Integrating electronics into clothing is a major new concept, which opens up a whole array of multi-functional, wearable electro-textiles for sensing/monitoring body functions, delivering communication facilities, data transfer, individual environment control, and many other applications. With revolutionary advancements occurring at an unprecedented rate in many fields of science and electronics the possibilities offered by wearable technologies are tremendous and widespread. These advancements will transform the world and will soon begin to permeate into commercial products. The first section of the book discusses the materials and devices used in the field, including electro-statically generated nanofibres, electroceramic fibres and composites and electroactive fabrics. It summarizes recent developments in electrically conductive fabric structures and puts together a few theoretical treatments of the electro-mechanical properties of various fabric structures. The next section reviews topics related to wearable photonics such as fibre optic sensors and integrated smart textile structures, the developments in various flexible photonic display technologies as well as looking at current communication apparel and optical fibre fabric displays. Next the book focuses on integrated structures and system architectures. Finally the issues facing a fashion designer working with wearables are explored. Wearable electronics and photonics covers many aspects of the cutting-edge research and development into this exciting field and provides a window through which only a small portion of the exciting emerging technology can be seen. With contributions from a panel of international experts in the field this is an essential guide for all electrical, textile and biomedical engineers as well as academics and fashion designers.
Author(s): Textile Institute
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 250
Contents......Page 6
Contributor contact details......Page 10
Preface......Page 14
1.1 Overview......Page 16
1.2 Current and future wearable technology......Page 17
1.3 Applications of wearable electronics and photonics......Page 23
1.4 Implications of wearable technology......Page 25
1.5 References......Page 27
2.1 Introduction......Page 28
2.2 Electrospinning process......Page 30
2.3 Electroactive nanofibres......Page 36
2.4 Ultra-low dielectric constant of nanocomposite fibrous film......Page 49
2.5 Conclusions......Page 52
2.6 Acknowledgements......Page 53
2.7 References......Page 54
3.1 Introduction......Page 56
3.2 Fabrication of samarium and manganese doped lead titanate fibres......Page 57
3.3 Fabrication of ceramic fibre/epoxy 1-3 composites......Page 60
3.5 The modified parallel and series model of ceramic/polymer 1-3 composites......Page 64
3.6 Possible uses of ceramic fibres and composites in intelligent apparel applications......Page 69
3.8 References......Page 70
4.1 Introduction......Page 74
4.2 Sensing fabrics......Page 77
4.3 Actuating fabrics......Page 82
4.5 Smart fabrics for motion capture......Page 86
4.6 Smart textiles as kinaesthetic interfaces......Page 91
4.9 References......Page 94
5.1 Introduction......Page 96
5.2 Conductive textiles......Page 97
5.3 Electromechanical properties of PPy-coated conductive fibres/yarns......Page 99
5.4 Performance of electrically conductive fabrics......Page 110
5.5 Applications......Page 116
5.6 Conclusions......Page 117
5.8 References......Page 118
6.1 Introduction......Page 120
6.2 Smart textiles......Page 122
6.3 Modelling and analysis......Page 126
6.4 Manufacturing of smart textiles......Page 130
6.5 Applications of smart textiles......Page 139
6.7 References......Page 148
6.8 Bibliography......Page 149
7.2 Photonic band-gap materials......Page 151
7.3 Fibre-harvesting ambient light-reflective displays......Page 153
7.4 Opto-amplification in active disordered media and photonic band-gap structures......Page 155
7.5 Electroluminescent fibres and fabrics......Page 160
7.7 Acknowledgements......Page 166
7.8 References......Page 167
8.1 Introduction......Page 170
8.2 Communication apparel......Page 171
8.3 Optical fibre fabric display......Page 178
8.5 References......Page 189
9.1 Introduction......Page 192
9.2 Why is clothing an ideal place for intelligent systems?......Page 193
9.3 Electronic textiles......Page 194
9.4 Electrical characterisation of textile networks......Page 199
9.5 Conclusions......Page 209
9.6 Future challenges......Page 210
9.7 References......Page 211
10.1 Introduction......Page 213
10.2 Smart clothing concept model......Page 214
10.3 Data transfer in smart clothing......Page 217
10.4 Implementations for communication......Page 229
10.6 References......Page 235
11.1 Introduction......Page 238
11.2 Knowledge age: dematerialisation of information and com-munications technology and the rise of ubiquitous intelligence......Page 239
11.3 New commercial imperatives......Page 241
11.4 Design and development: multidisciplinary collaboration......Page 243
11.5 A new language for textiles: combining the real and the virtual......Page 244
11.6 Technology enablers......Page 251
11.7 Future technology enablers......Page 254
11.8 Conclusions......Page 255
11.10 References......Page 256
11.11 Sources of further information......Page 257
Index......Page 259
