'Active Fabrics' for Digital Soldiers written by Peter Barnes, Tech Live Washington, DC bureau chief on Thursday, March 21, 2002 See how the military is looking into materials that could help soldiers in the wars of the future, Thursday 3/21 at 9 p.m. Eastern on 'Tech Live.' Imagine a fabric that can double as a radio antenna. Before long, soldiers may be wearing just such a textile into battle. The Pentagon is testing "active fabrics," or "e-fabrics," created to conduct heat and electrici ...

US firm Microvision has developed a system that projects lasers onto the retina, allowing users to view images on top of their normal field of vision. It could allow surgeons to get a bird's eye view of the innards of a patient, offer soldiers a view of the entire battlefield and provide mechanics with a simulation of the inside of a car's engine. The system uses tiny lasers, which scan their light onto the retina to produce the entire range of human vision. Microvision say the technology is s ...

A 'smart bullet' that can be fired at a target and then wirelessly transmit back useful information has been developed by US researchers. The projectile, created at the University of Florida is 1.7 centimetres in diameter can be fired at from an ordinary paint-ball gun. The front is coated in an adhesive polymer that sticks it to the target. Inside, the elongated projectile holds a sensor, a tiny wireless transmitter and a battery. This enables it to report back its findings to a laptop or han ...

A new computer chip promises to keep police guns from firing if they fall into the wrong hands. The tiny chip would be implanted in a police officer's hand and would match up with a scanning device inside a handgun. If the officer and gun match, a digital signal unlocks the trigger so it can be fired. But if a child or criminal would get hold of the gun, it would be useless. The technology is the latest attempt to create a so-called 'smart gun' and could be marketed to law enforcement agencies ...

03/10/2002 - Updated 09:06 PM ET By Theresa Howard, USA TODAY Champion Champion bra features X-Static fiber, which provides anti-microbial performance to eliminate odors. What have your clothes done for you lately? Forget push-up bras and tummy-control pantyhose. This year's spring apparel lines are full of "smart" clothes. They feature functional, high-tech fabrics that wick away perspiration, repel stains, massage, moisturize and battle cellulite. The can-do clothes inspired by ...

Full text Pdf (3.06 MB) Source 3D technologies for the World Wide Web archive Proceeding of the eighth international conference on 3D Web technology table of contents Saint Malo, France SESSION: Session 3 table of contents Pages: 73 - ff Year of Publication: 2003 ISBN:1-58113-644-7 Authors Luca Chittaro University of Udine, via delle Scienze 206, Udine, Italy Demis Corvaglia University of Udine, via delle Scienze 206, Udine, Italy Sponsor SIGGRAPH: ACM Special Int ...

Kristof Van Laerhoven, Nicolas Villar and Hans-Werner Gellersen Department of Computing Lancaster University LA14YR Lancaster, United Kingdom {kristof, villar, hwg}@comp.lancs.ac.uk Abstract. The integration of digital components into clothing is becoming an increasingly important segment in wearable computing research. The first indications for this trend are the incorporation of existing mobile technologies, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) or mobile phones, into jackets via ...

Iyad Obeida, , , Miguel A. L. Nicolelisa, b, c, d and Patrick D. Wolfa a Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA b Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA c Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA d Co-director-Duke Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA Received 10 February 2003; revised 9 June 2003; accepted 12 September 2003. ; Available online ...

Christophe Wolinski Maya Gokhale Kevin McCabe Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, NM, U.S.A. Abstract We describe a new cellular array architecture and its implementation on a Configurable System on a Chip (CSOC). In this architecture, an array of computing cells communicate with a conventional processor over a global memory. The architecture is customizable to a class of applications by funtional unit, interconnect, and memory parameters. The architecture is flexible enough to a ...

Mark Jones, Tom Martin, and Zahi Nakad Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg VA 24061-0111 Abstract. E-textile technology is rapidly progressing, allowing for the development of truly wearable computers as well as very large-scale computing textiles. Efficient development of applications on etextiles will require significant software services support. This paper analyzes two representative e-textile applications for their software service requirements. Based on this an ...

Aaron Toney, Lucy Dunne, Bruce H. Thomas, Susan P. Ashdown Wearable Computer Laboratory School of Computer and Information Science University of South Australia aaron.toney@hhhh.org, bruce.thomas@unisa.edu.au Seventh International Symposium on Wearable Computers, October 21st - 23rd, 2003 Abstract Touch is the most intimate and inherently private human sense and provides the potential for discrete, low social weight human computer interaction. This paper presents initial research findi ...

TECH SPACE Sydney - Feb 26, 2002 Car seats that wake up drowsy drivers, bed sheets that monitor your health, socks that let you know when you are about to do a tendon, vests that trigger an emergency beacon if you are dying of exposure - that's what an eclectic mix of researchers spent last Friday discussing as part of an Electronic Textiles workshop in Geelong. The textile scientists, polymer chemists, physicists, and bioengineers from around the world met at CSIRO Textile and Fibre Technolo ...

Publication Date: May 2004 On page(s): 295- 297 Volume: 25, Issue: 5 ISSN: 0741-3106 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract: We present a new type of electronic circuits: e-textiles. Such circuits are made by weaving together specialized component fibers. The fibers have electronic components integrated onto them. Various circuits can be formed by weaving these fibers in various patterns. Connections between fibers are made using contact pads, which are free to move against each other, thus keeping the fabric flexible. We use amorphous silicon thin-film transistors as the active devices and present their fabrication on fiber as well as an inverter circuit woven from the fibers. Article is available to subscribers.

Heidi L. Schreuder-Gibson and Mary Lynn Realff, Guest Editors MRS BULLETIN/AUGUST 2003 Abstract This brief article describes the content of the August 2003 issue of MRS Bulletin focusing on Advanced Fabrics. The six articles will feature reviews of advanced fibers, new fabric constructions and design considerations, materials for novel fabric properties, and the incorporation of new elements within fabric structures to add multifunctional, wearable features to clothing.

Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab. Jennifer Healey & Grant Gould One goal of the Affective Computing project is to build computer systems that can sense users' emotional states. One approach to achieving this goal is through affective wearable computing -- wearing small but powerful computers in your clothing that use non-invasive biosensors to sense biophysiological changes that reflect changes in emotional state. The Affective Jewelry project is an attempt to create low ...

Ambient Intelligence Visions and Achievements: Linking Abstract Ideas toReal-World Concepts 1/03 Menno Lindwer ¢¡, Diana Marculescu£¥¤, Twan Basten¦§¡, Rainer Zimmermann ,Radu Marculescu£§¤, Stefan Jung©, Eugenio Cantatore Philips Research, Eindhoven, The NetherlandsCarnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, PA, USAEindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The NetherlandsEuropean Commission, Brussels, BelgiumInfineon Technologies, Corporate Research, Emerging Technologies, Munich, Germany Ab ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society Eitan Bonderover1, Sigurd Wagner1 and Zhigang Suo2 1Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, U.S.A. 2Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, U.S.A. ABSTRACT The textile industry uses weaving to create very large quantities of fabric very quickly. The goal of our research is to use this well established technology to create com ...

The versatility of textiles lends itself so well to the intelligent type of products that we are only limited by our imagination. In the focus there should stand silicon fibres, silicon carbide fibres, silicon oxide glass fibres and plastic fibres in their relation to other natural or man-made fibres. Emerging technologies which are expected to become widely available in all areas of our lives, including commercial, industrial, domestic and leisure applications, Computational fibre applicatio ...

Mark Jones, Tom Martin, Zahi Nakad, Ravi Shenoy, Tanwir Sheikh, David Lehn, Joshua Edmison, Madhup Chandra Virginia Tech Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Blacksburg, VA 24061 E-mail: {tlmartin, mtj}@vt.edu Phone: (540) 231 1739 Fax: (540) 231 8292 Abstract: E-textiles are an alternative to radio-based personal area networks, with potentially significant advantages in hardware cost and energy consumption, through a reduction in the number of communication modul ...

This project involves the creation of dynamic textiles by integrating Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and electronic circuitry into the structure of hand woven fabrics. Three intersecting research streams are being developed: 1. Artworks will address the nature of communications in a changing world and can take many forms including installation work and suspended fabric display. The research team will compile an Atlas of Patterns for programming into the LED array. Patterns and texts will be rela ...

Art Business News; 3/1/2002 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Kinetronics Corp. of Sarasota, Fla., introduces "ASG" anti-static gloves for handling and cleaning glass. The specially knitted gloves are made from a blend of microfiber and conductive fibers. The conductive fibers prevent static charges from bu...

Application of Vibration Technology to Polymer Electrospinning Ji-Huan He**a,b, Yu-Qin Wanc,b, Jian-Yong Yuc, 2004 Freund Publishing House Ltd. International Journal of Nonlinear Sciences and Numerical Simulation Abstract Electrospinning is a novel process for producing superfine fibers by forcing a polymer melt or solution through a spinnerette with an electric field. Application of vibration technology in polymer processes such as injection molding, extrusion and compression molding/thermo ...

Florian Michahelles, , a, Peter Mattera, Albrecht Schmidt, b and Bernt Schiele, , a a Perceptual Computing & Computer Vision Group, Computer Science Department, ETH Zurich, IFWC 28, Zurich 8092, Switzerland b Media Informatics Group, University of Munich, Germany Available online 9 October 2003. Abstract We present a novel approach to enhance avalanche companion rescue using wearable sensing technologies. The time to find and extricate victims is most crucial: once buried by an avalanc ...

SMARTEX s.r.l. is a limited liability company founded in 1999 with the aim to develop research and innovation activities in the textile field. The company was created to answer the need of innovation and hi-technology transfer processes toward the textile world. At present several leading manufacturing textile industries like Milior SpA, Lineapiù Spa and Ermenegildo Zegna Spa are funding the research activities of Smartex, the funding consortium including also Virginia-Antea Gestioni Spa and Gab ...

Volume 28, No. 8 August 2003 MRS Doetze J. Sikkema, Maurits G. Northolt, and Behnam Pourdeyhimi Abstract High-performance fibers, used in fabric applications ranging from bulletproof vests to trampolines, must have a sufficient number of chemical and physical bonds for transferring the stress along the fiber. To limit their deformation, the fibers should possess high stiffness and strength. Stiffness is brought about by the degree to which the chemical bonds are aligned along the fiber a ...

Brian Dance, Contributing Editor Semiconductor International 2/1/2002 Abstract: Softswitch (Yorkshire, UK) has developed a fabric that is expected to lead to display devices based on fabric materials within the next few years. These materials have already been used to develop low-resolution displays with pixel sizes of 1-2 mm. However, the company claims that, within two years, its fabric displays will be able to offer the same quality images as light-emitting polyme... The complete text of this article is available only to registered users. New users: Register for FREE and complete site access.

Medical Textiles; 8/1/2002 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » A new sensory fabric, developed by the Design for Life Centre at the UK's Brunel University, could have several potential uses in the healthcare industry. Called Detect, the single-layer woven fabric incorporates electronically conductive fibres and is sensitive to pressure. Detect measures or responds to the position, area, shape or pressure of a physical contact, thereby identifying and responding to human touch. Pressure-sensitive monitoring points can also be added to existing fabric components, such as clothing, bedding and upholstery, allowing it to be used in a wi...

Building smart materials based on carbon nanotubes Publication Date: Jul 2004 Sachin B. Jain, Phil Kang, Yeo-Heung Yun, Tony He, Sri Laxmi Pammi, Atul Muskin, Suhasini Narasimhadevara, Douglas Hurd, Mark J. Schulz, Jennifer Chase, Srinivas Subramaniam, Vesselin Shanov, F. J. Boerio, Donglu Shi, Rob Gilliland, David Mast, Chris Sloan Publication: Proc. SPIE Vol. 5389, p. 167-175, Smart Structures and Materials 2004: Smart Electronics, MEMS, BioMEMS, and Nanotechnology; Vijay K. Varadan; E ...

Soon your sunglasses could help you capture all the important moments of your life. A prototype pair of sunglasses with a camera built in to them has been created by Hewlett Packard researchers. The sunglasses developed at the HP labs in the UK sport a camera that constantly takes images of what a wearer sees. The camera also has an off-switch to preserve privacy. To tackle image overload, the HP system captures information about images, called metadata, too. This extra data keeps track of how ...

Diana Marculescu, Radu Marculescu, Pradeep K. Khosla Carnegie Mellon University International Interactive Textiles for the Warrior Conference, Boston, MA, July 2002 Abstract and motivation We address the modeling and analysis of e-textiles, an emerging technology that combines the strengths and capabilities of electronics and textiles in one. In etextiles , sensors and simple processing elements are embedded into yarns, with the goal of gathering sensitive information, doing local comput ...

Volume 28, No. 8 August 2003 MRS Heidi L. Schreuder-Gibson, Quoc Truong, John E. Walker, Jeffery R. Owens, Joseph D. Wander, and Wayne E. Jones Jr. Abstract Military, firefighter, law enforcement, and medical personnel require high-level protection when dealing with chemical and biological threats in many environments ranging from combat to urban, agricultural, and industrial. Current protective clothing is based on full barrier protection, such as hazardous materials (HAZMAT) suits, or ...

Car seats that wake up drowsy drivers, bed sheets that monitor your health, socks that let you know when you are about to do a tendon, vests that trigger an emergency beacon if you are dying of exposure - that's what an eclectic mix of researchers spent last Friday discussing as part of an Electronic Textiles workshop in Geelong. The textile scientists, polymer chemists, physicists, and bioengineers from around the world met at CSIRO Textile and Fibre Technology not only to dream about the gar ...

Coming Soon: Light-Emitting Pants And Moisturizing Tops Canada : 8th April 2003 This spring, the surfing fabric Neoprene appears in dresses, jackets and tops from such haute designers as Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton. Prada's spring line includes Teflon-coated cargo pants, as does Ralph Lauren's new workout line, RLX. And silver, nylon and metal fabrics are a feature for fall with Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana and John Galliano. In a world where luxury is becoming commonplace, science is t ...

