High-tech textiles play ever-increasing roles as technology becomes increasingly integrated into our everyday lives. Smart textiles are materials that sense and react to environmental conditions or stimuli. Examples include chromatic materials that change color in response to environmental changes, phase change materials for thermoregulation, and shape-memory polymers that change shape in response to temperature changes. The main technical components used to create fashionable wearables are interfaces, microprocessors, inputs (sensors), outputs (actuators), software, energy (batteries and solar panels), and materials (electronic textiles and enhanced materials). Moreover, the role of 3D printing in fashion has grown substantially, with remarkable increases in awareness and interest in the technology from designers. This is because 3D printing allows fashion designers to remove traditional design limits and produce fascinating designs. Detailed information on “smart fashion,” as well as its functions and performance characteristics, is given in this chapter.
TopHistory Of Wearable Technology
Studies of wearable sensors and computing applications started prior to 2000. In 1998, the Georgia Tech Wearable Motherboard utilized optical fibers, special sensors, and interconnects to both screen and detect bullet injuries. A data bus integrated with monitoring devices that was similar to an electrocardiogram (ECG) was used to transmit data to the sensors. In 1997, the “Cyber jacket” was developed by scientists at the University of Bristol, Department of Computer Science. It contained a wearable mobile computer system and included a mobile computing software architecture with a natural communication model. In 1999, a collaboration between Levi’s fashion and Philips Electronics began the ICD+ jacket Project. It was to be the first wearable electronics garment on the market (Henock, 2011). The first ECG bio-physical display jackets with light emitting diode (LED)/optic displays were developed in 2005 by Wainwright and David Bychkov, the CEO of Exmovere. Watch-based galvanic skin response (GSR) sensors were connected to embedded, machine-washable displays in the denim jacket via Bluetooth (Syduzzaman, 2015).
Wearable Technology Brands
CuteCircuit
CuteCircuit is the world’s first wearable technology fashion brand and was created in 2004. CuteCircuit’s co-founders, Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz, come from a heritage of fashion design couture, and interactive design and anthropology, respectively (CuteCircuit). The world’s first wearable, sharable, programmable T-shirt was designed and patented by CuteCircuit (Patent number: US10356356).
MakeFashion
MakeFashion, which was launched in June 2012 by a trio of Calgarians, has grown into the world’s largest fashion technology community. More than 250 wearable tech garments have been created and introduced at over 60 international events. They present fashion designers and artists to the exciting world of wearables through a series of informative, hands-on, designer-led workshops (MakeFashion).
The Second Skin
Pailes-Friedman of the Pratt Institute states that “What makes smart fabrics revolutionary is that they have the ability to do many things that traditional fabrics cannot, including communicate, transform, conduct energy, and even grow” (Paul, 2019). Our five senses are our input and output devices and the means by which we give and receive data about the states of our bodies and the world around us. Our garments interact with all of our senses; they are seen, heard, felt, smelled, touched, and sometimes even tasted (Rupini, 2015). Smart textiles utilize our senses as a way of collecting information from and about us via pressure, temperature, light, low-voltage current, moisture, and other means (Barnes, 2016). Some smart materials can accumulate information from our bodies and convert it into data, which can then be communicated via various methods (Stoppa, 2014). A fabric might convey low-voltage electric pulses via software, or a fiber or yarn can convert a physical measurement into data (Seyedin, 2019). This capacity to react to external stimuli gives ‘smart’ or ‘intelligent’ textiles their name (Stoppa, 2014). Smart textiles can gather information from our bodies and environments, and then respond (Cheng, 2010).