Sensible, sensing clothing are a fascinating topic which has got the intention of a highly creative team which integrates Merlin Stretch Sensor into beautifully designed garment to sense the wearers movement. The movement data can then be used for various purposes like interaction with a garments appearance, interaction with other smart sensing garments or interaction with the environment.

The project is called ‘Aeolia‘ with the purpose to explore concepts of our bodily engagement with the land and ideas of space and place.

Each of the back forms incorporate the Merlin stretch sensor into an aesthetic exploration of textile technique mapped to the body – weave (grey), knit (white) and embroidery (black).

The knit samples use a Bekaert yarn with standard shirring elastic to create an experimental stretch sensor based on the changing length of the conductive path.

A Merlin Stretch Sensor measures stretch, displacement, compression and force. It is a flexible cylindrical cord with electrical fixings at each end. The sensor behaves like a variable resistor, the more you stretch it the higher the resistance. You can find here some Merlin Stretch Sensors if you like to experiment with this technology.

Check out the Aeolia project page which contains video clips showing how a stretch sensing textile patch manipulates music. This concept could make interesting stage wear for artist who can influence their musical performance with their movement on stage.

Aeolia is a collaboration between many people from different disciplines, most of them working at Nottingham Trent University:

Philip Breedon in Product Design and Amanda Briggs-Goode in Textiles head the project with Sarah Kettley. Martha Glazzard developed the knit stretch sensors, Tina Downes made the embroidered sample, Karen Harrigan works across the project on garment fit and Nigel Marshall is working on woven structures.

A fantastic team that stretches the future of fashion design imagination.

[via: electricfoxy]

Infos about the prototypes on stage during the Smart Textiles Salon keep coming thanks to our friends Lina Rambausek and Anne Schwarz who are busy to organize this event under the supervision of Prof. Lieva Van Langenhove at UGent.

Today’s project preview presents another approach to smart textile sensors based on silver-coated polyamide yarn knitted with spandex to make it stretchable. The projects name is ITcares – ‘Intelligent Textile for CArdio REspiratory Sensing’.

The textile sensor patches are placed on positions of the T-Shirt’s inside which have been found to be most immune to the movement of the torso which will minimizing the ‘artifacts’, wrong readings of the sensor.

Stretchable textile sensors allow a tight but still comfortable fit, contributing to an improved sensor performance as skin contact is most important for accurate biometric data detection.

Body sensor network techniques gaining tremendous interest from researchers and professionals and from academia to the industry worldwide. With the development of innovative wearable/wireless and one day implantable bio sensors, everyday health care and the improvement in the quality of life for patients is one of the most valuable achievements wearable technologies are able to deliver.

We have added a category specific for the Smart Textile Salon entries for the convenience to have all related Smart Textiles Salon articles with one mouse click or via the Category panel.

OFSETH (Optical Fiber Sensors Embedded into technical Textile for Health-care) is a European project of the 6th Framework Program and will be part of the Smart Textiles Salon prototype presentation in Ghent, a European workshop jointly organized by the European projects SysTex and Proetex.

The OFSETH project aims to develop optical fiber based sensors for health care application to continuously monitor vital biometric data of patients while giving them at the same time more mobility and freedom, to be more mobile.

I really like the idea of having, hopefully one day soon, smart patients care garments that take out one of the most frustrating experiences when one has to submit to body monitoring.

The team created a optical sensor network into a harness for patient monitoring containing several optical fiber sensors for assessing the patient breathing activity, detecting respiratory accidents or incidents.

The optical sensor fibers will be compatible with textile manufacturing processes.

More details about this project can be found on the OFSETH project site.

SmartLife® Technology Ltd, a UK based Medical Technology Company with the aim to become a leading global provider in the field of wearable monitoring systems just got a step closer to achieve this aim by being awarded an international patent for a knitted ‘linear electronic transducer’ which is incorporated into a garment in order to monitor a patient’s health.

Remarkable on this story is that SmartLife is not only able to license this technology to other brands and manufacturers it is also another stepping stone towards a more regulated, structured wearable technology environment especially for companies planning to integrate soft technology into mass market products.

Besides the knitted electrode technology which allows a seamless integration of ECG sensors into garments, SmartLife has also developed a sophisticated detection electronic which translates the noisy signals that come from HRM devices into medical grade readable data.

Picking up heart rate signals sounds easier as it is as the is a lot of movement in the body on the garment which create such signal noise. Developing a robust and reliable processing software next to the soft sensor components makes this system interesting for a wider range of application where high data reliability is important.

[via: Innovation in Textiles]

This weeks eTextile DIY project introduction comes from Adrian Freed, Research Director at CNMAT (Center for New Music and Audio Technology) who is by the way organizing the Interactive e-textile Workshop with Arduino LilyPad (still some places left for the August session).

The Proximity Sensing Fabric project is demonstrating how interactive fashion designer could recreate the cool iPod touch pad interface on textile substrates.

It works with capacitive sensing technology to measure touch and proximity based on the easy-to-use, cheap capacitance sensing chip evaluation board from Atmel/Qtouch.

According to Adrian, putting together this proximity fabric sensor takes only minutes assuming you have the Qtouch evaluation board which costs $30.- on hand.