Communicating Clothing November 2002 France Telecom R&D Clothing, backpacks, scarves and fashion accessories can carry flexible, fiber-optics screens (www.studio-creatif.com). Clothing, like the other objects in our environment, is a new type of interface capable of providing information in a virtual form: motifs, texts, photos and other means of expression. Several times, France Telecom's Studio Creatif has presented an example of clothing that is capable of displaying messages at will. ...

Medical Textiles; 8/1/2002 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » A composite elastic and wire apparel fabric for monitoring vital bodily functions is described in US Patent 6 341 504 by VivoMetrics. The fabric contains one or more elongated bands of elastic material, made from an elastane fibre such as Lycra or Spandex, that are stretchable longitudinally. Each of these bands includes at least one conductive wire that is used for physiological monitoring. As the fabric stretches, the curvature of the conductive wire changes, says the company of Ventura, California, USA. As this occurs, the inductance of the wire varies, which is...

Composite fibres light up 13 October 2004 Belle Dumé IOP Publishing LTD Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created novel optoelectronic fibres that contain metal, insulator and semiconductor layers. The fibres can be woven into a "spectrometric fabric" that could be used in devices such as photodetectors, and might also have applications in light-sensitive materials for clothing (M Bayindir et al. 2004 Nature 431 826). Composites made of conductors, semicondu ...

Volume 28, No. 8 August 2003 MRS Jim Barry, Roger Hill, Paul Brasser, Michal Sobera, Chris Kleijn, and Phil Gibson Abstract Protective clothing provides laboratory and hazardous-materials workers, firefighters, military personnel, and others with the means to control their exposure to chemicals, biological materials, and heat sources. Depending on the specific application, the textile materials used in protective clothing must provide high performance in a number of areas, for example, i ...

By James J. Barry, Principal Engineer, and Roger W. Hill, Engineer, Creare Inc ABSTRACT Models based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) have been developed to predict the performance of chemical and steam/fire protective clothing. The software computes the diffusive and convective transport of heat and gases/vapors; capillary transport of liquids; vapor and liquid sorption phenomena and phase change; and the variable properties of the various clothing layers. It can also model the effects ...

By David Pescovitz, Mon Aug 09 07:00:00 GMT 2004 Thanks to advances in nanotechnology, organic electronics and wireless, electronic textiles are almost ready to wear. In the future, we'll all dress smartly. Well, sort of. Advances in electronic textiles promise evening wear that changes color based on mood, undershirts that dispense medicine, and wirelessly-enabled coats that forecast the weather. While the science fiction vision of electrified clothing is not new, the enabling technologies a ...

Volume 28, No. 8 August 2003 MRS Yong K. Kim and Armand F. Lewis Abstract This review examines textile fibers and fabrics in the context of their interaction with various forms of energy, such as electromagnetic (photolytic), electrical, magnetic, thermal, chemical, and mechanical. This interaction can involve conversion, storage, or management of energy. Examples are described suggesting some new material configurations that could be incorporated into textiles to create special energy-in ...

Concepts for smart nanocomposite materials Publication Date: Oct 2003 SriLaxmi Pammi, Courtney Brown, Saurabh Datta, Goutham R. Kirikera, Mark J. Schulz Publication: Proc. SPIE Vol. 5062, p. 629-636, Smart Materials, Structures, and Systems; S. Mohan, B. Dattaguru, S. Gopalakrishnan; Eds. Abstract This paper explores concepts for new smart materials that have extraordinary properties based on nanotechnology. Carbon and boron nitride nanotubes in theory can be used to manufacture fibe ...

Advances in Textiles Technology; 1/1/2003 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » A Japanese firm has patented a fine electrically conductive fibre, as well as a conductive yarn made from the fibre. In US Patent 6 333 107, Osaka-based Otsuka Kagaku KK says its invention has a fibrous core coated with an electroconductive substance. On average, the fibre length is 1-5 [micro] m and the diameter is 0.01-0.5 [micro] m; the as...

Intelligent Textiles web site Conductive fabrics combine the latest high wicking finishes with high metallic content in textiles that still retain the comfort required for clothing. With the addition of nickel, copper and silver coatings of varying thickness, these fibres provide a versatile combination of physical and electrical properties for a variety of demanding applications. For example, the thousand-fold increase in thermal conductivity of metal over conventional polymers used in clothin ...

Controller Design for a Wearable, Near-Field Haptic Display 2003 Robert W. Lindeman Justin R. Cutler Department of Computer Science The George Washington University 801 22nd St NW Washington, DC 20052 {gogo | jrcutler}@gwu.edu Abstract In this paper, we address the problem of providing near-field haptic feedback in a wearable, scalable manner. Our solution, called the TactaBoard, supports the independent control of 16 outputs on a single controller board using a standard serial port. ...

CRAIG International Ballistics Craig International Ballistics is a family based company located on the Gold Coast, in Queensland, Australia. Although it is a small organization, it has completed a number of major projects. This is due to its innovative approach to engineering solutions, and its commitment to research and development. Its procedures and methodology are characterized by a practical, even a minimalist approach. This has resulted in a number of unique developments, which has enabl ...

6 July 2003 While wool is a wonderful textile that’s hardwearing, versatile and soft, the word ‘intelligent’ is not one that springs to mind when describing the fleece of a sheep! But wool is getting smarter as amazing things are being done with textiles that include incorporating wearable electronics that can tell where, when and how they are touched. Contact: Dr. Nathan Ly, Program Manager Fibre Processing, Products and Services, Australian Wool Innovation Ltd., GPO Box 4177, Sydney, NSW. 2000. Australia International Telephone: +61 2] 9299 5155 FAX: +61 2] 9299 9880 Email: nathanly@woolinnovation.com.au Website: http://www.wool.com.au

1 June 2004 - Advances in Technical Textiles Crimped homofilament fibres Homofilament fibres can be meltspun from a dual capillary spinneret having different shapes so as to induce differential fibre morphologies resulting in crimping, according to Kimberly-Clark. In International Patent WO 02/052073, the company from Neenah, Wisconsin, USA, says that quenching and drawing the fibres further aids the crimping. Kimberly-Clark’s crimped fibres are produced by joining streams of polymer as they ...

1 May 2004 - Advances in Technical Textiles Crimped homofilaments A heat-treated nonwoven based on crimped homofilaments is the subject of International Patent WO 02/05725. Patent applicant Kimberly-Clark Worldwide Inc of Neenah, Wisconsin, USA, says crimped homofilaments will continue crimping after extrusion until stasis or equilibrium is reached and that intra-filament tensions produced during extrusion induce fibre crimp. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page no: 6 Approx no of words: 290 To order full article click here

Current Trends of Wearable Computing: State of the Art in Context – Awareness and Conductive Textiles Mathias Moehring* Bauhaus University Weimar Bernhard Bittorf‡ Bauhaus University Weimar 2003 Abstract Computer hardware becomes smaller, faster and less energy consuming. This makes it possible, to create wearable devices, that are capable of applications, making everydays life for their user much more comfortable. This paper presents current trends in wearable computing, displaying what i ...

Posted July 8th, 2004 A new material which is set to revolutionise the way we protect our bodies from impact and injury is being launched by specialist technology company d3o Lab. d3o Lab were granted a government SMART award in 2001 and following a significant breakthrough they secured a second award in 2003 for the development which is now nearing commercialisation. Since 2000 Richard Palmer and Dr. Phil Green have been working out of the University of Hertfordshire’s research and developme ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society Margaret Orth, PhD International Fashion Machines, Inc. 32R Essex Street Cambridge, MA 02139 ABSTRACT In order for electronic textiles to truly qualify as textiles, they must maintain one of the intrinsic qualities of textiles, flexibility, or the ability to resist permanent deformation under bending, lateral stress and strain. Flexibility will allow electric textiles to be intimate, soft, wearable, conformable and dura ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society Michael G. Mauk*, Bryan W. Feyock, Jeremy R. Balliet, and Todd R. Ruffins AstroPower, Inc. Solar Park, Newark, Delaware USA 19716-2000 *author for correspondence: mauk@astropower.com ABSTRACT Semiconductor p-n junctions formed in a cylindrical geometry as concentric cladding layers surrounding a wire or fiber ‘substrate’ could have significant advantages for optoelectronic devices such as LEDs and solar cells, especially ...

Dave I. Lehn dlehn@vt.edu Craig W. Neely cneely@vt.edu Kevin Schoonover kschoono@vt.edu 29 April 2003 Abstract This research presents the design and implementation of E-Textile "buttons". These buttons are small computing, sensor, or actuator devices integrated onto a PCB which is attached to an e-textile substrate. This research studies various attachment techniques and the physical realization of a communications strategy using the I2C bus. Please visit the web site to view the article in its entirety.

Designers Develop 'Anti-Molestation' Jacket For Women India : 26th May 2004 Two young designers here have developed a unique safety jacket for women that will repel assaulters with a mild electric shock. The 'anti-molestation' jacket will protect the wearer, particularly women, from molesters and muggers. Designed by Kumar Roshan and Shilpi Vaish of the city's National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), the innovative jackets come at Rs. 855 apiece. The safety device works usin ...

Development of smart textiles with embedded fiber optic chemical sensors Publication Date: Mar 2004 Saif E. Khalil, Jianming Yuan, Mahmoud A. El-Sherif Publication: Proc. SPIE Vol. 5270, p. 38-49, Environmental Monitoring and Remediation III; Tuan Vo-Dinh, Guenter Gauglitz, Robert A. Lieberman, Klaus P. Schaefer, Dennis K. Killinger; Eds. Abstract Smart textiles are defined as textiles capable of monitoring their own health conditions or structural behavior, as well as sensing extern ...

Development of the piezoelectric fiber and application for the smart board Publication Date: Oct 2003 Hiroshi Sato, Yoshiro Shimojo, Tadashi Sekiya Publication: Proc. SPIE Vol. 5062, p. 292-296, Smart Materials, Structures, and Systems; S. Mohan, B. Dattaguru, S. Gopalakrishnan; Eds. Abstract In an attempt to develop piezoelectric sensor and actuator for smart board, complex piezoelectric fibers with metal core were fabricated by both hydrothermal method and extrusion method. The ins ...

Keisuke Hachisuka, , a, Azusa Nakataa, Teruhito Takedaa, Kenji Shibab, Ken Sasakia, Hiroshi Hosakaa and Kiyoshi Itaoa a Department of Environmental Studies, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan b Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Science & Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda-shi, Chiba 278-8510, Japan Received 19 July 2002; revised 24 January 2003; accepted 8 February 2003. ; ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society Anuj Dhawan, Tushar K. Ghosh, Abdelfattah M. Seyam, and John Muth1 College of Textiles, NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, U.S.A. 1College of Electrical Engineering, NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, U.S.A ABSTRACT This paper describes the development of woven electrical circuits, which are formed by interlacing conducting and non-conducting threads into a woven fabric. Conductive threads in these electrical ...

Daily News Record; 6/7/2004 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Byline: DAVID LIPKE NEW YORK -- Dockers may be on the selling block, but that hasn't plugged up its product pipeline. The Levi Strauss & Co. casual pant unit is introducing three proprietary innovations for its pants and shirts, including the Never-Iron Cotton pant, which is the company's most wrinkle-resistant pant to date; the Thermal Adapt Khaki, which helps regulate body temperature by absorbing body heat; and Perspiration Guard shirts, which prevent sweat stains from showing through fabric. The first Perspiration Guard shirts will debut this fall, fo...

Down the Line: New Plastic Conducts Electricity 08/01/2004 1999-2004 Data Depth Corporation Researchers have developed a new plastic that conducts electricity, may be simpler to manufacture than alternatives and easily accommodates chemical attachments to create new materials. Oligotron polymers are made of tiny bits of material that possess a conducting center and two nonconducting end pieces. The end pieces allow the plastic bits to dissolve in solvents and accommodate specialized molecu ...

David Pescovitz UC Berkeley College of Engineering Volume 4, Issue 2 February/March 2004 Someday soon, dressing smartly may take on a whole new meaning. Electronic textiles--fabric containing microprocessors, sensors, and actuators--could lead to shirts with pores that automatically open and close depending on the temperature, army fatigues with chameleon-like color-changing properties, or tents that sniff out environmental contaminants. Josei Lee, a UC Berkeley graduate student in Electri ...

E-broidery: Design and fabrication of textile-based computing by E. R. Post, M. Orth, P. R. Russo, and N. Gershenfeld IBM Systems Journal Highly durable, flexible, and even washable multilayer electronic circuitry can be constructed on textile substrates, using conductive yarns and suitably packaged components. In this paper we describe the development of e-broidery (electronic embroidery, i.e., the patterning of conductive textiles by numerically controlled sewing or weaving processes) as a ...

e-TAGs: e-Textile Attached Gadgets David I. Lehn, Craig W. Neely, Kevin Schoonover, Thomas L. Martin, and Mark T. JonesBradley Department of Electrical and Computer EngineeringVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State UniversityBlacksburg, Virginia 24061–0111Email: {dlehn, cneely, kschoono, tlmartin, mtj}@vt.edu Abstract The integration of wires and electronics into textiles(e-textiles) has many potential applications for wear-able and pervasive computing. Textiles are an inte-gral part of eve ...

Computer engineers in Torgersen Hall may be weaving the future of specialized fabrics e-textiles that can be used to sense tank movements, monitor homes for noxious chemicals, help firefighters maneuver in smoky buildings, and perhaps help stroke victims recover their function. Their biggest result to date is a 30-foot swath of fabric interwoven with stainless steel thread, and styled with microphones, sensors,connectors, and circuit boards. The 30-foot fabric is a prototype acoustic array ...

Technology Review (Cambridge, Mass.); 11/1/2002 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » DuPont researchers have developed a flexible textile that conducts electricity. The advance could facilitate the seamless incorporation of electronic devices into clothing. Each fiber of the new textile consists of a core of DuPont's ultrastrong polymer Kevlar covered with a layer of electrically conductive material such as silver or nickel. Bundles of these fibers are coated with a second polymer for protection during washing. Although many t...

