Motion Responsive Sportswear

Posted by eric at talk2myShirt

on September 17, 2008

Kerri Wallace, a textile designer from the United Kingdom, has set out to revolutionize fitness and performance apparel by designing responsive textiles with motion sensitive displays.

Her research project ‘Motion Responsive Sportswear‘ is using the correlation between heart rate and body temperature as a trigger for the visual representation of the activity level by changing the color pattern of sports apparel.

The development of unique textiles for sport activities is a growing area which merges expertise of design, science and technology to create innovative products in the area of fitness and performance apparel.

Biometric values are one of the most representative data that allow the quantification and classification of activity intensity.

The conventional method of instant feedback on workout intensity is by looking up the values of heart rate and body temperature on a wrist device.

Kerri’s Motion Responsive Sportswear takes the visualization of heart rate / body temperature by changing the colors of sports apparel which are printed with temperature specific thermo-chromic and thermo-chromic liquid crystal inks.

The use of thermo-chromic inks gives an example how advanced textile technologies can provide additional options for designer to create more dynamic and reactive clothing. It’s not the textile display many are waiting for but it is a unique option for a textile based, visual indication system.