus with multi-capable sensor arrays to track parameters like heart rate, respiration rate, body temperature, caloric burn, body fat, and UV exposure. “Smart Shirt” Meatspace coordinates: N37.32.4 W122.30.9 Ohio State’s 2006 record: 1-0 Next up: Texas 9/9 5pm PST Tune: Candy Shop by 50 cent & Olivia […]