Medical Design Technology; 4/1/2002 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Working with a wide selection of state-of-the-art equipment enables the company to provide cost-effective cutting of any electrically conductive material for tool building...

Studies in the area of “electronic textiles” or “electrotextiles” have captured researchers’ attention worldwide. Recently, many reports and papers have been published, and conferences and symposiums held covering this fast-growing area of research and development. The reason for such interest is the potential to develop smart fabrics that can sense, respond and adjust to stimuli such as pressure, temperature or electrical charge. Thermal clothing such as blankets and jackets that protect huma ...

ELECTROACTIVE FABRICS AND WEARABLE BIOMONITORINGDEVICES Danilo De Rossi°, Federico Carpi°, Federico Lorussi°, Alberto Mazzoldi°, Rita Paradiso*, Enzo Pasquale Scilingo°, Alessandro Tognetti°° E. Piaggio Interdepartmental Research Centre , Faculty of Engineering, University of Pisavia Diotisalvi, 2, 56100 Pisa, ItalyTel: +39-050-553639, Fax: +39-050-550650, e-mail: derossi@piaggio.ccii.unipi.it*Smartex s.r.l., via Giuntini, 13 – 56023 Navacchio, Pisa, ItalyTel: +39-050-754350, Fax: +39-050-75435 ...

Reference: 04 IT LOCM 0BCF Country: Italy Entry Date: Thu, November 25, 2004 Validation Update: Mon, January 03, 2005 Deadline: Thu, June 30, 2005 Abstract: A Company has developed a new method for metallisation: new surface treatment allows the coating of textile surface through the covering of each fibre constituting the textile structure with metal or another alloy. The textile receives a plating that penetrates into structure and creates an electric conductive film bringing ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society M.E. Kordesch, Department of Physics, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701 Hugh H. Richardson, Department of Chemistry, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701 Wide bandgap semiconductors have been sputter deposited onto non-crystalline substrates, low melting point materials, including polymer fibers, textiles and glasses. The semiconductors are amorphous and can be deposited over large (square meter) areas economically. The el ...

Semiconductor International; 10/1/2003; Singer, Peter (Judge) Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Each year, a variety of emerging technologies are unveiled at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), and this year is no exception. Following are a few highlights selected from abstracts provided by conference organizers. The conference will be held Dec. 8-10 at the Hilton Washington and Towers. Electronic cloth University of California-Berkeley researchers will discuss how they built plastic pentacene transistors directly on cloth fibers, an industry first. The researchers say "e-textiles" may be used to embed sensing, actuation and displays into clot...

By Joanna Berzowska Concordia University and XS Design Studio http://www.berzowska.com Electronic textiles, also referred to as smart fabrics, are quite fashionable right now. Their close relationship with the field of computer wearables gives us many diverging research directions and possible definitions. On one end of the spectrum, there are pragmatic applications such as military research into interactive camouflage or textiles saturated with nanorobots that can heal wounded soldiers. ...

Flexible paper-like colour computer displays that can show moving video are under development by the Dutch electronics giant Philips. Philips and others have already succeeded in making prototype flexible displays, but their refresh rates - the speed at which they can turn a single dot on or off - have been slow. The new technology can significantly improve the refresh rate using a faster effect called electrowetting. The technology works on the old premise that oil and water do not mix. In ea ...

DIANA MARCULESCU, MEMBER, IEEE, RADU MARCULESCU, MEMBER, IEEE, NICHOLAS H. ZAMORA, PHILLIP STANLEY-MARBELL, STUDENT MEMBER, IEEE, PRADEEP K. KHOSLA, FELLOW, IEEE, SUNGMEE PARK, SUNDARESAN JAYARAMAN, STEFAN JUNG, MEMBER, IEEE, CHRISTL LAUTERBACH, WERNER WEBER, SENIOR MEMBER, IEEE, TÜNDE KIRSTEIN, DIDIER COTTET, MEMBER, IEEE, JANUSZ GRZYB, MEMBER, IEEE, GERHARD TRÖSTER, MEMBER, IEEE, MARK JONES, MEMBER, IEEE, TOM MARTIN, MEMBER, IEEE, AND ZAHI NAKAD, STUDENT MEMBER, IEEE Manuscript received ...

Peter Weiss From Science News, Vol. 164, No. 22, Nov. 29, 2003, p. 342. Someday, the very fabric of your shirt might contain flexible electronic devices that monitor your vital signs or enable you to dial in the color or pattern you want to wear that day. Futuristic clothing of this sort may be closer to your closet now that researchers have developed a type of transistor-on-a-fiber. GOLD FINGERS. The vertical threads of this tiny assembly contain the kinds of fiber-based electronic compon ...

W. Weber, R. Glaser, S. Jung, C. Lauterbach, G. Stromberg, and T. Sturm Infineon Technologies AG, Corporate Research, Laboratory for Emerging Technologies Abstract Heading for a largely improved interface between individuals and electronics this paper presents enabling technologies for the integration of electronics into textile fabrics. For the realization of ‘wearable electronics’ we discuss a packaging and interconnect technology, a silicon-based micro-machined thermoelectric generator ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society Keyur Desai and Changmo Sung Center for Advanced Materials, Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering, One UniversityAvenue, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA01854, U.S.A. ABSTRACT Electrically conducting organic polymers are a novel class of ‘synthetic metals’ that combine the chemical and mechanical properties of polymers with the electronic properties of metals and semiconductors. Electronically conducting p ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society Karthikeyan Natarajan, Anuj Dhawan, Abdelfattah M. Seyam, Tushar K. Ghosh and John F. Muth NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, U.S.A. ABSTRACT Electrotextiles have attracted increasing attention in recent years. The combinations of textile structures that are lightweight, flexible, conformable, and strong, with electronics have aroused keen interest from many disciplines. With technological innovations appearing in ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society Elana Ethridge, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Dick Urban, The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory ABSTRACT ElectroTextiles is a technology area that is in its formative stages of development. Over the past three years, several government and industrial workshops as well as international conferences have discussed and presented fundamental technical approaches and a few small companies are starting to offer comme ...

Blacksburg, Va., Nov. 7, 2002 -- Mark Jones and Tom Martin are Virginia Tech engineering researchers, not fashion designers, but they are creating the ultimate fabrics of the future. The researchers are designing e-textiles -- cloth interwoven with electronic components -- for use as personal "wearable computers" and as large sensing and communications fabrics. Jones and Martin, both faculty in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, are principal inve ...

David I. Lehn, Craig W. Neely, Kevin Schoonover, Thomas L. Martin, and Mark T. Jones Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0111 Email: {dlehn, cneely, kschoono, tlmartin, mtj}@vt.edu Abstract- The integration of wires and electronics in e-textiles has many potential applications for wearable computing. One method which allows dense electronics modules on an e-textile is to create attachments ...

Andries van Dam, David H. Laidlaw and Rosemary Michelle Simpson, Department of Computer Science, Brown University, 115 Waterman Street, Providence, RI 02906, USA Available online 1 October 2002. Abstract This article provides a snapshot of immersive virtual reality (IVR) use for scientific visualization, in the context of the evolution of computing in general and of user interfaces in particular. The main thesis of this article is that IVR has great potential for dealing with the serio ...

Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab The Expression Glasses are a wearable device that allows any viewer to see a graphical display of a subset of the wearer's facial expressions. Currently, the glasses are capable of learning an individual's patterns and discriminating between confusion and interest expressions. Through two small pieces of piezoelectric film imbedded in the frames, the muscle movement in the corrugator and frontalis (eyebrow) muscles is measured and translat ...

Advances in Textiles Technology; 12/1/2002 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Two US organizations are working together to develop a super-sensitive detection array that pinpoints faint sounds such as those from distant vehicles moving across battlefields. The University of Southern California (USC) is working with Virginia Tech towards what is described as e-type textiles-a type of woven fabric incorporating micro-electronic components. In a report on this programme, called Stretch, it is stated that this is the first time a textile has been used to perform such a complicated task. Director of the Arlington, Virginia, campus of USC's School...

from the August 29, 2002 edition By Lori Valigra | Special to The Christian Science Monitor CAMBRIDGE, MASS. - Maggie Orth hunches over a sewing machine in her studio, carefully stitching a tiny piece of plaid cloth. But the new mother isn't making a baby outfit. Instead, she's creating an interactive wall hanging of fabric interlaced with electronics and special dyes. The finished product: textile art that changes colors in programmed sequence. Dr. Orth's new technology is part of an emer ...

Fabrication technique of SMA/CFRP smart composites Publication Date: Mar 2003 Ya Xu, Kazuhiro Otsuka, Nobuyuki Toyama, Hitoshi Yoshida, Hideki Nagai, Ryutaro Oishi, Yoshihiro Kikushima, Kaori Yuse, Yoshio Akimune, Teruo Kishi Publication: Proc. SPIE Vol. 4946, p. 35-46, Transducing Materials and Devices; Yoseph Bar-Cohen; Ed. Abstract In recent years, pre-strained TiNi shape memory alloys (SMA) have been used for fabricating smart structure with carbon fibers reinforced plastics (CFR ...

July 2003 Advances in microelectronics, nanotechnology, and fiber technology are converging to create a whole new class of fabrics. These fabrics glow (as the tablecloth in the photo above shows), act as sensors, process data, and perform a variety of other functions that one might not ordinarily expect from a material that can be cut, sewn, draped, and worn. The possibilities opened up by this new technology are vast. In clothing alone, they range from self-illuminating costumes for operat ...

Fabrics With FIbre Optics Take Shape Italy : 30th October 2003 Luminex is now marketing range of luminous fabrics employing plastic fibre optics which shine random light laterally. This development is part of a concerted European textile industry exploration of the potential of fibre optic content fabrics. Initiated in France by Dubar Warneton and by Rubabs Gallant, it is being taken further by the Swiss-based Jacob Schlaepfer group which is now working with fibre optics as a means of further embellishing embroidered fabrics. Meanwhile back in France Cedric Brochet Soieries says it plans to introduce a range of luminous, fibre optic jacquard fabrics. Development has been carried out with the Audio Image group.

1 February 2004 - Advances in Technical Textiles Fastening system Developed by ILC Dover Inc, an arrangement for fastening a fabric to a metal is the subject of US Patent 6 612 360. The company from Frederica, Deleware, USA, explains that a material with a low melting point but high compressive strength (such as a thermoplastic or thermosetting resin) is cast in an interior cavity of the metal and envelopes a number of fabric layers in order to anchor them in position. The result is both compact and lightweight, while offering a firm attachment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page no: 3 Approx no of words: 190 To order full article click here

Advances in Textiles Technology, December, 2002 US company Milliken has developed a felt with a gradient of electrical conductivity across its thickness. In US Patent 6 346 391, the inventor says the fibres used may be intrinsically conductive or be coated with a conducting material. Varying the fibre density, fibre diameter or fibre conductivity can then control the conductivity of the felt across its thickness. For instance, it is possible to make an entangled fabric consisting of conductive and non-conductive fibres, with the ratio of the two elements varying throughout ... Want to read the whole article? You can purchase it here. It's quick and easy.

Fiber optic nerve systems for smart materials and smart structures Publication Date: Oct 2004 Kazuo Hotate Abstract We have been developing "fiber optic nerve systems" for "smart structures and smart materials," in which an optical fiber acts as sensor to measure distribution of strain and/or pressure along it. By embedding the fiber in structures and materials, such as buildings, bridges, aircraft fuel-tanks and pipe-lines, we can realize health monitoring function for these. We have cr ...

Science News, Nov 29, 2003 by P. Weiss Someday, the very fabric of your shirt might contain flexible electronic devices that monitor your vital signs or enable you to dial in the color or pattern you want to wear that day. Futuristic clothing of this sort may be closer to your closet now that researchers have developed a type of transistor-on-a-fiber. Josephine B. Lee and Vivek Subramanian of the University of California, Berkeley say that the perpendicular arrangement of a fabric's fibers s ...

By Michael Yeomans TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, May 16, 2004 A former grain processing barn in rural Butler County that now houses fabric-weaving looms doesn't seem like hotbed of technology. A closer look reveals an advanced materials start-up company that has electronics manufacturers worldwide excited about a process that promises to cut their costs and produce higher-performing equipment. Dielectric Solutions LLC -- the brainchild of three former PPG Industries Inc. employees -- a chemist, ...

SMARTEX s.r.l. is a limited liability company founded in 1999 with the aim to develop research and innovation activities in the textile field. The company was created to answer the need of innovation and hi-technology transfer processes toward the textile world. At present several leading manufacturing textile industries like Milior SpA, Lineapiù Spa and Ermenegildo Zegna Spa are funding the research activities of Smartex, the funding consortium including also Virginia-Antea Gestioni Spa and G ...

Flexible Color LED Screen July 09, 2004 France Telecom The screen is connected to a mobile phone via a Bluetooth link, so drawings and animations can be sent by MMS to another user with the same equipment. Thanks to a dedicated embedded software application, the mobile can be used as a remote control to activate the screen's functionalities: adjust the brightness, select the image or text to be displayed, enter text, draw simple animated visuals, download animations from the Internet, etc. A ...

Flexible composite with textile support for constructive types of architectural elements Reference: 04 RO ROSM 0BFV Country: Romania Entry Date: Wed, December 01, 2004 Validation Update: Deadline: Wed, November 30, 2005 Abstract: A Romanian Research Institute has developed a new generation of materials based on flexible composites with textile support. The materials can be used for architectural elements tensioned and/or air-sustained, in advertising and/or modern aesthetic. ...

A joint venture part-owned by New Zealand sheepfarmers has developed a flexible fabric that can be used as a computer keyboard or to operate a headset. The new "smart textiles" can also be used for car-seat covers that adjust the seat to fit the driver's body, for soft toys that purr or snarl, and to alert a nurse when a hospital patient risks bedsores by lying too long in one position. The general manager of textiles for the Lincoln-based ...

New Zealand : 12th March 2004 A joint venture part-owned by New Zealand sheepfarmers has developed a flexible fabric that can be used as a computer keyboard or to operate a headset. The new "smart textiles" can also be used for car-seat covers that adjust the seat to fit the driver's body, for soft toys that purr or snarl, and to alert a nurse when a hospital patient risks bedsores by lying too long in one position. The general manager of textiles for the Lincoln-based wool research gr ...

