Scientometric analysis of research in smart clothing: State of the art and future direction

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to investigate research trends on smart textile and clothing and to suggest future research directions on smart textile and clothing by using scientometrics approach. The research of smart clothing was divided into five categories: technology, human factors, application, manufacturing, and consumer demands and retailing. Technology emerged as the dominant category suggesting technological development of smart materials and wearable input devices have been intensively studied and have provided a solid foundation for smart clothing research. The number of research on output devices and data and power transportation showed a gradually increasing trend since 2000. Analysis on technical collaboration among each research field showed a high correlation between input technology and the three main categories: smart materials, functional application and, manufacturing. Material sciences, electronic engineering and computer sciences were shown to be major research disciplines to lead smart clothing research based on quantity of publications. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.