Wearable technology has become a part of everyday life. What we don’t really take notice of is the fact that our bodies are constantly producing data and technology has made this easier to quantify. Including FitBits health monitoring apps and step counters. “In 2014, 14 million health and fitness trackers were sold worldwide. This figure is expected to increase to almost 40 million in 2016” (Facts, 2018). Lifestyle and food consumption is becoming more popular with the rise of Veganism. Although for some time it was a very controversial topic and you were open to a slagging from your friends being vegan has now become normalised. According to Suzanne Harrington “the word ‘vegan’ has now become as normalised as ‘vegetarian’ 20 years ago. We are evolving”. (Irishexaminer.com, 2018) In this TedTalk Lauren Constantini talks about the endless possibilities wearable technology has allowed for, but also what options have still not been explored by most of the consumer market. She describes it as ‘expanding our humanness’. Using technology to expand your capabilities and using these activity sensors to monitor almost any data. Video Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FESv2CgyJag We all know how slow Irish healthcare can be at times and how many of us like to pretend we are looking after ourselves, but these wearable technology apps are allowing for us to monitor all this person by person. As humans we wait until the very last moment to treat ourselves. We wait until we wake up sick or have had the signs of a cold for a few days before treating it. This can give you a signal to get something checked or that you may be run down and developing an illness. We look at how medicine, technology and even human awareness has adapted over the last 50 years and we can only project how these can move forward. What if these apps allowed you to monitor your heart activity and not just your stress level and bpm, what is it could tell you how long you needed to rest for and what would be the best way to relax. Or monitor your cholesterol instead of going to your doctor for regular check-ups or amazingly even allow you to take a picture of a mole on your body and tell you if you are at risk to cancer. There are also possibilities of managing your moods. This app can monitor what events or activities are associated with certain moods for example if you are at a party with friends you could be excited and happy, if you are working hard trying to meet deadlines you could be stressed. This then sends signals to you to tell you to take some deep breaths and relax. Because we have all lied before pretending that we are not actually stressed. With health risks burdening people every day we wonder if these wearable technologies will grow in the large consumer market available to them. Maybe if Kim Kardashian uses them it might become the social norm but only time will tell. Refrences
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![]() The Future of Smart Textiles Samantha Louth Smart Textiles can be classified in three categories. Each has evolved over time, some can be termed as ‘traditional’. Passive smart textiles - Passive is where a technology is integrated into a textile and its function is to do the one job, there is little combination. This is a early development of smart textiles, it is widely functionable when it comes to weather and change of climates. The ‘anti-microbial, anti-odour, anti-static, bullet-proof’ functions are dormant and do not further develop. Active smart textiles - This is the next generation from passive textiles. Technology engages and has the ability to store information. ‘Shape memory, chameleonic, water-resistant and vapour permeable.. heat storage, thermoregulated, vapour absorbing, and heat evolving fabric and electrically heated suits.’ For example, I wake up to go to work, I put my black blazer on - this means I drink coffee i.e the coffee machine downstairs in my kitchen prepares me a coffee. I grab my coffee, I then put my overcoat on, this is already heated because this is what I wear on cold winter mornings. The active textiles can predict what we will do based on our routine, this gives the algorithms that generate functionalities that we use regularly. Ultra smart textiles - These are the ultimately intelligent textile. The ultra smart fabric ‘consists of a unit, which works like a brain, with cognition , reasoning and activating capacities.’ This means it can adapt to the environment/climate we are in, detect our body tempeture. Connect with our phones, or a similar technology we will use for connectivity in the future. It could send out signals to a close by friend to meet for a coffee. This can also use algorithms to predict our next move, what are we doing, where are we going etc. The possibilities are endless. The future of smart textile is now, but only popular amongst the innovator type of consumer, the ones first on the market to have whats new. Smart textiles are slowly creeping into the market, made available for the average consumer. Certain products hit niche markets, a small percent of people that are willing to buy the product for a certain functionality , for example - health monitoring clothing, ‘The sensory baby vest’- which consists of monitors and sensors that track a babies breathing, movement etc. In the long term future, smart textiles are widely available to everyone. In the future it is a way of living. In the future they are not a big deal, everyone has smart fabrics in their wardrobes. Like smartphones, 10/15 years ago, smart fabrics will eventually saturate the market. Does it seem far fetched now? Think about predictions 20 years ago of location devices on us at all times or retina scanning or even shoes that strap on themselves. Basically, think how far fetched Speilbergs ‘Back to the future’ film was when you first watched it, now the things you see are an everyday technology. As technology develops from Passive to active to ultra, where will it be when the wider consumer panel is ready to use it? Md. Syduzzaman, Sarif Ullah Patwary, Kniz Farhana, Sharif Ahmed, Smart Textiles and Nano- Technology: A general overview(February 2015), Bangladesh University of Textiles, Bangladesh. Accessed: www.omicsonline.org on [15March2018] ![]() Temperature