Author(s) : 3g.co.uk Source: http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/May2002/3315.htm Date: 05-03-2002 Type: News Summary: prototype for a flexible screen made of woven optical fibers Full article: France Telecom R&D has designed a prototype for a flexible screen made of woven optical fibers capable of downloading and displaying static or animated graphics (such as logos, texts, patterns, scanned images etc) directly on clothes. Thanks to this innovation, clothes can now act as a graphical communication ...

February 6, 2003 By ANNE EISENBERG DESIGNERS traditionally choose textiles based on their beauty, strength or cost. Now they can choose them based on their ability to conduct electricity. These days some, including the chemical giant DuPont, are producing yarns that can transmit electrical signals or current. The yarns, made of synthetic or metallic fibers, are woven or knitted into cotton or polyester to produce a new type of cloth known as electrotextiles. The conductive fibers of electrot ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society Abdelfattah M. Seyam, Professor NC State University Raleigh, NC 27695-8301, USA ABSTRACT Recently, textile machine manufacturers introduced to the market significant technological advances. Examples of such advances are higher speeds, higher level of automation, new concept of jacquard weaving that enables control of individual warp threads, CAD systems, and wider machines than seen before. This paper reviews the new ...

Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab Raul Fernandez Research Motivation Research in frustration detection in the Affective Computing group at the Media Lab has been inspired by the current disability of most human-computer interfaces to make inferences about the affective state of a user who is interacting with a computer. Consider the very familiar scenario of a (possibly novice) user who runs into a difficulty when using unfamiliar software, or when a piece of hardware fa ...

Full-color OLED on silicon microdisplay Publication Date: Feb 2002 Amalkumar P. Ghosh Publication: Proc. SPIE Vol. 4464, p. 1-10, Organic Light-Emitting Materials and Devices V; Zakya H. Kafafi; Ed. Abstract eMagin has developed numerous enhancements to organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology, including a unique, up- emitting structure for OLED-on-silicon microdisplay devices. Recently, eMagin has fabricated full color SVGA+ resolution OLED microdisplays on silicon, with over 1. ...

Project No.: M03-CL07s. Competency: Materials Project Team: Leader: Prof. Nader Jalili (Mechanical Engineering), 864 656-5642, jalili@clemson.edu Expertise: Mechatronics, Piezoelectric Actuators and Sensors Design, System Dynamics, Modeling and Control of Mechanical/Textile Processes. Members: Prof. Bhuvenesh C. Goswami (Textile Engineering), gbhuven@clemson.edu Expertise: Nonwovens, Fiber and Yarn Spinning. Prof. Apparao M. Rao (Physics), arao@clemson.edu Expertise: Nanocrystals and Na ...

1st May 2003 Fears tiny microchips in garments used to monitor supply chains could lead to claims of invasion of privacy by consumers have led experts to design a special "kill" command so they self-destruct. Benetton was recently forced to dismiss an announcement by Philips Semiconductor, a division of Philips Electronics, suggesting it was planning to put radio frequency identification (RFID) tags into 15 million of its garments this year. The Italian fashion giantAZs decision to revie ...

Science News; 3/27/2004; Weiss, Peter Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » More and more, sensors and other electronic gadgets are riddling the world--even our clothing and bodies. People developing this technology find themselves in need of circuitry that can conform to the changeable shapes of fabrics, tissues, and other soft materials (SN: 8/31/02, p. 133). Now, Darren S. Gray of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and his colleagues have embedded into a plastic film fine, flat wires that can stretch and contract much like telephone cords do. When pulled, the wires increase in length by more than 50 percent with no loss of conductivity.The...

By Chappell Brown EE Times April 25, 2002 (10:15 AM EDT) Looking back, I guess 2009 was the pivotal year when computers finally disappeared. It happened so fast. One day beige pizza boxes were everywhere, and then the next day they were just carted out of offices worldwide. The event precipitated a brief environmental crisis-what to do with all that junked equipment? The phrase that signaled the revolution was "carbon electronics." When I first heard the term, I imagined a small b ...

Construction Equipment; 4/1/2004; Burlingame, Heather Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Designed for hydronic ground thawing and concrete-curing applications, Red Wave insulation blankets are reflective to direct heat downward. The blankets' conductive material transmits...

Originally Published MDDI November 2002 R&D DIGEST A microcontroller, water-resistant packaging, and conductive fabrics are the basis for wearable electronics that can be used in such products as watches and MP3 players. Combined with a novel power system that uses body heat to generate electricity, however, the technology may have new applications that include medical sensors and hearing aids. Infineon Technologies AG (Munich) originally developed its small silicon "energy harvester" to pow ...

Heart patients may soon be able to buy underwear designed to detect heart rhythm abnormalities and even call for an ambulance in case of emergency, according to Dutch researchers at Philips Electronics. The researchers have developed sensors that measure body signals such as heart rate information, which can be sown into bras and shorts and which connect to a thin chip module that monitors the signals. Three months of data on body signals can be stored in the module. Abnormal signals will be d ...

Heat-generating fibers warm up underwear market Japan : 21st February 2004 Heat-generating fibers developed by Japanese textile manufactures utilizing the water-absorbing, quick-drying functions of artificial fibers are warming up the underwear market. "Unlike conventional bulky underwear, this one is thick and good for layering," said fashion-conscious Aoyagi. The new fiber is based on a different concept.Toyobo Co, the pioneer in the field, has developed a new acrylic fiber that ca ...

Medical Textiles; 6/1/2002 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » According to Industrievereinigung Garne-Gewebe-Technische Textilien (the German federation of the yarn, fabric and technical textiles industry), the use of textiles for medical and hygiene applications rose from 700,000 million tonnes in 1995 to 1.37 billion tonnes in 2000. A consumption of 1.65 billion tonnes, valued at $9.53 billion, is forecast for 2005. Deputy Managing Director Werner Zirnzak says medical textiles will account for 13% of total technical textile consumption, while Dr Stefan Mecheels of Germany's Hohenstein Institute says demand in this sector will gro...

High-Tech Jacket Developed in Vermont United States Of America : 27th January 2003 There are some sounds, like the metallic movement of a zipper or velcro's gentle "rip," that you would expect to hear coming from a jacket. But music probably isn't one of those sounds. That is, until now. Burton Snowboard Company, based in Burlington, has developed a new jacket called the "Clone," that has a few surprises up its sleeves. Namely, a textile data strip that allows buttons on the jacket's ...

Egelsbach, July 02, 2002 In today's fast moving world of electronic advances and continuous further miniaturization, where glass fibers play a very important and vital role, the hydroenhancement of such glass fabrics processed on Fleissner's 'AquaTex' machine can have a major beneficial impact. This new technology enables manufacturers of glass fiber fabrics to achieve a much higher degree of density and uniform spreading-out of the filament bundles without incurring any breakage of the fine ...

Health and Healing, February 2004, Vol. 14, No.2 Cindy uses it to keep the excruciating ankle pain she’s suffered since her involvement in a car accident at bay. Frank, who has diabetic neuropathy, uses it to relieve the pain and numbness in his legs and feet. Triathlete Michellie uses it to speed up recovery after grueling workouts. Jay uses it when he travels to keep his feet from swelling during long plane rides. And Shirley even sleeps with it, claiming she wakes up with renewed energy. I ...

Hot Chillys' Base Layers in Two New Fabrics 02/03 Snowboarding.com Thwart Chill, Odor - Fabrics of the future are here. Dubbed the season's "smart fabrics," Hot Chillys introduces base layers and performance apparel in two new proprietary fabrications, MicroActive and BioSilver, for fall '02/winter '03. The new fabrications keep winter sports enthusiasts comfortably warm, fresh and dry whether snowshoeing, skiing, snowboarding, running or climbing. MicroActive is a temperature regulating fab ...

ElekTex is a highly versatile and innovative technology that provides the basis for a soft, flexible, and lightweight interface between users and electronic devices. This unique fabric structure can accurately sense location on three axes X, Y, Z within a material that is less than 1mm thick. Therefore ElekTex not only senses where it is being touched (the X and Y axes), but also how hard it is pressed, the Z axis. The ability to conform to complex solid forms using the flexibility inhere ...

Monday August 9, 2004 A recent report in the German 'EE Times' highlighted the development of an alternative to short-range communication technologies such as RFID, Near Field Communications (NFC) and Bluetooth, using human skin to transmit the data instead of radio emissions. The SkinPlex technology, developed and marketed by Ident Technology AG, allows a wearable identity or access control device to transmit information to data readers that the user touches by using their skin as the trans ...

Korea : 26th February 2004 For the first time in country leading synthetic fiber manufacturer, Hyosung Corp. has succeeded in applying nanotechnology in the production of fabric. The fabric, dubbed "Mipan Nano-Magic Silver," has been produced by mixing micron-size bits of silver into a fiber, making it more germ-resistant, according to the textile company.

IC-Integrated Flexible Shear-Stress Sensor Skin 2002 Yong Xu, Yu-Chong Tai, Adam Huang*, and Chih-Ming Ho*MS 136-93, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA*MAE, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA ABSTRACT This paper reports the first IC-integrated flexible shear-stress sensor skin. By integrating both bias and signal-conditioningcircuitry on-chip, the wiring of the MEMS skin is significantlysimplified and reliability is improved. The circuit is first mad ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society Jeremiah Slade, Dr. Patricia Wilson, Brian Farrell, Justyna Teverovsky, Douglas Thomson, Jeremy Bowman, Marty Agpaoa-Kraus, Foster-Miller, Waltham, MA 02451, U.S.A.; Wendy Horowitz, Edward Tierney, C.M. Offray, Watsontown, PA 17777, U.S.A.; Carole Winterhalter, U.S. Army Soldier Systems, Natick RD&E Center, Natick, MA 01760-5019, U.S.A. Abstract The ability to integrate electrical functionality into textile garments is b ...

Infineon develops chip network for textiles - Intelligence by the meter 05.05.2003 Innovations Report Researchers from Infineon Technologies AG have developed a way to make large textile surfaces such as carpeting or tent cloth “intelligent”. This technology innovation may lead to new products for the monitoring of buildings, the structural control of buildings of all kinds and for use in the advertising industry. Woven into fabrics, a self-organizing network of robust chips is able to moni ...

Infineon Weaves a Smart Fabric Germany : 10th May 2003 German chipmaker Infineon has unveiled an electronic textile that can make floors and walls part of a building's security, maintenance or climate-control system. The textile contains a weave of conductive fiber studded with sensor chips and LEDs (light-emitting diodes). After being fitted to a floor and hooked up to a power source and a computer, the electronic carpet becomes "aware" of the position of each sensor chip, said th ...

Jens Schuster, , a, Martina Trahana, Dirk Heiderb and Wei Lib a University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern, Site Pirmasens, Carl-Schurz-Str. 1-9, 66953, Pirmasens, Germany b Center for Composite Materials, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA Received 19 March 2002; accepted 18 April 2003. ; Available online 22 July 2003. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TWN-494C7P3-4&_coverDate=09%2F30%2F2003&_alid=175716355&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_qd=1&_cdi=556 ...

Hands-free headsets may help you keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel, but the devices may also be exposing you to electromagnetic stress by amplifying the phone's radiation. A headset connects to the phone by an electrical wire, and research has shown that the wire can act as a conduit for microwave radiation, which has been tagged as a possible health risk. The earpiece of cell phones also contains an electromagnetic coil that turns electric signals into audible signals, but in ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society K.A. Luthy, L.S. Mattos, J.C. Braly, E. Grant, J.F. Muth Center for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC A. Dhawan, K. Natarajan, T. Ghosh, A. Seyam Department of Textile and Apparel Technology and Management, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC Abstract Electronic textiles offer possibilities for producing large-area ...

Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Advances in Textiles Technology; 8/1/2003 Scientific and technological solutions for problems relating to technical textiles will be the focus of a conference in Manchester, UK, next year. To be held at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) on 26-27 April 2004, Technical Textiles: The Innovative Approach will review new products and markets for technical textiles, as well as considering opportunities fro future prospects. C...

22 May 2003 Hello I'm Chris Brown. Welcome to Innovation Radio brought to you by Australian Wool Innovation. UK researchers Dr Stan Swallow and Asha Peta Thompson with 'intelligent' keyboard and cushion. Photo © The Land 2003 On this week's program, high tech electronic wool coming to a television remote control near you. The idea's only been around a few years but integrating electronics with fibre is taking the textiles world by storm. For instance the American military is looking a ...

Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Chemical Week; 3/13/2002; Mullin, Rick The classic phrase from the 1967 film The Graduate--"Just one word ... Plastics"--came at the end of an era during which the chemical industry was seen as the pinnacle of innovation, promising, in the words of DuPont's famous slogan of the time, "better living through chemistry." By the end of the '60s, however, that idea already had an ironic ring. The industry that brought the world nylon, acrylics, and other breakthrough plastics, had entered a dry patch during which it would introduce nothing much in the way of wholly new, big-impact materials. Chemical producers tur...

Integrated optic devices using liquid crystals: design and fabrication issues Publication Date: Oct 2004 Antonio d'Alessandro, Rita Asquini, Robert P. Bellini, Domenico Donisi, Romeo Beccherelli Publication: Proc. SPIE Vol. 5518, p. 123-135, Liquid Crystals VIII; Iam-Choon Khoo; Ed. Abstract Integrated optic devices using liquid crystals embedded in optical waveguiding structures have advantages in terms of compactness and high performance. Such devices exploits the high electro-opti ...

The Daily Mail (London, England); 4/4/2002; Chapman, James Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Byline: JAMES CHAPMAN SCIENTISTS have invented a glass that automatically signals when a drinker requires a refill. The i Glassware system, developed in the U. S . by Mitsubishi, uses a glass fitted with electronic tags. Each consists of a microchip linked to a thin wire coil which acts as a radio transmitter. The dishwasher-proof tags are coated with a clear, conductive material, effectively turning the glass into a capacitor - a device which stores electric charge. The more drink it contains, the higher the charge stored. When the g...

