International Journal of Electrical and

Electronics Engineering Research (IJEEER)

ISSN(P): 2250-155X; ISSN(E): 2278-943X
Vol. 4, Issue 5, Oct 2014, 27-32
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

WEARABLE ELECTRONICS
DINESH CHUDASAMA
Department of Textile Engineering, Faculty of Technology & Engineering,
The M. S. University of Baroda, Gujarat, India

ABSTRACT
Today textiles are no more limited for wearing purpose only. The technological developments in recent years have
developed technical textiles material, which can be used in various industries like automobile, advertising, agriculture, civil
constructions, environmental protection, chemical, electronic, geo-textile, industrial coverings, medicals, printing, space,
etc. Smart textile has attracted more and more attention in the recent years. They are seen as the future of the textile
industry. In order to summarize past, analyze present and forecast future developments, the applications of various
electronic sensors in the textile clothing is highlighted. First brief introduction of textile is explained and then integration of
various electronic sensors into the garment is explained.

KEYWORDS: Technical Textile, Conductive Fabric, Smart Textile

INTRODUCTION
When human life began on the earth, food and shelter were the two important necessities. Immediately thereafter,
however, came clothing. From birth to death, we require textile. Textile industry plays a very important role in the
country's economy. It is the largest economic activity after agriculture and providing direct and indirect employment to
many people. Manufacture of Textiles is one of the oldest and largest industries of all.
"Textile" has traditionally meant, "a woven fabric". The term comes from the Latin word texere, meaning to
weave. A Textile is a cloth, which is either woven by hand or machine. A type of material composed of natural or synthetic
fibers.

TYPES OF TEXTILE MATERIAL

Mainly there are only three types of textile material namely. Fabre, Yam and Fabric as shown in the figure 1.

Figure 1: Types of Textile Materials [1, 2]

Fibre
Basic fundamental material of whole textile is the Fibre. At present, Many textile fibres are available in the
market for various uses. Based on their origin, all the fibres are classified into main two parts (i) natural fibres and
(ii) man-made fibres. Cotton, wool, silk, jute, flax are the natural fibres while polyester, Nylon, Acrylic, Polypropylene,
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Dinesh Chudasama

Lycra are the examples of man-made or synthetic fibres. All the natural fibres except silk, have short length so they are
called staple fibre and synthetic fibres have long continuous length so they are called filament fibres. Figure 2 shows the
structure of staple and filament fibre.

Figure 2: Staple and Filament Fibre[3]

Yarn
There is a limited direct use of fibre so first all the fibre whether natural or synthetic, they are convted into thread
called Yarn using a spinning method like Ring spinning, Rotor spinning, Friction spinning and Air-jet spinning system.
Yarns are used for making sewing threads, but most of the yarns are used for making a fabric.
Fabric
Fabric is a textile structure formed by the assembling the yarns in a particular manner. There are different
processes are available for making the fabric from the yarn like weaving, knitting, braiding, etc. Only the non-woven fabric
is directly produced from the fibres.

Figure 3: Different Types of Fabric Structure [4]

TECHNICAL TEXTILE
Today textiles material i. e fibre, yarn and fabric are used in the various sectors in the industry like agriculture,
building and construction, medical, space, health and safety, automobile, chemical etc. so new field of textile called
technical Textile emerged [5]. In recent years, a new area of research has emerged in textile based on conductive materials
called Conductive Textile. The field of conductive textile can be viewed as an integration of technologies of materials,
electronics and textiles in order to create a new generation flexible/comfortable, smaller, multifunctional textile structures
with conductive capabilities. This structure is known as Smart textile [6].

SMART TEXTILES
Smart textiles can be defined as the material and structures which have sense or can sense the environmental
conditions or stimuli. These stimuli could be thermal chemical mechanical, electric, magnetic or from other source. Smart
fabrics mechanical, electric, magnetic or from other source. Smart fabrics are being developed to be able to sense what is
happening to the wearer or its immediate surroundings. Smart textiles are no longer a science fiction [7]. The concept of
smart materials was first defined in the Japan in 1989. Shape memory silk yarn in 1979 is usually thought as the first smart
textile [8]. According to manner of reaction, they can be divided into three categories is 1) passive smart. 2) Active smart
and 3) very smart. Passive smart textile can only sense the environmental stimuli; active smart textile will sense and react
Impact Factor (JCC): 5.9638

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0

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Wearable Electronics

to environmental conditions and very smart textiles can sense; react and adopt themselves to environmental stimuli;
these components may be present in smart materials sensors, actuators and controlling units. Sensors provide a nerve
system to detect signals.
The textiles may incorporate the following functions to build up a smart textile system.
Sensing (ii) Actuating (iii) powering (iv) communicating (v) Data processing. (vi) Interconnection.

Sensing: A smart textile with a sensing function and able to feel changes in the environmental condition. Sensor
senses position, velocity, temperature, humidity or pressure and generates the electrical signals.

Actuating: Actuators in smart textile responds the signal coming from the sensor: Electro active polymer,
electrostricptor polymer and shape memory polymer are used as an actuator for integration into the garments.

