How to shape the future of smart clothing

Abstract

Smart textiles are garments with integrated sensors and actuators which have a large potential of being beneficial in our future society. These textiles can monitor our health condition during daily life, remind us to do some extra fitness activities or warn us when our blood pressure is too high or when our heart beating becomes irregular. They can be used in hospitals for the continuous monitoring of patients but also to help soldiers navigating the dark and athletes to optimize their performance. During the last 10 years three major smart textile related developments can be noted. First of all the sensors for wearables have become smaller, more reliable and easier to use. Next to that in the field of textile engineering new, and better electrical conducting yarns were developed which can be handled in textile production processes such as knitting and weaving. Thirdly, in the field of information technologies much more efficient algorithms for data processing and interpretation have been developed and more can be expected from the developments in artificial intelligence. Based on this the market for smart textiles is expected to grow exponentially but although researchers have been working on smart textiles already for a long time, we do not see them in the shop next-door yet. In this paper we will discuss the developments and trends, list the challenges and propose a strategy to come to the next generation of Smart Textiles.