Intelligent Textiles, Soft Products 2004 Carl André Nørstebø Department of Product DesignNTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology ABSTRACT The first section deals with the vast field of material alternatives and properties designers have today. We are faced with thousands of materials that completely lack reference. Material gain intelligence, and it is predicted that all our surroundings soon will be controlled by invisible, intelligent devices. The second section demonstrates t ...

Intelligent Yarn Gets Warm Reception Australia : 28th May 2003 The latest development in the international race to make fabrics smarter is Electric wool that could incorporate the remote control and keep an eye on the bed sheets. The electrified wool-covered cushion that can operate the television, while another cushion dims the lights. British scientist Stan Swallow, from Intelligent Textiles in Surrey, described it as making traditional metal and plastic technology softer to touch. ...

Linda Melin, Henrik Jernström, Peter Ljungstrand, Johan Redström Play - Interactive Institute, Hugo Grauers Gata 3, 41296 Göteborg, Sweden {linda.melin, henrik.jernstrom, peter.ljungstrand, johan.redstrom}@tii.se Abstract: This paper describes the idea of using context aware soft furnishing for decorations. Textile has the ability to easily change the experience of an environment. This quality combined with the dynamics of ubiquitous computing and context awareness creates an interesting desi ...

09.06.2004 Invention solves textile makers’ problem An innovative yarn tension measuring instrument which could help cut textile makers’ costs, has been unveiled at the University of Leeds. Yarn tension directly affects the quality of cloth, so the device is important for textile manufacturers, in particular for British firms, many of which are specialising in the increasingly important technical textiles market. The novelty of the instrument is that it is does not need to touch ...

Is That a Computer Chip in Your Carpet? John Blau, IDG News Service Monday, May 05, 2003 Researchers at Germany's Infineon Technologies have demonstrated how a self-organizing network of chips woven into large textile surfaces, such as carpets, could someday be used to monitor buildings, provide directions in an emergency, and more. At the company's Emerging Technology Lab in Munich, the research team showed how robust chips embedded into industrial fabrics in the form of a checkerboard are ...

1 March 2004 - Technical Textiles International ITMA points to progress in all the major weaving techniques Weaving of technical fabrics featured more prominently at ITMA 2003 than at any previous edition of the textile machinery exhibition, reports Phil Owen, and the major European builders look set to dominate the sector. When the four-yearly textile machinery exhibition made its UK debut last autumn, the weaving of technical textiles was featured more widely than at any previous ITMA. ITM ...

Jack & Co Develops Glow-In-The-Dark Thread Japan : 21st May 2003 Thread maker Jack & Co on Tuesday said it has developed a harmless line of glow-in-the-dark thread which can glow for eight hours after being exposed to natural or fluorescent light for just 10 minutes. The company said the non-toxic thread is made from polyester fibres and fine strands of light-absorbing strontium. It is available in eight different colours and will still work after more than 50 washes. Jack said it will begin selling the new thread, which it admitted is more expensive than standard threads, next month and sees sales of 30 million yen in the first year.

Kiwi Company Develops Heated Textiles Kim Griggs http://www.thesciencesite.info Gone will be the days of toasting cold feet in front of the fire: thanks to a New Zealand research company, woollen socks that can be heated by a small battery are coming. New Zealand research company, Canesis Network, has developed the 'smart' wool, which can conduct heat with no wires in sight. It's all in how they blend conductive fibres with wool. "In the blend, we are building up a network of conductive fibre ...

Knitting of Electroconductive Yarns Abstract: The advantages of producing 3D conductive knitted textiles for the purpose of generating heat are enormous. Products may be developed that conforms to complex contours providing a uniform heat distribution. Applications can be foreseen in the automotive sector; car seats, driving wheels and the interiors of door panel.Medical usage could involve conforming the knitted structure to the body, providing relief to sports injuries. In fact the developme ...

Advanced Materials & Processes; 9/1/2003 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » A laminated composite material that has patterned conductors integral to its structure has been developed by Qinetiq, U.K., formerly the research facility for the U.K. Defence Research Agency. The structure is made of several cloth layers infused with a penetrating resin. One of the cloth layers contains electrically conductive fibers that enable external connection of embedded electronic devices. This technology allows electrical contact through the material, and is most useful in applications in which components are embedded within the structure. C...

Latest Advances in Biomedical Textiles and Healthcare Products at Medical Textiles 2004 SangWon Chung, NCSU College of Textiles Held in conjunction with Industrial Fabrics Association International’s annual IFAI Expo 2004 (as well as 4th International Conference on Safety & Protective Fabrics), Medical Textiles 2004 was organized by North Carolina State University (NCSU) and IFAI in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania October 26-27, 2004. The conference was designed to introduce new ideas, new resources ...

Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » The Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News); 9/2/2004 Byline: Eileen Kennedy Sep. 2--LAWRENCE, Mass. -- Medics running from soldier to soldier during combat as they perform medical triage on the run may eventually become a thing of the past. In the not-too-distant future, medics may be able to monitor soldiers' health status from a safe distance, and see who could benefit most from medical attention. Malden Mills, world famous for its Polarfleece and Polartec fleece material, is now hard at work perfecting weaving hair-like conductive fibers into the body of a knit-like material. The fabric, which look like any other...

Story Posted: 5 Sep 2002 4:38PM | Last modified: 10/11/2002 9:15:52 AM The STRETCH program is a cooperative venture between the University of Southern California and Virginia Tech that is now testing a prototype "e-textile" -- a special cloth interwoven with microelectronic components. The cloth functions as a supersensitive detection array to pinpoint sources of faint sounds, specifically, the sounds of distant vehicles moving on future battlefields. According to its creators, STRETCH is the ...

1 October 2002 - Technical Textiles International Machinery for making industrial and technical nonwovens The use of nonwovens technology in the industrial and technical sectors is expanding globally. Virtually every nonwovens system can be used for making nonwoven rollgoods for some industrial or technical application, the optimum requirements of which cannot be met by any other form of fibrous structure. Derek Ward outlines the major systems, the associated machinery and the main suppliers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page no: 17 Approx no of words: 2550 To order full article click here

David P. Cadogan1 and Lauren S. Shook ILC Dover, Inc. Frederica, DE 19946-2080 1 American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics Associate Fellow ABSTRACT Numerous applications of electrotextiles and flexible circuits have been identified that can advance systems performance for many commercial, military, and aerospace devices. Several novel uses of electrotextiles have been developed for lab testing, while others have been utilized in products on the commercial market, as well as items t ...

Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Journal of Development Studies; 12/1/2002; Kamp, Rick van der This article focuses on the measurement of embodied technological change. It develops the core-machinery approach to capital measurement, which is based on an engineering perspective on technological change. Using technical characteristics of different types of machinery, technical progress in the capital stock can be decomposed into incremental innovation in existing machinery and radical shifts to new technologies. The usefulness of this approach is illustrated by an analysis of embodied technological change in the Indonesian spinning and weaving industries. The core-machinery measure i...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society Jeremiah Slade, Dr. Patricia Wilson, Brian Farrell, Justyna Teverovsky, Douglas Thomson, Jeremy Bowman, Marty Agpaoa-Kraus, Foster-Miller, Waltham, MA 02451, U.S.A.; Wendy Horowitz, Edward Tierney, C.M. Offray, Watsontown, PA 17777, U.S.A.; Carole Winterhalter, U.S. Army Soldier Systems, Natick RD&E Center, Natick, MA 01760-5019, U.S.A. Abstract Today’s complex geo-political climate has forced the U.S. armed services int ...

Electronic Engineering Times; 10/13/2003 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Philips Research has developed biomedical clothing designed as a wireless healthcare-monitoring system. Scientists at Philips Research in Aachen, Germany, claimed the technology, designed for continuous healthcare monitoring and automatic online diagnostics, can be built i...

Last modified: June 23, 2004, 6:50 AM PDT By Matt Loney Special to CNET News.com Microsoft has been awarded a patent for using human skin as a power conduit and data bus. Patent No. 6,754,472, which was published Tuesday, describes a method for transmitting power and data to devices worn on the body and for communication of data between those devices. In its filing, Microsoft cites the proliferation of wearable electronic devices, such as wristwatches, pagers, PDAs (worn ...

United States Of America : 14th April 2003 Confident that U.S. combat troops in Iraq are uniformed in the best available materials, researchers are testing new "smart" textiles that would protect the war fighters while making them as lethal as a tank. "We're always improving what's in the field," said Maurice N. Larrivee, a materials technology team leader at the Soldier Systems Center, the Army's research and development facility in the Boston suburb of Natick.

Aaron Toney Circus Systems Seattle, WA joeboy@hhhh.org Barrie Mulley, Bruce H. Thomas, and Wayne Piekarski Wearable Computer Laboratory School of Computer and Information Science University of South Australia {mulley,thomas,wayne}@cs.unisa.edu.au Sixth International Symposium on Wearable Computers, October 07th - 10th, 2002 Abstract This paper presents the e-SUIT, a wearable computer incorporated in a traditional business suit. A key feature of the system is an array of input/output ...

United States Of America : 28th December 2002 If you want to come first in your class, try doing something more than just studying. Wear smart underpants designed for better learning! Unlikely as it may sound, children all over America and Britain could one day be going to school wearing electronic underwear - the latest invention in electronic undergarments - sensored pants which are specially designed to improve learning and performance. According to a British tabloid, the pants, lined ...

Accent on Applications March 2003 Edition Unmanned air vehicles such as the Predator and Global Hawk enable soldiers to engage an enemy from a safe distance. However, as impressive as these technologies may be, it still takes ground troops to hold a position. The military, therefore, is investigating some unique ways to empower the infantryman, including uniforms spun of photonic bandgap fibers. Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Yoel Fink frames his face with a photonic bandgap fiber. ...

Rich DeVaul, Michael Sung, Jonathan Gips, Alex “Sandy” Pentland Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology {rich,msung,jgips,sandy}@media.mit.edu Abstract In this paper we describe the MIThril 2003 wearable computing research platform. MIThril 2003 is a proven, accessible architecture that combines inexpensive, commodity hardware, a flexible sensor/peripheral interconnection bus, and a powerful, light-weight distributed sensing, classification, and inter-process communications ...

Thomas Martin, Mark Jones, Joshua Edmison, Tanwir Shiekh, Zahi Nakad Virginia Tech Dept. of ECE Blacksburg, VA 24061 tlmartin, mtj, jedmison, tanwir@vt.edu Abstract This paper describes our experiences with a simulation environment for electronic textiles. This simulation environment, based upon Ptolemy, enables us to model a diverse range of areas related to the design of electronic textiles, including the physical environment they will be used in, the behavior of the sensors incorporated i ...

Author Sheikh, Tanwir Abdulwahid 2003-09-19 Virginia Tech Abstract The developments in textile technology now enable the weaving of conductive wires into the fabrics. This allows the introduction of electronic components such as sensors, actuators and computational devices on the fabrics, creating electronic textiles (e-textiles). E-textiles can be either wearable or non-wearable. However, regardless of their form, e-textiles are placed in a tightly constrained design space requiring high ...

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS, VOL. 52, NO. 8, AUGUST 2003 Phillip Stanley-Marbell, Student Member, IEEE, Diana Marculescu, Member, IEEE, Radu Marculescu, Member, IEEE, and Pradeep K. Khosla, Fellow, IEEE Abstract Scaling in CMOS device technology has made it possible to cheaply embed intelligence in a myriad of devices. In particular, it has become feasible to fabricate flexible materials (e.g., woven fabrics) with large numbers of computing and communication elements embedded into them. S ...

The most flexible electronic display yet developed has been revealed by researchers at Philips in the Netherlands. The company says it plans to begin mass producing such displays within a few years. Philips's new display was made possible by the development of a way to print organic electronics onto a thin plastic film - previously, it was only possible to print these components on glass. However, Philips now has a technique that works on polyimide film. The screen can be rolled into a tube ...

Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems archive Proceedings of the conference on Human factors in computing systems table of contents Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA DEMONSTRATION SESSION: Interaction techniques for constrained Ddsplays table of contents Pages: 473 - 480 Year of Publication: 2003 ISBN:1-58113-630-7 Authors Stephen Brewster University of Glasgow, U.K. Joanna Lumsden National Research Council of Canada, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada Marek Bell ...

Nanotechnology: MEMS and NEMS and their applications to smart systems and devices Publication Date: Oct 2003 Vijay K. Varadan Publication: Proc. SPIE Vol. 5062, p. 20-43, Smart Materials, Structures, and Systems; S. Mohan, B. Dattaguru, S. Gopalakrishnan; Eds. Abstract The microelectronics industry has seen explosive growth during the last thirty years. Extremely large markets for logic and memory devices have driven the development of new materials, and technologies for the fabrica ...

June 2004 Researchers from the Atlanta-based Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech); Rice University and Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc., both based in Houston; and the US Air Force presented findings from their research on incorporating carbon nanotubes into fibers and films at the national meeting of the Washington-based American Chemical Society, held recently in Anaheim, Calif. According to Satish Kumar, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Polymer, Textile and Fiber Engineering, ...

Chemical Week; 6/25/2003 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Scientists from the University of Texas at Dallas (Richardson, TX) and Trinity College (Dublin) say they have developed a coagulation process to spin carbon nanotubes into composite fibers. The fiber...

Software that can read words before they are spoken by analysing nerve signals in our mouths and throats, has been developed by NASA. Test results show that sensors can indeed be used to read minds. The sensors, which attach under the chin and on either side of the Adam's apple can pick up nerve signals from the tongue, throat, and vocal cords. They may one day help space-walking astronauts and people who cannot talk communicate. They could send commands to rovers on other planets, help injure ...

New Bonding Powders For Textile Applications Released United States Of America : 7th March 2003 ICO Polymers, Inc., a subsidiary of ICO, Inc. announced the official release of ICOTEX(TM), a line of adhesive and bonding powders for a variety of textile applications, including wovens, non-wovens, carpet backing, and both short- and long-fiber wood composites.

