Smart Clothes: FUTURE OF WEARABLES

According to a US government statement, smart fabric research and development has been encouraged. The Department of Defense plans to create a Creative Industry Innovation Institute to develop innovative methods of fabric and textile manufacturing. The Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) is a nonprofit research and development consortium of 89 universities, manufacturers, and nonprofit organizations led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The US Army Command - New Jersey Emerging Technologies will manage a fund that combines $ 75 million in grants from the Department of Defense and nearly $ 250 million in cost-sharing from non-federal investment institutions. The statement said the association will use fiber and yarn to explore and work for integrated circuits, light-emitting diodes, solar cells, and ultimately create a smart fabric, these smart fabrics will realize the look, listen, feel, communicate, store energy, Adjust the temperature, monitor health and change the color of the function. Genevieve Dion, director of Drexel (a US university) Advanced Technology Laboratory at ISLAND, said the study could also be used to establish laboratory standards for smart fabric research. In addition to universities, AFFOA Alliance within these companies are smart fabric 2B customers, such as Nike, North Face, Bose, Microsoft, Intel, and Flextronics. According to the statement, a portion of the funds will be allocated to the Drexel-led Central Atlantic Research Group, whose partners include Temple University, Philadelphia University, and theMedstudio at Thomas Jefferson University. Other Pennsylvania members include Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and PennState in State College. There are apparel companies which integrate sensors into sports equipment such as shirts, shorts and shoes, by providing sports enthusiasts with some feedback, such as rhythm, hydration, fatigue, Help them improve their motor skills. But there are other interesting developments, such as smart belts designed by Dion that combine conductive filaments with passive RFID tags to monitor the health of pregnant women and track some data such as uterine contractions during childbirth.