Interactive Textiles: Cotton Gets Smarter
April 1, 2009 Regular textiles serve many purposes — they keep us warm or cool, protect us from the elements, provide comfort, and even make us appear fashionable. New developments in textile manufacturing, however, are creating materials that can monitor our health, sense hazardous conditions and warn us of illness or danger. Smart fabrics and wearable technology were worth $340 million (USD) in 2005; by 2008, the market expects to be worth $642.1 million.
Oh, The Places It’ll Go
The first textile-based sensors were marketed to performance applications, such as Adidas’ 2004 running shoe, with integrated sensors that allowed shock absorbers in the heel to adjust to the terrain. Several manufaturers, such as G-Tech, Nike, and O’Neill have produced clothing or bags that contain MP3 players, or speakers or headsets for iPods. Still other designs for training atheletes monitor heart rate, measure distance, time, or speed, and even calculate calories burned.
However, sports wear isn’t the only market for this new technology; in 2007, a jacket for firefighters was introduced at the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) trade fair containing thermal sensors to alert firefighters to critical temperature increases. Likewise, sensors that can monitor and evaluate the wearer’s health and environment are being put to use for other emergency disaster response personnel and the military.
Yet other functions of smart textiles can be health monitoring for the elderly or infirm; those recovering from surgery; and for warning people with coronary problems, diabetes or other diseases of an impending attack.
Leading The Pack
Several companies have stepped up to this textile revolution, and research institutes such as the North Carolina State University College of Textiles, the Wearable Computing Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and Cornell University’s Hinestroza Research Group are working hard to develop intelligent textiles and the integration of monitoring systems. Dr. Juan P. Hinestroza, assistant professor in the department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell, uses atomic layer deposition (ALD) to attach inorganic and metallic moieties (part of a molecule) through covalent bonding to natural fibers, such as cotton. The group is the first to effectively transfer “fully conformal nonlayers over irregular and heterogeneous natural fiber surfaces,” using electrostatic self- assembly techniques.
In Europe, two specific projects are investigating the ways smart textiles can be used: the Biotex project is directed at analyzing body fluids, such as sweat, blood, urine and even discharge from wounds. Such technology can be used for athletes to measure electrolytes lost during activity, and determine necessary rehydration; for home-healthcare, diagnosis, and disease prevention; and for assessing histamine, growth factors, and other parameters during wound healing.
The second EU project, Proetex, focuses on monitoring a person’s vital signs — such as heart rate and blood pressure — and the surrounding environment, which could contain fire or carbon monoxide. Rescue and disaster-relief personnel exposed to toxic gases, extreme temperatures, diminished oxygen environments, and other hazardous factors may soon find their own clothing able to communicate to them, or to a monitoring station, not only their own physiological condition, but dangers in their environment.
Intelligent Design
Most smart textiles at this time are “interactive textiles” — clothing that incorporates wearable technology, such as heart rate monitors or MP3 players. However, advances are being made to develop fabrics containing fibres that actually react to temperature, terrain or other external causes.
Still, there are issues: The fabrics must protect the wearer, but still be lightweight and wearable. It has to be extremely strong to carry sensors and monitors, yet be able to respond to environmental stimuli and conduct signals safely and effectively. The textile must be comfortable and flexible, while retaining its monitoring capabilities after being exposed to sweat or a hazardous environment. Non-standard materials must be created, and complex systems must be fine-tuned to meet the different needs and physiology of individual wearers.
Consumers may desire these “intelligent” features, but they also want clothing with movability, washability and few connections that must be attached to their skin or used with conductive gels. The future may lie with nanotechnology — added during fiber spinning, when forming yarns, or even at the finishing stage. The development of sensors embedded into the fabric could revolutionize textiles and the way we view, wear and use clothing.
Add photo to caption:
Transmission Electron Microscopy of a cotton fiber conformally coated with gold nanoparticles, from Cornell University’s Hinestroza Research Group, which focuses on creating novel and customizable surfaces on conventional textiles (particularly natural fibers) through ALD and electrostatic self-assembly.
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