New composite flexible heaters on a fabric basis- woven with insulated resistive layers, formed by complex of electro-conductive threads Reference: 04 IL ILMI 0ATW Country: Israel Entry Date: Wed, September 01, 2004 Deadline: Tue, August 30, 2005 Abstract: An ISRAELI SME has developed a new heating technology for flexible heaters on a fabric basis. The fabric is woven with insulated resistive layers, formed by complex electro-conductive threads and can be produced with differe ...

By Dona Z. Meilach Feb. 03 Dona's Computer Capers. Feb 03 E-Fabrics There have been wearable computers that make a fashion statement, but now researchers are designing e-textiles---- cloth interwoven with electronic components -- for use as personal "wearable computers" and as large sensing and communications fabrics. It may become the ultimate fabric for military use and, possibly, for public casual wear. Mark Jones and Tom Martin, Virginia Tech engineering researchers, not fashion designe ...

M2 Presswire; 2/27/2004 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » M2 PRESSWIRE-27 February 2004-Research and Markets: New innovation in fibres, technical textiles, functional apparel and machinery are helping companies around the world to differentiate their products and maintain an advantage over their competitors(C)1994-2004 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD RDATE:02272004 Research and Markets are delighted to announce the addition of Innovations in Fibres, Technical Textiles, Functional Apparel, and Machinery to their offering. Innovations are helping companies around the world to differentiate their products and maintain an adva...

13.04.2004 National Science Foundation New material could mean easier manufacture of paper-thin TVs and "smart" cloth Researchers have developed a new plastic that conducts electricity, may be simpler to manufacture than industry counterparts and easily accommodates chemical attachments to create new materials. Developed by TDA Research in Wheat Ridge, Colo., Oligotron polymers are made of tiny bits of material that possess a conducting center and two, non-conducting end pieces. The end p ...

New Nanotechnology Fibre With Antibacterial Properties Korea : 10th March 2004 South Korea's leading synthetic fibre manufacturer Hyosung Corp., has launched its first nanotechnology fibre with antibacterial properties for garments ranging from underwear to sportswear. The Mipan Nano-Magic Silver fibres are infused with minute silver particles which are claimed to be 99.9 per cent effective at preventing infection, including pneumobacilli, colon bacilli and fungi causing athlete’s fo ...

TELECOMWORLDWIRE-6 August 2002-New smart thread could lead to wearable computers claims Santa Fe Science and Technology (C)1994-2002 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com Technology company Santa Fe Science and Technology has developed what they claim to be a smart thread that can be woven into clothes and conducts electricity. The thread is made out of a polymer that is similar to plastic but feels like nylon. The company claims that this could be used to replace threads in conventional clo ...

Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Nonwovens Industry; 6/1/2004 A successful expansion into technical textiles, the awarding of the prestigious Achievement Awards and domestic and international attendance were hallmarks of the successful IDEA04 International Engineered Fabrics Conference and Exposition held in late April in Miami. While full attendee data is not yet available on the IDEA show, event organizers, INDA, Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, Cary, NC, reported that attendance grew 3% to surpass 6000. Significant international attendance, particularly from Asia and South America along with the traditional strong at...

Josephine B. Lee and Vivek Subramanian Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley. 144MB Cory Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-1770, Ph (510) 643-4232, Fax (510) 642-2739, Email: josei@eecs.berkeley.edu 0-7803-7873-3/03/$17.00 (c) 2003 IEEE Abstract For the first time, we demonstrate flexible transistors formed directly on fibers. This represents a significant step towards the realization of electronics textiles. Fiber transistors exhibit mobilit ...

Josephine B. Lee and Vivek Subramanian Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley. 144MB Cory Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-1770, Ph (510) 643-4232, Fax (510) 642-2739, Email: josei@eecs.berkeley.edu Abstract For the first time, we demonstrate flexible transistors formed directly on fibers. This represents a significant step towards the realization of electronics textiles. Fiber transistors exhibit mobilities of >10-2 cm2/V-s measured at 20V VD ...

December 15, 2003 (5:24 p.m. EST) By W. David Gardner, TechWeb News Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have used organic transistors to reach an important stage in the march toward electronic textiles by forming flexible transistors on fibers. “For the first time,” said investigator Josephine Lee of the school's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, “we have demonstrated flexible organic TFTs formed on fibers...This technique is compatible with text ...

Bernd Panzer-Steindel Computing Fabrics Area Manager, CERN/IT The following overview tries to describe in some details the setup and organization of the Computing Fabric at CERN. The LCG project has of course by nature a large international aspect, while the Fabric Area of the project has a very strong CERN focus, as it has the goal to provide the necessary local infrastructure, T0 center, to safely store and process the large amount of raw data produced by the 4 LHC Experiments (ALICE ...

Pervasive computing produces 'smart' handbag gizmag November 14, 2004 A smart handbag has been created that tells the user if they have forgotten their keys or wallet, lights up when it gets dark and can wirelessly download information like weather reports from the internet and tell your umbrella it will be needed. The bYOB (Build Your Own Bag) is a flexible, computationally enhanced modular textile system that also transforms its shape according to your needs. When modules are snapped togeth ...

Pieter Jonker, , a, Stelian Persaa, Jurjen Caarlsa, Frank de Jonga and Inald Lagendijkb a Pattern Recognition Group, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands b Multimedia Research Group, Faculty of Information Technology and Systems, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands Received 9 October 2002; accepted 9 October 2002. ; Available online 19 March 2003. Abstract In this paper we treat design philosophies and enabling technolo ...

Author(s) : Katie Pennicott Source: http://physicsweb.org/article/news/6/4/13 Date: 04-18-2002 Type: News Summary: The communications and textiles industries could benefit from tough glass-coated polymer fibres that can be woven into fabrics. Developed by Shandon Hart of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US and colleagues, the fibres reflect more light at certain wavelengths than the best metallic reflectors. The fibres can also be drawn out to different diameters to customize ...

AUTEX Research Journal, Vol. 2, No3, September 2002 © AUTEX Professor Ali Harlin, Hanna Myllymäki, and Kirsi Grahn TAMPERE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Fibre Material Science P.O. Box 589, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland +358-40-533 2179, E-mail: ali.harlin@tut.fi ABSTRACT In the era of wearable computing, intelligent systems are breaking the bounds of traditional textiles and their design. The integration of the technologies with clothing, accessories, upholstery, or industrial technical texti ...

Author(s) : Stewart Taggart Source: http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,50904-2,00.html Date: 03-18-2002 Type: News Summary: clothing that generates solar power, fabrics that beep if you risk athletic injury and bed sheets that monitor your heartbeat and physiological health. Full article: SYDNEY, Australia -- Fancy this: clothing that generates solar power, fabrics that beep if you risk athletic injury and bed sheets that monitor your heartbeat and physiological health. Welcome to ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society Jamila Shawon and Changmo Sung Center for Advanced Materials, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell, MA 01854, USA ABSTRACT Electrospinning is a superior process compared to other conventional spinning methods for the production of fibers in the sub-micron to nanometer scales. Such fiber membranes have exceptionally large surface areas and small pore sizes. The process requires an electros ...

Volume 28, No. 8 August 2003 MRS Stephen S. Hardaker and Richard V. Gregory Abstract Fibers and coatings with unique optical, magnetic, and electrical properties are being widely studied for use in both military and commercial applications. New materials are being developed in this research effort, with unique tunable coloration properties across the visible spectrum as well as spanning the infrared and ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. These dynamic color-responsive "c ...

Radiation Protection In A Fabric United States Of America : 16th November 2002 Scientists have created what is claimed to be the world’s first radiation-proof fabric, providing as much protection as a lead vest but at a fraction of the weight. Instead of heavy metals to block radiation and X-rays, the new fabric, called Demron, is non-toxic and fused between two layers of fabric. A report in New Scientist magazine said: "Demron’s potential applications range from lightweight ful ...

British and German scientists are developing memory glasses that record everything the user sees. The glasses can play back memories later to help the wearer remember things they have forgotten. Researchers at the University of Bielefeld and the University of Surrey Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering say their glasses do not just record what the user sees but also allows the user to 'label' items so information can be used later on. The wearer could walk around an office or f ...

December 09, 2003 The goal is "ambient intelligence," in which access to information is seamlessly woven into our lives. By Nicolas Mokhoff, EE Times The idea that electronics should blend into the fabric of people's lives is taking on a whole new meaning when devices are embedded in clothing. At the International Electron Devices Meeting here this week, several researchers detailed what is becoming known as "ambient intelligence," a concept expected to be implemented over the next decade. ...

August 22, 2004 Following on from its “wearable electronics” from last year, Infineon’s research group has demonstrated a fault-tolerant, “self-organizing” embedded microcontroller network, which, coupled with sensors and LEDs, can be integrated into textiles. As a proof-of-concept, Infineon (distributed by Soanar) has produced a small section of “smart” carpet. The carpet appears completely normal; all of the microcontroller and sensor functions are arranged beneath the fibre surface. Depen ...

Future Materials, April 2004 Science of touch European companies are marketing new sensors for static consumer surfaces Eleksen in the UK has developed ElekTex fabric sensors that stop a chair's motor and reverse by 5mm if they detect anything under the chair as it reclines. The motor will also not operate unless sensors detect an adult's weight in the chair. The ElekTex sensors use conductive fibres to send electrical signals to the motors. They have no wires and can be used in material les ...

Scientists Develop 'Healing Textiles' Germany : 18th April 2003 Researchers in Germany have invented clothes that heal and nourish the body. They include ladies' tights that feed vitamins A, B and C directly into the legs and shirts embedded with nanoparticles of soothing balm to aid rheumatism sufferers. Several institutes have pioneered "healing textiles" for a market potentially worth billions. The scientists involved say their smart clothes - heated jackets and internet-linked dre ...

April 2004 Issey Miyake saw the future of fashion. So he gave up haute couture to become a softwear engineer. By Jessie Scanlon When the runway started to seem like a treadmill, Issey Miyake left Paris for good. The 65-year-old Japanese designer had shown nearly 100 collections and won almost every fashion award in existence. Long admired for his innovation, Miyake had boiled and melted fabric and played with bamboo and ultrasound. He had invented the science of wrinkling and perfected the ...

Steve Bush 26th November ‘03 Buckinghamshire-based Eleksen is developing uses for its ElekTex force-sensing fabric. Durable? Eleksen's switching fabric functions after rough treatment claims business development manager Steve Mayes. "We have folded it over 13,000 times with no problems," he said, "and the keyboard keys work after ten million pushes." Normal fabric processing is also possible. "It survives washing and we tumble dry samples for hours with a load of cricket balls." According to M ...

Medical Textiles; 7/1/2003 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Shape-memory materials are being used in medical textiles for their temperature adaptive moisture management features, says Dr Barbara Pause of Textile Testing & Innovation, Longmont, Colorado, USA. However, there is still much development work needed: the use of shape-memory materials in this area is still at an early stage. Shape-memory materials are able to return to a shape when triggered by heat through a strain recovery. They also show a highly elastic behavior in a certain temperature range. Speaking at the recent Techtextil symposium in Franfurt am Main, G...

Signal Approach By Janet Bealer Rodie, Assistant Editor October 2004 Textile World Applied Radar Inc. — North Kingstown, R.I., a research and development firm that designs and produces prototypes of sensing, communication and navigation systems using microwave or radio frequency technology — has introduced a line of electronic textile (e-textile) antennas. Michael A. Deaett, antenna sales manager, says the antennas can provide higher performance and lower cost to original equipment manu ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society J.F. Muth, E. Grant, K.A. Luthy, L.S. Mattos, J.C. Braly ECE Department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC 27695 A. Dhawan, A.M. Seyam, T.K. Ghosh. Textile Apparel Technology and Management, N.C. State University, Raleigh NC, 27695 ABSTRACT Weaving, knitting or placing electronic circuits within a textile matrix offer exciting possibilities for large-scale conformal circuits where the circuit dimensions can be ...

Intelligent airline seats could automatically alert busy cabin crew to nervous, shifty passengers, who might be terrorists or air-ragers. The seats, being designed by Qinetiq, the UK's part-privatised defence lab, could also warn if passengers have been sitting still so long they risk developing deep vein thrombosis. The seats will contain a thicket of pressure sensors that will relay signals to a central computer to assess the seat occupant's behaviour. If passengers have been asleep or sit ...

e-Textiles Ever since the gung-ho 1990s, technology visionaries have been predicting the day when electronics built into the clothes on our backs and the fabrics in our furniture would act as invisible servants, linking us to the myriad smart machines that would comprise the modern home. Called e-textiles, the idea was ultimately to incorporate the full range of technology into the fabric, so the wearer was not just connected but electronically self-sufficient. Scientists laboured mightily to ...

Smart Clothing Revolution Haute couture was never this hot. Forget drip-dry shirts and wrinkle-free trousers, the apparel revolution has a lot more in store than you imagined. Smart clothing may not look very different from normal clothing, but an array of interwoven sensory strands provides information that assists the wearer. For instance, the US-based International Fashion Machines (IFM), an MIT Media Lab start-up dedicated to bringing tog ...

Smart fabric based on neural chip network By John Blau IDG News Service, 05/05/03 Researchers at Germany's Infineon Technologies have demonstrated how a self-organizing network of chips woven into large textile surfaces, such as carpets, could someday be used to monitor buildings, provide emergency direction services and more. At the company's Emerging Technology Lab in Munich, the research team showed how robust chips embedded into industrial fabrics in the form of a checkerboard are able ...

Smart fabric breakthrough 26 January 2005 World Textile Publications Ltd. Burlington WorldWide (BWW), in partnership with Outlast Technologies and Ciba, has created a finish that allows fabrics to adjust to changes in temperature for more comfortable and versatile clothing. "The result of this collaborative effort is a 'smart,' versatile fabric that provides consumers multiple functions and benefits," said Ken Kunberger, president of BWW. The patent-pending technology, called Smart Fabric T ...

