Smart Clothes and Wearable Technology

Jane McCann, David Bryson

• Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781845695668
• Topic: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Subtopic: Ingegneria meccanica

Smart clothes and wearable technology is a relatively novel and emerging area of interdisciplinary research within the fashion, textile, electronics and related industries. This book provides a comprehensive review of the end-user's requirements and the technologies and materials available for the design and production of smart clothing.Part one looks at the design of smart clothing and wearable technology including the emergence of wearable computing, end-user requirements, and the design process from fibre selection to product launch. Part two examines the general requirements for merging of a range of textile structures with technology and communications for wearable technologies. Part three reviews the types of production technologies available for the development of smart clothing, including garment construction and fabric joining, and the final part discusses the application of these new technologies in smart clothing products and their presentation to consumers.Smart clothes and wearable technology is a unique and essential reference source for researchers, designers and engineers developing textiles and clothing products in this cross-disciplinary area. It is also beneficial for those in the healthcare industry and academics researching textiles, fashion and design.

• Examines this emerging area of textile research including a brief history and industry overview
• Assesses the technologies and materials available for the design and production of smart clothing
• Summarises requirements for smart textiles from both health and performance perspectives

Part I

The design of smart clothing and wearable technology

1

The emergence of wearable computing

M. Malmivaara Tampere University of Technology, Finland

Abstract

In the mid-1990s, the wearables community was convinced that body-worn computing devices would be a sure hit within a decade. Instead, many of the concepts initially designed wearable, such as positioning and imaging found their way into mobile phones. The following is a brief look into the history of wearable computing and it also discusses the reasons why mobile devices beat wearables at their own game.

Key words

wearable computers

wearable electronics

intelligent clothing

concepts

prototypes

mass production

1.1 The first devices

1.1.1 What spawned wearable computing?

A large number of the innovations we use in everyday life, such as Teflon, Gore-Tex and the World Wide Web have their background in military technology. During the latter part of the cold war, military expenditure on both sides of the Atlantic grew and some developments ended up as commercial products. Computer technology certainly benefited from the arms race and even wearable technology was in the military research programs.

Although military influence in wearable technology is undeniable, it was never even an important part in making wearables successful. What was important was that, on the one hand, in the 1980s computers had developed to a point where equipment and parts were more easily available, electronics engineering and computer science were taught in many places over the world and there was a growing enthusiasm for what could be done with electronics and computing. On the other hand, the rapidly growing rate of electronics’ penetration in our work, homes and everyday life brought up interesting new areas of crossover electronics research with, for example, physiology and medicine, cognitive psychology and culture and sub-cultures as an abundance of new viewpoints emerged. However, what really started it all was the World Wide Web. From the 1980s into early 1990s, wearable computing was a hobby and a playground for a small number of people in a few universities and institutes. By the mid-nineties, most North American, European and Japanese schools and universities had an Internet connection and a website (as did many in the rest of the developed countries), and research and studies could be shared all over the world. New ideas could be discussed among peers on a daily basis and web communities brought people closer to each other.

The up-and-coming area of research on wearable computing benefited greatly in many ways. First, finding others interested in something which was nascent, without having to travel across the world to an event which might or might not be relevant to a new area of research. Second, the target group being interested in computing increased the possibility of finding peers online. Third, new research was posted on the Internet and thus helped the community to stay well informed on the state of core research. Fourth, arranging the necessary physical meetings became easier because the hardcore enthusiasts could be summoned online (see also Section 1.2.3). Finally, a wearable personal computer logically has a wireless Internet connection and the most dedicated cyborgs¹ could be online and contacted almost every waking hour of their lives. This led the hardcore community to modify their websites for friendly browsing on a wearable user interface.² Staner of MIT has worn a computer continuously since 1993.³

1.1.2 Definitions

In 1998, the Tampere University of Technology and the University of Lapland and Reima Ltd, set out to explore wearable technology as a shared project. In the project, the different kinds of prototypes, concepts and the few commercial products, needed to be organized into groups for inspection. The work team, consisting of Undergraduate and Masters students of clothing design and industrial design, established the following definition.

Wearable computers

A wearable computer is a computing device assembled in a way which allows it to be worn or carried on the body while still having the user interface ready for use at all times. By constructing it to be body-worn, a wearable computer makes computing possible in situations where even a laptop would be too cumbersome to open up, boot up and interface; a wearable computer can be used all the time, wherever the user goes.

A wearable computer can be very different from a desktop computer, depending on its intended user and tasks. The user interface can allow for both input and output in many ways, depending on physical and ergonomic needs. Input devices can include full qwerty-keypads, special keying devices, and joysticks along with standard function-specific push-buttons. If output is needed, a number of graphic interfaces exist with LCD-displays and head mounted displays (HMD). The user can also be given feedback with sound or vibration.

The most distinctive feature of a wearable computer is its ability to be reprogrammed or reconfigured for another task. This may include adding or changing hardware. A wearable computer can run many programs at the same time, and tasks can be assigned or terminated during operation.

Wearable electronics

Wearable electronics are simpler than full-scale wearable computers. While a wearable computer has both input and output and is capable of adjusting to multiple tasks, wearable electronics are constructed with set tasks to fulfil one or more needs of a specific target group.

