Wear health on your sleeve!

Smart fabrics will be able to collect, store, send and receive information… the only limit is your imagination! Norbert Rego reports

WE have smartphones, smart TVs and smart cars, why not another everyday item — smart fabrics with a semblance of intelligence. This is any fabric that comes integrated with sensors, displays, transmitters or actuators. 

    According to Cornell University fibre scientist Juan Hines t r o z a , e ve r yd ay cotton can be turned into hi-tech f ab r i c, wh i c h c o u l d sense body temperature automatically heat up or cool down, track heart rate and blood pressure in high-risk patients, and monitor the physical effort of high-performance athletes. For instance, the ElectroScience Laboratory at Ohio State University is working on 'smart textiles', which comprise wearable fabrics embedded with electronics. These will be able to collect, store, send and receive information and their application depends on your imagination. 
The new mantra 
Wear your way to better health might be the new mantra. We wear clothes to look decent and to keep us warm or cool, but Celliant's responsive textile interacts with the body's electromagnetic emissions to induce increased oxygenation and blood flow. AT&T's E39 shirt tracks your heart rate, body temperature and other vital signs, uploading the results to a web portal whenever it falls under a Wi-Fi connection. The Intelligent Tshirt, designed by scientists at Spain's Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), can remotely monitor your temperature, heart rate, activity level, position and location. 
In India, we have the Smart Vest, which has sensors and an electronic chip embedded to monitor the health of its wearer. The chip collects health data such as respiration pattern, body temperature, heart beat, blood pressure and ECG and sends it wirelessly to the designated instruments. These instruments can be the dongle attached to a PC, a mobile phone, etc. The chip can also store the information for later use. The Vest contains GPS, allowing the wearer to be tracked and evacuated during an emergency. Dr MP Agarwal, chairman and MD, Shri Lakshmi Cotsyn Ltd, says, "Doctors will be able to monitor patients sitting far away. Defence officials sitting at the control room will be able to monitor health of soldiers' in the frontline as well as identify their location. Depending on a soldier's health, the control room can direct medical aid or arrange evacuation. One can monitor one's own health or of family round-the-clock and in realtime — be it from home, office or even when on a trip. The electronic chips on the Vest can be linked to a physician's computer or mobile phone." 
Sleep well 
Nyx Devices has come out with a Somnus Sleep Shirt that measures the wearer's breathing as they move about the bed. Its sleep logger can record sleep data for up to five nights. 
    Basic smart fabrics, such as rollable keyboards and bio-monitoring clothing, are available, but full integration of smart fabrics into consumer and professional IT systems is a decade away. 
    Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst, Gartner, says, "Smart fabrics have the potential to revolutionise how we interact with data, applications and devices. Broader use of sensors that are fully integrated into the fabric, such as materials that measure stress and pressure, are still evolving. Most smart fabrics are currently at the stage of laboratory projects, concepts or niche applications. Consumer awareness of the concept, technologies and many applications is low and, where known, it is perceived as 'geeky' and futuristic." 
Real-world possibilities 
But public awareness of the real-world possibilities of smart fabrics is growing. "Advancements in smart fabric technology offer a variety of 
    applications —medical, sport, c o n s u m e r electronics, space missions, etc," adds Gupta. For example, a car seat with an integrated pressure sensor could detect the presence of an individual driver, adjust to their seat position preference, pair up with their smartphone and start playing their favourite playlist through the vehicle's stereo. Inseat temperature monitoring could automatically regulate air-conditioning to keep the driver comfortable. Induction charging built into the leather armrest can charge the user's phone without need for a plug or plastic plate. 
    "At present, the market for smart fabric is fragmented and in its early stages, but is poised for growth over the next decade. We expect demand for smart fabric technology will escalate as new products and new application areas emerge and move beyond their current commercial niches," believes Gupta.