Machine Design; 1/9/2003; Koucky, Sherri Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » E-textiles, cloth interwoven with electronic components, may soon find use as wearable computers and as large sensors. Virginia Tech engineers are developing an e-textile called Stretch that looks at home around military equipment such as tents and camouflage nets. Sensors and connecting wires in the fabric create patterns of information. Software translates data into images soldiers can use to locate sounds. "We're designing and constructing a 30-ft-long prototype for the Stretch fabric," says Mark Jones, an engineer at the Virginia Tech Dept. of Electrical and Computer Enginee... >

Macey, M. 2002, 'Smart outfit has everything sewn up', The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 Feb 2002 By Richard Macey Australian scientists are working on developing so-called intelligent clothes that could adapt to changing weather conditions, protect against injuries and even stop us losing personal items. They say their research will lead to the creation of clothing with mobile phones, CD players and computers woven into the fabric. Similar technology would also allow clothing to react to the el ...

Smart patches: self-monitoring composite patches for the repair of aircraft Publication Date: Mar 2004 Samuel D. Crossley, Zaira Marioli-Riga, George Tsamasphyros, George Kanderakis, Nikos Furnarakis, Aris Ikiades, Mary Konstantaki Publication: Proc. SPIE Vol. 5272, p. 304-315, Industrial and Highway Sensors Technology; Brian Culshaw, Michael A. Marcus, John P. Dakin, Samuel D. Crossley, Helmut E. Knee; Eds. Abstract Conventional aircraft repair techniques employ bolted or riveted m ...

Lucy Dunne, Susan Ashdown, Eric McDonald Cornell University lucy.dunne@cornell.edu Abstract This research explores a wearable application of available electronic solutions to the specific needs of recreationally athletic individuals. The design process for technologically-augmented solutions, the process of integrating electronic components into wearable garments, and the social acceptance of wearable technology are investigated in the creation and testing of a garment. A prototype smart jac ...

AUTEX Research Journal, Vol. 2, No4, December 2002 © AUTEX A. Mazzoldi*, D. De Rossi*, F. Lorussi*, E. P. Scilingo*, R. Paradiso^*Centro ‘E. Piaggio’, Faculty of Engineering, University of Pisa, via Diotisalvi 2,56126 Pisa, Italy, tel ++39-050-553639, fax 550650, e-mail: alberto@piaggio.ccii.unipi.it^Smartex, via dei Fossi 14, Prato (I), Tel: +39-0574-666251, fax 623656, e-mail: rita@smartex.it Abstract The implementation of truly wearable instrumented garments capable of recordingbiomechanic ...

By Ron Wilson EE Times September 22, 2003 (10:22 AM EDT) SAN MATEO, Calif. — Intellectual property vendor Sonics Inc. today (Sept. 22) will unveil the third-generation version of Silicon Backplane, its interblock communications architecture. The collection of physical interconnect, traffic-shaping agents, open-specification block interfaces, modeling tools and development tools give designers a number of ways to link the functional blocks of a system-on-chip ICs. In the Sonics arc ...

Imagine a tablecloth that could play music, a jacket that interfaces with your PalmPilot, a television remote control sewn into the arm of a sofa or light switches embedded in curtains and carpets. In the future, interfaces between man and machine will become soft, tactile and eventually wearable with electronics becoming part of the clothing we wear. The key to making this possible is a new technology developed to enable fabrics to function as electronic interfaces. Essentially, this means th ...

Solar powered fabrics 21 February 2005 World Textile Publications Ltd Konarka Technologies, Inc., is to develop a photovoltaic fabric with leading Swiss University, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). The "Photovoltaic Fibers and Textiles Based on Nanotechnology" program is expected to yield the first fully integrated woven photovoltaic material. Such material will allow for tighter integration of power generation capabilities into devices, systems and structures beyond what is ...

Wednesday January 14, 2004 9:27 AM CST Source: ScotteVest ICP Solar Technologies Inc. (ICP), the world's largest developer of solar products for consumers, and SCOTTeVEST LLC, the leading Technology Enabled Clothing (TEC) company, have unveiled the first solar power jacket prototypes designed to allow wearers to carry, connect and charge their portable digital devices, at the 2004 International CES in Las Vegas. The ICP Global Solar division is integrating ICP’s flexible thin-film photovolta ...

Spinning technique makes nanofibres on large scale Advances in Textiles Technology, November, 2004 US Researchers say they have carried out the first large-scale manufacture of fibres composed solely of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNs). The team--from the University of Pennsylvania, Rice University and Carbon Consultations, all in the USA--used a conventional solution spinning technique to make SWCN fibres around 100 [micro]m in diameter. To make the fibres, John Fischer, from the University of Pennsylvania, and ... Want to read the whole article? You can purchase it here. It's quick and easy.

US researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, have made electronic circuits that can stretch like rubber. The flexible wires might create wearable electronics or artificial nerves that can bend inside the body. The researchers built rubbery circuits out of several squashed but extendable gold wires. These are 20 times thinner than a human hair and wrapped in a springy polymer. The wires can be stretched by over half their initial length without loss of electrical conductivity. Wiring like this could be woven into stretchy sports clothing and used to connect up sensors that monitor athletic performance. Rubbery electrodes made from biocompatible materials might be attached to a beating heart and used to sense impending problems. Nature Mar 15, 2004

Lucy Dunne, Aaron Toney, Susan P. Ashdown, Bruce H. Thomas Department of Textiles and Apparel College of Human Ecology Cornell University {led6,spa4}@cornell.edu Wearable Computer Laboratory School of Computer and Information Science University of South Australia aaron.toney@hhhh.org, bruce.thomas@unisa.edu.au First International Forum on Applied Wearable Computing, March 24th-25th, 2004, Bremen, Germany Abstract Integration of technology into standard apparel poses many difficult pro ...

Advances in Textiles Technology, December, 2002 A US company is attempting to develop filaments containing superconductors. In US Patent 6 344 167, BASF Corp of Mount Olive, New Jersey, discloses its work with rayon filaments that enclose a liquid suspension core containing at least 10 wt% of a superconductor. The yarn is a multi-component structure, which the Patent says offers a number of advantages compared with a monocomponent superconductor filament. For instance, ... Want to read the whole article? You can purchase it here. It's quick and easy.

Advances in Textiles Technology, June, 2002 Researchers at BASF Inc have created superconductive viscose rayon fibres. In US Patent 6 344 167, the workers from Mount Olive, New Jersey, USA, describe multicomponent fibres having a viscose matrix and incorporating one or more superconductors in the form of a suspension. The Patent says that multicomponent filaments are preferred to monocomponent fibres because they can be bent and shaped without cracking or breaking. Monocomponent fibres containing an equivalent amount of the suspension are liable ... Want to read the whole article? You can purchase it here. It's quick and easy.

Electricity-Conducting Fabric Introducing Touchy-Feely Tech by Leander Kahney A pair of British inventors has developed an electricity-conducting fabric that could lead to washable, wearable phones, keyboards and other devices. The pair have already made a cloth keyboard for handheld computers and a spongy cell phone that will go through the wash. Designers say the new material could lead to an explosion in "soft products." Developed by Chris Chapman and David Sandbach, a pair of sculp ...

M2 Presswire; 5/28/2002 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » M2 PRESSWIRE-28 May 2002-UK Government: Technical textiles sector feels e-benefits; New survey shows sector leading the way (C)1994-2002 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD RDATE:05282002 A new survey published today by the DTI, shows that the technical textiles sector is leading the way in adopting e-commerce technologies. The technical textiles sector is highly specialised with a diverse range of products and applications, such as fabrics for cars, protective clothing and medical textiles. The UK market is worth around GBP1.5 billion. The survey interviewe...

Technical textiles take a leap into the future Textiles Intelligence 2003-04-28 Natural fibre production was perfected in the Industrial Age (1775-1850). Synthetic fibre production fuelled developments in the textile industry during the Chemical Age (1870-1980). Now, barely a decade into the Information Age, some equally momentous shifts look to be on the horizon, according to a new report published in Technical Textile Markets. According to Technical Textile Markets, these shifts will resul ...

Project Centre report (06/07/03) Category: Shape Memory Metal An Italian Design company, Corpo Nove ( www.corponove.it ) designs clothes incorporating technology. They have woven shape memory metal fibres into this shirt. The creases can be smoothed out, just by applying hot air with a hairdryer. Even the sleeves roll up when it gets hot. Could this be the end of ironing as we know it? Shape memory metal can be used in many different ways, from clothing to aircraft and even heat-activated switches. What applications can you think of?

Technology to Inspire Cyber Jacket 24/05/04 The Bristol Wearable Computing Project (wearables.cs.bris.ac.uk) A wearable computer that is able to talk to other computers wirelessly This is the cyber jacket: a wearable computer that is able to talk to other computers wirelessly. The cyber jacket has got a wireless card, which enables it to communicate with other computers that are nearby. It also has power supplies that enable it to run all day. Using a GPS receiver to work out its position i ...

Technology to Inspire Display Fabric Project Centre report (06/07/03) Category: Smart Materials Visson (www.visson.net) Material you can display messages and images on Visson in Israel have designed a fabric using copper fibres to produce a fabric display. This can replace a monitor on computer and in the future all screens could be made using this material. The fabric is woven using copper fibres instead of thread. An image can be screen printed onto the fabric, using special electro lum ...

Technology to Inspire Sensory Fabric (06/07/03) The Design For Life Centre (www.brunel.ac.uk/research/dfl/) Fabric that knows when it is being touched The Design For Life Centre is a research group in Brunel University who have developed a sensory fabric that knows when it is being touched. By weaving conductive threads into the fabric, sensory switches can be positioned within the cloth which are activated when pressure is applied to them. The future will see us using fabrics in many new ways, from visual displays, to keyboards, to clothes that conduct electricity and never need washing. What kinds of fabrics would you design for the future and how would you use them?

Technology to Inspire Sensory Fabric London report (06/07/03) Category: Smart Materials, Computer Interaction The Design For Life Centre (www.brunel.ac.uk/research/dfl/) Fabric that knows when it is being touched The Design For Life Centre is a research group in Brunel University who have developed a sensory fabric that knows when it is being touched. By weaving conductive threads into the fabric, sensory switches can be positioned within the cloth which are activated when pressure is applied to them. The future will see us using fabrics in many new ways, from visual displays, to keyboards, to clothes that conduct electricity and never need washing. What kinds of fabrics would you design for the future and how would you use them?

Project Centre report (06/07/03) Category: Smart Materials, Computer Interaction Philips Design are a team of designers who have created a range of clothing that incorporates technology. Ideas include clothing for children incorporating safety features like cameras so you can check whom your child is playing with. You could incorporate your telephone or your MP3/audio player into your jacket! The future will see us using fabrics in many new ways, from visual displays, to keyboards, to clothes that conduct electricity and never need washing. What kinds of fabrics would you design for the future and how would you use them?

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society J. Slade, J. Teverovsky, B. Farrell, J. Bowman, M. Agpaoa-Kraus, Dr. P. Wilson, Foster- Miller Inc., Waltham, MA 02451, U.S.A.; J. Pederson, J. Merenda, BAE Systems, Greenlawn, NY 11740-1600, U.S.A; W. Horowitz, E. Tierney, Offray Specialty Narrow Fabrics LLC, Watsontown, PA 17777, U.S.A.; Carole Winterhalter, U.S. Army Soldier Systems, Natick R&DE Center, Natick, MA, 01760-5019, U.S.A. Introduction The increasing desir ...

Lars Hallnäs, Linda Melin & Johan Redström PLAY Research Studio, Interactive Institute Box 620, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden {lars.hallnas,linda.melin,johan.redstrom}@interactiveinstitute.se http://www.interactiveinstitute.se/ ABSTRACT As we face an increasingly heterogeneous collection of computational devices, there is a need to develop a general approach to what it is that we design as we create computational things. One such basic approach is to consider computational technology to be ...

1 June 2002 - Technical Textiles International Textile Institute Conference - research in technical textiles Scientists from all over the world gathered in Cairo, Egypt, at the Textile Institute's 82nd World Conference, 23 -27 March 2002. Although this meeting covers all aspects of textiles, Nick Butler found that much of their research is now focused on technical applications. Over its full duration, 23-27 March 2002, the Textile Institute's 82nd World Conference offered delegates many pres ...

August 11, 2004 By Janet Bealer Rodie, Assistant Editor Textile World Interactive textiles are taking their place in the array of cutting-edge products available in today’s marketplace. Some incorporate various electronic sensors and control devices aimed at improving safety and comfort, providing communication and entertainment, and allowing users to interact with the world in countless other ways. England-based SOFTswitch Ltd.’s electronic fabric technology can turn conventional textile ...

Textile-Based Electronic Substrate Technology Sabine Gimpel Uwe Mohring Hardy Muller Andreas Neudeck a.neudeck@titv-greiz.de Wolfgang Scheibner 2004 SAGE Publications The present paper presents a proceeding to prepare partially conductive textile structures as basic substrates to integrate sensors and microelectronic devices into textiles. The proceeding is based on two steps. The first is to create a textile prestructure by conventional textile technologies, such as Jacquard wea ...

DR BARRY HOLCOMBE CSIRO Background Over the next decade or so, clothing seems destined to be transformed from its present role as a passive protector against the elements and a fashion statement into an integral element of lifestyle-related activities. Undoubtedly fashion will remain important but the focus will shift strongly in the direction of functionality. Wearable electronics products with in-built consumer electronics such as the Levis ICD+ jacket are already a reality and groups such as Philips Research are heavily involved in projects that propose to use clothing as the platform for a range of communication, computing and entertainment accessories or to monitor the physiological functions of the wearer. Please visit the web site to view the article in its entirety.

01 August 2003 By Ellen Fussell The textile industry is moving into new territory military, industrial, and medical applications with smart and electronic textiles (e-textiles). And in doing so, it is accommodating the world textile environment and giving competition in low-wage countries a run for their money. Military research is finding materials to sense chemicals in the air or respond to radioactivity. Researchers are looking for textiles that can be a canvas for a truck and an antenn ...