control author: Lauren Gaynor Are there ever days where you don’t know what to wear because when you go outside it’s so cold, so you decide to wrap up well and then you have so many layers on that once you go inside your way to warm? When we are to warm or to cold our bodies do a variety of things to get us back to the correct temperature that we should be for example when we are to warm our bodies begin to sweat to release water that has heated up inside us, then when we are to cold the small hairs all around are body stand up to keep in warm air. Well now thanks to the world of smart textiles there is now clothes that can control your temperature with out you having to put on and take of clothes and to not have to put up with feeling uncomfortable. You might wonder how clothes would be able to do this? well engineers in in the university of California are working on a fabric that becomes thinner or thicker base on the temperature around you. The cloth is designed to keep you at a constant temperature of 33°celsius as this is on average the ideal temperature for people, it does this by shrinking when it is hot and expanding when it is cold. When designing these clothes, the engineers at the university of California paid particular attention to certain areas of that body that get warmer than everywhere else for example the souls of your feet and your back. What are the benefits of these fabrics? There are a lot of benefits when it comes to these smart fabrics one of the main ones being that it will reduce the amount of energy needed to heat and cool your rooms, Joseph Wang the project leader in the university of California said that “Not only does this smart cloth keep people cool, it could cut down on the energy needed to heat and cool buildings by at least 15 percent” (Joseph Wang,2015) Another huge benefit of these smart clothes is in the area of winter sports such as skiing, sledding and ice skating, for so long people have been wearing big huge ski jackets and trousers that can affect their comfort to move around now all they need is to put one of these smart cloth tops on and then just throw on what they want over. References: Joseph Wang, 17/07/2015, smart fabric keeps people heated & cooled (online) access: https://www.pddnet.com/news/2015/07/smart-fabric-keeps-people-heated-cooled Warbles for climate control,05/08/2016 (online) access: https://news.stanford.edu/2017/11/10/double-duty-textile-warm-cool/ Performance apparels markets, (online) access: https://www.textilesintelligence.com/tispam/index.cfm?pageid=3&repid=TISPAM&issueid=21&artid=1324 image https://news.stanford.edu/2017/11/10/double-duty-textile-warm-cool/ ![]() E-Textiles within sports are unlikely to be used in competition but could change the way athletes train for these major events. We all know the Swimsuit controversy in the 208 Beijing Olympics which saw 25 world records broken. According to bitLanders this is more than the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 combined. (Bitlanders, 2018) Some even went as far as saying it was "Spanx on steroids". (Smithsonianmag, 2018) Although I don’t anticipate the governing bodies to allow these to be allowed into the world of sport we can assume that athletes and sports scientists will integrate this into training and recovery programmes. Professional athletes depending on their sport put countless hours of training and competing. They push their bodies to the absolute extreme and sometimes an injury could end their career. We look at the Simone Biles’s and the Usain Bolts of the world and think combined with e-textiles; We ask ourselves, are there any limits? The ability to possibly monitor an athlete fully already exists in labs but what if a specific microchip is placed in a training suit that can easily monitor the athlete and make it more streamline. The potential is also there to monitor athletes in a way that can manage injuries and rehabilitation throughout their recovery process. Many companies are beginning to invest more and more into the development of these smart textiles such as Google, Nike, Under Armour but Adidas have invested a great deal buying over “fitness tracking company Runtastic in a deal worth more than $200million” and it is projected that “smart textiles are expected to consume $134million of sensors, more than half of which will be pressure sensors” (NewElectronics, 2018). Where is the funding coming from? When we look at the evolution of sportswear over the years it has come a long way, but when we are looking at smart textiles we look far beyond your running shoes, latex suits and current heart monitors being used. Thank god for investors like Emanuele Angelidis, CEO of Breed Reply who invests in technology start-ups and has said it is becoming a dynamic market. However, without the investment of Angelidis your other options are limited unless you are a formed brand such as Adidas. (NewElectronics, 2018). While I see a huge potential for this market to flourish I do think it will be a couple of years before these products become available to the mass market if they even do. Author: Killian Morris Refrences Pic 1: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/241013017538618997/ Pic 2: http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/who-simone-biles Pic3:http://www.newelectronics.co.uk/electronics-technology/while-smart-textiles-for-wearables-remains-in-its-infancy-its-potential-is-huge/119045/ @jimmor12, F. (2018). Spanx on Steroids: How Speedo Created the New Record-Breaking Swimsuit. [online] Smithsonian. Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/spanx-on-steroids-how-speedo-created-the-new-record-breaking-swimsuit-9662/ [Accessed 4 Mar. 2018]. bitLanders.(2018).BeijingOlympics2008.[online]Available at: http://www.bitlanders.com/blogs/beijing-olympics-2008/4007915 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2018]. Newelectronics.co.uk. (2018). While smart textiles for wearables remains in its infancy, its potential is huge. [online] Available at: http://www.newelectronics.co.uk/electronics-technology/while-smart-textiles-for-wearables-remains-in-its-infancy-its-potential-is-huge/119045/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2018]. |
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