The fabric proximity sensor provides another option when it comes to interacting with clothing allowing the activation of functions by proximity rather than physical touch like it is necessary for switches.

The instructions contain some background information about capacitive sensing as well as how to modify the evaluation board, extending the sensor pads with electrically conductive yarn or textile ribbons to form a larger fabric sensor you might want to use to give more sense(ability) to your next interactive fashion project.

Plusea aka Hannah Perner-Wilson is one of the most active wearable technologists judging on the amount of her DIY instructions especially around textile sensors and interactive clothing for performing artists.

Her most recent creation posted on YouTube is the ‘Sensitive Fingertips‘ (see embedded video below) a glove containing pressure sensors on each finger tip allowing the detection of the pressure the finger tips create.

‘Intended for use by children and their piano teachers to visualize the difference between “p” piano (soft) and “f” forte (hard).‘

The sensors are made from stretch conductive fabric and Eeonyx stretchy resistive fabric, allowing for the whole glove to remain stretchy so that they can fit tightly.

Connected to the Arduino via metal snaps and a fabric cable made from sewn conductive thread traces this glove can be a great input enhancement into the virtual world of computer games or professional applications where the use of a keyboard would be too cumbersome or unpractical.

Another fabulous inspiration from Hannah’s treasure chest of wearable technologies.

Pressure Profile Systems, Inc. started in 1996 as a commercial spin-off from Harvard University to design, develop and manufacture high performance multi-element pressure and tactile sensing systems.

Their latest commercially available product is the FingerTPS(TM) (Finger Tactile Pressure Sensing). Flexible sensors are worn on the hand and transmit accurate, repeatable tactile force data to a computer via wireless Bluetooth connection.

FingerTPS is able to capture a complete representation of user interaction with tools, sports equipment, medical applications or during new product design processes allowing to optimize the product design for highest usage comfort or use the sensor data to evaluate and monitor the handling of products for training purpose.

The sensors are made from a soft, conductive Lycra® that conforms to the finger to allow dextrous operations such as typing or writing, and are fastened with small Velcro® straps. The wireless interface module can be recharged using a USB port and runs continuously for over 2 hours.

FingerTPS allows researchers and design engineers to understand how humans interact with machines, objects and general environment. Case studies and applications range from learning and training aid in medical education, optimization of ski boots by using the sensor during the inner shoe design for the most comfortable fit or for the design of motorcycle saddles to find the best shape for optimal riding comfort.

PPS Inc. has a wide range of different sensor types, optimized for different application areas. One example is the Stretchable TactArray Sensor (STS) which offers the ability to stretch up to 10% without degrading sensor performance. This unique feature makes the STS sensor ideal for applications where the sensor must be deformed during use. The simple design of the STS gives a great deal of freedom in designing solutions.

Another example is the Conformable TactArray Sensor (CTS) which offers the combination of sensor performance and design flexibility. Built from a flexible, conductive cloth that allows the sensor to be wrapped around cylindrical objects or molded to shapes with multiple radii of curvature.

All those sensors are not for consumer products, the FingerTPS has an entry system cost of $4,995 for a single-hand set with two sensors but this price includes a video camera for synchronized video input, software, and a reference sensor for easy, one-touch calibration.

Nevertheless, a unique addition to the e-textile tool set that opens new avenues in designing more comfortable consumer products but also opens the doors to new types of user interaction concepts.

Check out more details directly by PPS.

Garments that measure the heart rate have been on the market for some time. Made of intelligent textiles, those sensors stand out over other solutions with their excellent wearability, they are soft as textiles are.

Textile based sensors provide a much higher wearing comfort: everything you need to to is to put on a shirt. No need to wire yourself up with sensor patches, no need to hook yourself up to electrodes or straps. That’s a big comfort plus for anyone and any profession in need to watch out of the body performance and body conditions.

BIOTEX, a European sponsored research project which is set up to develop biochemical-sensing techniques and their integration into textiles adds a new dimension to bio-textile-sensor technology: analyzing body fluids via textile sensors.

One of the first textile fluid sensors could be a textile patch analyzing a tiny drop of sweat which can provide a much better assessment of someone’s health compared to a ‘heart rate only’ monitoring. As more data collected as more accurate the overall assessment will be.

The sweat sensor uses a combination of hydrophilic (water-loving) and hydrophobic (water-repellent) yarns. Those two yarns can be woven to direct the sweat through fabric channels to a sensor area. It is a passive system that uses no power and so reducing the power demands of the BIOTEX system.

Analyzing sweat can tell a lot about the stress level, the lack off essential elements in our body and our overall performance status. Think about making a long run, you need to refill your body with energy (drink) to stay on course or else ….

Another application of the BIOTEX textile sensor includes a pH detection which could be combined with a color changing (phase shifting) textile indicating visually on a shirt or patient gown if the body needs attention (before you drop to the ground in which case you won’t need any sensor to tell).

A hopefully not so distant future will bring us smart clothes embedded with numerous sensors which constantly monitor our vital signs. If your body reaches exhaustion levels the garment is programmed to send you a text message telling you to take it easy

[via: Gizmodo]