Textiles gain intelligence Advances in textile technology, computer engineering, and materials science are promoting a new breed of functional fabrics. Fashion designers are adding wires, circuits, and optical fibers to traditional textiles, creating garments that glow in the dark or keep the wearer warm. Meanwhile, electronics engineers are sewing conductive threads and sensors into body suits that map users’ whereabouts and respond to environmental stimuli. Researchers agree that the ...

The Basic Problems of Textronics Technical University of LódzFaculty of Engineering and Marketing of Textilesul. Zeromskiego 116, 90-543 Lódz, PolandE-mail: kgniotek@p.lodz.pl FIBRES & TEXTILES in Eastern Europe January / March 2004, Vol. 12, No. 1 (45) Abstract This article describes the problems of a new branch of science designated as ‘textronics’. This notion means a new interdisciplinary, common scientific branch created by the synergic connection of the three following disciplines: te ...

Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab The galvactivator is a glove-like wearable device that senses the wearer's skin conductivity and maps its values to a bright LED display. Increases in skin conductivity across the palm tend to be good indicators of physiological arousal --- causing the galvactivator display to glow brightly. The galvactivator has many potentially useful purposes, ranging from self-feedback for stress management, to facilitation of conversation between two ...

The Next Generation of Handbags Emi Ling January 05, 2005 Have you ever forgotten to bring along your keys and wished that your bag was more alert than you were? Or have you stumbled in the dark, vainly searching for your bag, and hoped it would illuminate and reveal itself? Look no further—such a smart bag may soon be on its way. Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab have developed a system of fabric patches that are not only intelligent, but also versatile. Adr ...

SMARTEX s.r.l. is a limited liability company founded in 1999 with the aim to develop research and innovation activities in the textile field. The company was created to answer the need of innovation and hi-technology transfer processes toward the textile world. At present several leading manufacturing textile industries like Milior SpA, Lineapiù Spa and Ermenegildo Zegna Spa are funding the research activities of Smartex, the funding consortium including also Virginia-Antea Gestioni Spa and Gab ...

SMARTEX s.r.l. is a limited liability company founded in 1999 with the aim to develop research and innovation activities in the textile field. The company was created to answer the need of innovation and hi-technology transfer processes toward the textile world. At present several leading manufacturing textile industries like Milior SpA, Lineapiù Spa and Ermenegildo Zegna Spa are funding the research activities of Smartex, the funding consortium including also Virginia-Antea Gestioni Spa and Gab ...

SMARTEX s.r.l. is a limited liability company founded in 1999 with the aim to develop research and innovation activities in the textile field. The company was created to answer the need of innovation and hi-technology transfer processes toward the textile world. At present several leading manufacturing textile industries like Milior SpA, Lineapiù Spa and Ermenegildo Zegna Spa are funding the research activities of Smartex, the funding consortium including also Virginia-Antea Gestioni Spa and Gab ...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society Joseph McDermott and Paul C. Brantner Infinite Power Solutions Golden, Colorado 80401 Abstract Infinite Power Solutions manufactures a flexible rechargeable micro ampere-hour solidstate battery based on thin-film Lithium technology where the battery can be engineered into the product for life as a cost effective solution with the battery that never needs to be replaced. The performance characteristics of the battery comb ...

Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Business Wire; 9/13/2004 CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Technology and innovation firm completes Phase II of DARPA-funded project; exoskeleton could enhance performance of soldiers TIAX LLC, a leading collaborative product and technology development firm, today announced it has completed the second phase of a project to develop an advanced power source for a prototype military exoskeleton. The contract was awarded to TIAX in 2001 and supports the exoskeleton program under the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). An exoskeleton is a wearable robotic suit who...

Art Business News; 12/1/2002 Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Kinetronics of Sarasota, Fla., introduces the Tiger Cloth, an anti-static, microfiber cloth specifically engineered for cleaning static-prone surfaces. The orange cloth has stripes of effective conductive fibers that dissipate or drain off static charges. The lint-free, ultra-soft c...

By Nicolas Mokhoff, EE Times Jun 19, 2002 (11:46 AM EDT) URL: http://www.eedesign.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=17407831 NEW ORLEANS — Off-key subjects were at the heart of several emerging technology sessions at last week's Design Automation Conference that examined the challenges of next-generation designs while suggesting possible approaches to existing problems. At a session titled "Life after CMOS: Imminent or Irrelevant?" Intel Corp. discussed potential solutions to the pr ...

Computerized clothes are the ultimate in portable high-tech gadgetry. As with all clothes, computerized apparel starts with the proper thread. Cotton, polyester or rayon don´t have the needed properties to carry the electrical current needed for digital clothing. However, metallic yarns aren´t new to the clothing industry. We have seen these metallic fabrics worn to make fashion statements for years. Researchers at MIT´s Media Lab are using silk organza, a unique fabric that has been used to m ...

By Syndication June 24, 2004 3:28PM Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corp. said Thursday it has developed the world's smallest methanol fuel cell for use in wireless headsets and other wearable electronics devices. The prototype direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is roughly thumb-size, measuring 22 millimetres by 45 millimetres (0.88 inches by 1.80 inches) and weighs 8.5 grammes (0.29 ounces). It is "small enough for integration into a wireless headset for mobile phones , but still effici ...

Towards roll-to-roll fabrication of electronics, optics, and optoelectronics for smart and intelligent packaging Publication Date: Jun 2004 Terho K. Kololuoma, Markus Tuomikoski, Tapio Makela, Jali Heilmann, Tomi Haring, Jani Kallioinen, Juha Hagberg, Ilkka Kettunen, Harri K. Kopola Publication: Proc. SPIE Vol. 5363, p. 77-85, Emerging Optoelectronic Applications; Ghassan E. Jabbour, Juha T. Rantala; Eds. Abstract Embedding of optoelectrical, optical, and electrical functionalities i ...

First thing every morning, most of us decide what to wear based on what's planned for the day. We also think about what items to take with us and nowadays most of us are carrying more electronic equipment like mobiles, notebooks, organizers or audio players, as well as non-electronic equipment such as handbags or briefcases. But to what extent are these, part of our clothes, i.e. to what extent are these wearable? Wouldn't it be nice if they were always at hand and automatically switched on the ...

Trends in apparel manufacturing technology 26 Jan 2004 just-style.com Article Summary: The last decade has seen a shift in apparel technology developments, with innovation giving way to more practical solutions driven by flexibility and user-friendliness. Prabir Jana asks whether apparel manufacturing technology has reached a plateau or should be braced for an IT takeover? This article is reserved exclusively for just-style.com members.

New fabric displays glowing, changing images. 22 May 2002 PHILIP BALL Optical-fibre fabric should open new horizons for fashion designers. © France Telecom Seen the movie, got the T-shirt? Soon T-shirts might not just advertise movies but show them. Researchers at France Telecom have developed a fabric woven from plastic optical fibres that glow with a series of different images, like a TV screen1. It could mean never again being stuck wearing the same outfit as someone else at a p ...

In a step toward electronic newspapers and wearable computer screens, scientists from E Ink of Cambridge, Massachusetts, have created an ultra-thin screen that can be bent, twisted and even rolled up and still display crisp text. The material, which is less than 0.3 mm thick, displays black text on a whitish-grey background with a resolution similar to that of a typical laptop computer screen. The screen is so flexible it can be rolled into a cylinder about one centimetre wide without losing i ...

Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News; 6/12/2003 By Alexandra Witze, The Dallas Morning News Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Jun. 12--Chemists at the University of Texas at Dallas have spun fibers more than four times tougher than spider silk, nature's wonder material. One day, the new fibers might be woven into bulletproof clothing for soldiers or "smart" skin for airplanes that fly themselves, said Ray Baughman, a chemist at UTD. "To our knowledge, this is the toughest material known to science," he said. Dr. Baughman, director of UTD's NanoTech Institute, and his colleagues describe t...

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 736 © 2003 Materials Research Society Jeremiah Slade, Marty Agpaoa-Kraus, Jeremy Bowman, Andrew Riecker, Tom Tiano, Charles Carey, and Dr. Patricia Wilson, Foster-Miller, Inc. Waltham, MA 02451, U.S.A. Abstract The ability to integrate electrical functionality into textile garments is becoming increasingly desired for consumer devices, military applications and for companies with large distributed workforces. This technology has the potential to facilitate t ...

Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab. The unique needs of an affective computing system present challenges to designers of hardware as well as software. We expect to build systems that maintain not only constant sensing contact with the user, but also contact via more traditional user interface paradigms. One solution to these hardware design challenges that we are investigating is the wearable computer. Several research projects in Affective Wearable systems are currently un ...

Gerhard Tröster, Tünde Kirstein, Paul Lukowicz Wearable Computing Lab ETH Zürich Gloriastrasse 35 CH-8092 Zürich troester@ife.ee.ethz.ch Abstract Wearable Computing will change the mobile computing landscape provided that the unobtrusive integration of electronics in our daily outfit becomes feasible. System-on-Textile SoT describes an approach to configure textiles as a personalized and flexible electronic platform. The vision relies on the availability of conductive and functional threads, on technologies to interconnect between conductive yarns and also yarns and devices. This paper reflects the state-of-the-art in electronic textiles and presents first implementations. Please visit the Internet site to view the article in its entirety.

Gerhard Tröster, Tünde Kirstein, Paul Lukowicz Wearable Computing Lab ETH Zürich Gloriastrasse 35 CH-8092 Zürich troester@ife.ee.ethz.ch Abstract Wearable Computing will change the mobile computing landscape provided that the unobtrusive integration of electronics in our daily outfit becomes feasible. System-on-Textile SoT describes an approach to configure textiles as a personalized and flexible electronic platform. The vision relies on the availability of conductive and functional threads, on technologies to interconnect between conductive yarns and also yarns and devices. This paper reflects the state-of-the-art in electronic textiles and presents first implementations. Please visit the web site to view the article in its entirety.

Wearable electronic clothes Thursday, November 20, 2003, Chandigarh, India The Tribune S.S. Verma ADVANCES in textile technology, computer engineering and materials science are promoting a new breed of functional fabrics resulting in some truly smart and clever clothing. Realisation of this vision could be possible with the advent of wearable electronic textiles, where functionality is incorporated into the fabric. Clothing is being developed for protection from chemical, biological and nu ...

Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » Daily News Record; 8/23/2004; Brumback, Nancy Byline: Nancy Brumback CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology doesn't conjure up images of cutting-edge fashion. But in MIT's research labs, development work is going on that could have a profound impact on fabrics and apparel. The university's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) is exploring fibers that mimic spider silk, fabric that changes color, fabric coating that can convert instantly into a hard shield and fabric that is waterproof and germproof. MIT's famed Media Lab is looking into electronic fabrics that change c...

2002 IEEE Published by the IEEE Computer Society Vol. 6No. 5; SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2002, pp. 88-91 Michael N. Huhns University of South Carolina Larry M. Stephens University of South Carolina John W. Keele Meat Animal Research Center, USDA Jim E. Wray Meat Animal Research Center, USDA Warren M. Snelling Meat Animal Research Center, USDA Greg P. Harhay Meat Animal Research Center, USDA Randy R. Bradley Meat Animal Research Center, USDA Agents in the form of elves, sprites, avatars ...

By Lamont Wood. Special to the Tribune Published October 28, 2002 A routine commute on a CTA bus might look something like this in the not-too-distant future: The teenagers near you are wearing the hoods of their jackets. You can hear the music coming from the speakers built into those hoods. Some turn down the music by pressing a tab on their jacket's sleeve after your annoying stares. Others crank it up. A mother sitting across from you is adjusting her baby's shirt, the type that has a ...

1 October 2003 - Technical Textiles International Weaving technology giants invade technical textiles sector Producers of machinery for mainstream textile applications have joined traditional specialist industrial fabric loom-builders in targeting an attractive and growing market segment, reports Phil Owen. In weaving, as much as in any other textile process segment, ITMA 2003 will underline the immense upsurge of activity directed at applications for technical textiles. In fact, the product ...

Source: Mass High Tech 01/13/2003 08:04 AM By Laurel Donoho The concept of wireless sensing is a fascinating and promising area. The potential for industrial, commercial and consumer uses boggles the mind and in some cases sounds like something from a futuristic movie. Because of the vastness of potential applications, the hype at the introductory stages of this technology to some degree exceeds the level of technology available now in the real world. While some manufacturers have ventured ...

Medical Device Technology; 6/1/2003; Wechsler, Thomas Read the Full Article, Get a FREE Trial for instant access » The number of applications of woven fabrics (textiles) in the medical and biotechnology industry has significantly increased. Woven fabrics are integrated into life-saving devices such as cardioreservoirs, oxygenators, arterial filters, infusion and transfusion sets, diagnostic devices, respiratory equipment and implants such as stents and pelvis implants. The term "textile" comprises a large area. This article will focus on recent developments and possible future applications of woven synthetic fabrics produced from monofilament yarns. Materials A variety of new...

Mobile operator NTT DoCoMo has announced it has begun selling the Wristomo, a mobile phone worn on the wrist. While companies such as Motorola and Siemens have shown off working prototypes - and the UK famously demonstrated the pub-detecting watch - the Wristomo is likely to be the world's first wristwatch-phone sold commercially. To talk into the Wristomo, users have to unlatch and unfold it from the wrist, so that it becomes more like a normal clamshell-style phone - users do no speak into t ...

ElekTex can locate the position of a point of pressure, such as a finger press, thanks to its unique X-Y positioning capabilities. The system works even if the fabric is folded, draped or stretched. A single ElekTex switch can also be used to provide 'switch matrix' functionality. Interpreting software is used to identify the location of switch areas in any configuration to suit product requirements. The resolution of the fabric is high, capable of inputting to electronics up to 10bit, making ...

“Smart” Clothing Materials Could Lead to Synthetics with Biomedical Applications 14 Feb 2005 Medical News Today What makes a nanocomposite material “smart”? Consider clothing that can detect the presence of chemical weapons, automatically seal its own pores, and then clean and decontaminate itself. Today the U.S. Department of Defense is funding research for fabric materials that do all these things and are also stronger, more durable, and lighter than current uniforms. Smart materials are ...