Wearable electronics differ from mobile devices by their appearance and by being fundamentally designed to be worn on the body. A true piece of wearable electronics is also required to be worn to function, i.e. conceptually linked to the wearer’s body. Some wearable devices require the user interface to be present and available all the time, meaning they are more obtrusive than devices with no input (such as the wrist unit and the chest belt of a heart-rate monitor).

Intelligent clothing

A jacket with a sewn pocket for a mobile phone does not make an intelligent garment. Clothing is intelligent when it adds something traditionally unclothing-like to the garment, without taking away or compromising any traditional characteristics such as washability or wearability. Ideally, an intelligent garment offers a non-traditional garment function, such as health monitoring, in addition to its traditional function as protecting the body. It could, for example, collect data and either transfer it wirelessly and automatically to an external computing unit or process the data itself, and respond to the computed conclusions without any user interfacing.

1.1.3 The Thorp–Shannon roulette predictor

Within the wearables community, Thorp and Shannon’s (1998) roulette wheel predictor is considered to be the first wearable computer. In 1961, the two mathematicians tested a cigarette pack-sized wearable computer with twelve transistors, a speaker behind the ear for output and a toe-switch for input.⁴ The system required two players, one ‘timer’ and one ‘bettor’. The timer stood at the wheel and timed the spinning of the ball on the rotor and predicted where it would land. The timer would then tap a switch under his big toe to radio the bettor a signal tone indicating the predicted octant on the rotor. The bettor sat at the far end of the roulette table to look inconspicuous. The whole ordeal required a lot of tactics and skill to avoid suspicion and the thin wiring would often break, causing malfunction.

Ed Thorp was a graduate physics student at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) who had spent his childhood tinkering with gadgets. Claude Shannon was a mathematics teacher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a true mathematics scientist who loved solving problems by means of logic and calculation. The two teamed up to try to solve a classic problem involving physics and mathematics, and tested their system out of boyish curiosity in June of 1961 in Las Vegas. The roulette wheel predicting system yielded a gain of +44%, but with fragile wiring and a complicated operating procedure they never got around to risking substantial bets.

As it became clear to Thorp they were not going to exploit the invention, in 1966 and after he decided to publish their work and findings.^5,6,7 This comprehensive scientific documentation probably has earned the creation the title of ‘the first wearable computer’. Although the roulette wheel predictor had not much computing power, it demonstrates perfectly the emergence of wearable computing. The first examples were indeed hand-built devices constructed from scratch components, and they were conceived from curiosity of how things work and a joy of tinkering.

1.1.4 Mann’s Wearcam

In the early 1980s, photographer Steve Mann built a wearable system with photography equipment. It was a system of flashlights, batteries and cameras constructed in a backpack and a helmet (see Fig. 1.1). Mann went on to study computer science at MIT and continued his interest in wearable applications. He was one of the key figures in the MIT Wearables Laboratory, which in the early 90s stood for much of the initial theoretical and practical research into wearable computing. Steve Mann was one of the founding members of the International Symposium for Wearable Computers (ISWC, see Section 1.2.3).

1.1 Evolution of Steve Mann’s wearable computers from 1980 to the late 1990s.

Dr Mann is mostly known for his work in augmented and altered/mediated reality, i.e. capturing the visible environment by a video camera and editing and projecting the image onto his custom eyeglasses.⁸ In augmented reality, additional information, such as previously posted digital notes or sensory data, is added to the display in the glasses. In altered/mediated reality, the computer controls the image projected in the glasses and edits out or adds images as programmed. Offending or unwanted material, such as advertising, can be replaced with natural scenery or other images. Having worn a wearable computer with a camera for years, Steve Mann has also come into contact with society’s and authorities’ view on imaging in public places. With the rules of imaging in public spaces being somewhat obscure, it is sometimes hard to explain one’s wearable equipment and one’s vision being dependent on a body-worn camera. Dr Mann has studied the opposites of personal imaging versus public security cameras found everywhere from streets to grocery stores to stations and airports.⁹ He is currently a faculty member at the Department of Electrical Engineering, The University of Toronto.

1.2 The first wearable computers

1.2.1 The cyborgs

Like any established subculture, wearable computing also has its legends, the pioneers who started it all. In the world of wearables, the story very much began in North America and so the early key figures were mostly American.

The cradle of wearable computing was where research resources could be expended in new technology and where the slightly unusual pursuits of science were not weeded out. Among the most thriving habitats were Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA (Gatech), Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA (CMU) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. These universities ran research programs in exciting areas, such as computer science, computer technology, virtual reality, human sensory studies, user interfaces and new media. Some of the tech geeks at the time were irritated by the inadequacies of Personal Data Assistants (PDA) and laptop computers. The user interfaces were one problem: the screen of a...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright page
• Contributor contact details
• Woodhead Publishing in Textiles
• Preface
• Part I: The design of smart clothing and wearable technology
• Part II: Materials and technologies for smart clothing
• Part III: Production technologies for smart clothing
• Part IV: Smart clothing products
• Index