A revolutionary idea has spread like wildfire around the world in university
labs, communities of material designers, and groups of computer
programmers: technology in clothes could be used to help people. In theory,
smart clothing could be used to help disabled and elderly people move,
promote blood flow in socks for athletes, and also track a fetus’s heart rate in
maternity clothes.
Yoel Fink, a materials science professor at MIT, says that “We’re sort of at the
pre-iPhone announcement [stage]. It’s very, very exciting.” Mr. Fink and his
scientists recently created threads that could be programmed and batteries
that could be embedded into clothing.
In the future, innovation will develop nanotechnology to the point where it
can be embedded into clothes, therefore overcoming the massive hurdle of
smart clothes being too heavy to wear. This smart clothing could be used to
monitor heart rate, breathing, and cardiac sounds in first responders and
people who are sick. It could also be used as a gaming controller in itself,
through which the user can use the clothes to walk around in the metaverse.
Currently, there are still many challenges to overcome before clothing with
technology will become mainstream, one of which is how smart clothes will
be able to survive multiple cycles of being washed.
Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, a professor of mechanical engineering at Yale
University, however, is optimistic. She said that “Recent breakthroughs point
toward a not-so-distant future where smart textiles will be a part of our
everyday wardrobe.”
labs, communities of material designers, and groups of computer
programmers: technology in clothes could be used to help people. In theory,
smart clothing could be used to help disabled and elderly people move,
promote blood flow in socks for athletes, and also track a fetus’s heart rate in
maternity clothes.
Yoel Fink, a materials science professor at MIT, says that “We’re sort of at the
pre-iPhone announcement [stage]. It’s very, very exciting.” Mr. Fink and his
scientists recently created threads that could be programmed and batteries
that could be embedded into clothing.
In the future, innovation will develop nanotechnology to the point where it
can be embedded into clothes, therefore overcoming the massive hurdle of
smart clothes being too heavy to wear. This smart clothing could be used to
monitor heart rate, breathing, and cardiac sounds in first responders and
people who are sick. It could also be used as a gaming controller in itself,
through which the user can use the clothes to walk around in the metaverse.
Currently, there are still many challenges to overcome before clothing with
technology will become mainstream, one of which is how smart clothes will
be able to survive multiple cycles of being washed.
Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, a professor of mechanical engineering at Yale
University, however, is optimistic. She said that “Recent breakthroughs point
toward a not-so-distant future where smart textiles will be a part of our
everyday wardrobe.”