Powering: Flexible solar cells, micro fuel cells, flexible batteries and the possibility of transforming body motion
into electric power may serve to provide electrical power.

Communication: The electro-conductive textiles give way to manufacture flexible antennas, which can be easily
integrated into garments.

Data Processing: Until now a data processing unit made out of textile is not available. Electronic devices are still
necessary to provide a computing.

Inter Connection: The inter connection between different components making up a smart textile system is
mainly done by electrically conductive fibre/ yarn either woven or knitted into textiles to form a bus structure [9].

AREAS OF APPLICATION OF SMART TEXTILE

Photo-sensitive materials, Fibre optics

Conductive polymers

Thermal sensitive materials

Shape memory materials

Intelligent coating materials

Chemical responsive materials.

Micro-capsules

Nano materials [10].

Sony walkman, a portable music player released in 1979, was probably the first item of wearable technology.

In 2000, Levi Strauss and Philips have introduced ICD+ jackets in the market. The jacket connects an mp3 music player
and a mobile phone to a pair of earphones through connections within the jackets. It represents the first commercial step
towards integrating personal technology with clothing. As gadgets become smaller and more portable, we may soon find
that technology is built into or mounted on clothing made of conductive textiles [11].

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The optic fibre sensors have been applied to manufacture process monitoring and structure health monitoring for
fibre reinforced composites. Fibre brass gratings have been integrated in a range of textile structures to act as senses.
El-Shet et al. integrated the fibre optic micro-sensor into and parachute canopy for real time characterization of dynamic
forces during parachute inflation. Optic fibres sensors can be used to sense various battlefield hazards like chemical and
biological warfare threats. The pH sensors are woven into the fabric of soldiers clothing. Upon detecting nerve gas,
biological, chemical or other toxic agents, these fibre-optic sensors would trigger and alarm, altering the weaver to
exposure and enhancing the soldiers ability to survive on the battlefield. A team at Georgia institute of technology has
developed a shirt embedded with sensors for electro cardiogram (ECG) optical fibre is spirally integrated into the structure
during the fabric manufacturing. Copper core with polyethylene sheath and doped nylon fibres with inorganic particles are
sued for the electrical conductivity.
Table 1: Potential Usage of Sensors in Smart Textiles [9]
No.
1
2.
3.
4.
5.

Sensors
Optic fibre
Piezo electric
Shape memory polymer
Phase change polymer
Chameleonic

Application in Textiles
Fabric key pads, parachutes, Fibre reinforce composites
Composite clothing
Clothing
Ski-wear, boots, gloves, quilts, Blankets, underwear.
Clothing, gloves, caps, shelter.

Many electrically conductivity fibre, yarns and fabric have been applied to produce fabric sensors. MITs key pad
is embroidered from a Kevlar and stainless steel thread to recognize touch using capacitive sensing technique.
E. R. Post et al have developed a fabric that can sense pressure. When fabric is pressed at right points, the two
conducting layers make contact with nylon net and electric current floors from a row electrode to a column electrode.
Light-emitting diodes (LED) with fuzzy conductive Velcro ends for electrical contacts are placed throughout the net.
When both ends of an LED brush against the power and ground planes, the circuit is complete and LED lights [12]. WRONZ
and Paractech Ltd of Darlington have developed softswitch musical keyboards made of fabric. De Rossi et al. developed
wearable piezoresistive fabric for interactive gloves. They have shown that conducting polymer coated fabrics show piezo
and thermo resistivity and have transducing properties in terms of strain gauge. They permit the realization of truly
wearable electronic garments capable of recording surface temperature maps and kinetic and dynamic data on human
motor function with no discomfort for the user. Hum APJ has designed a Fabric Area Network (FAN) [13].

CONCLUSIONS
Smart textiles will undoubtedly feature strongly in textile developments over the next decade and look set to
become more and more part of everyday life. Future development will arise from active collaboration between people
representing a whole variety of backgrounds and disciplines, including engineering, science, process development, design
and commerce [14].

REFERENCES
1.

Retrieved from http://www. Fineweavetextile.com/yarn.php

2.

Retrieved from http://www.diytrade.com/china/pd/2163626/linen_45_cotton_fabric.html

3.

Retrieved from http://www.textileschool.com/school/fibre/fibreclassification.aspx

Impact Factor (JCC): 5.9638

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0

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Wearable Electronics

4.

Retrieved from http://www. intech.com/source/html/40276/media/image11_w.jpg

5.

Dinesh Chudasama, (2013), Protection against electromagnetic radiation with textile material, International
Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Research, Vol3. Issue 5, 293-302

6.

Kim Anderson et al, (2004), The Road to True Wearable Electronics, Textile Magazine, No.1,

7.

Retrieved from http://www.en.vikipedia.org/mila/smart textiles

8.

Hongu T. et.al. (1990), New Fibres, Ellis Horwood,

9.

Zhang Xing Xiang et al. (2001), Smart textiles (1): passive smart, Textile Asia, 6, 45-48

10. Anne Schwazz et al. (2010), A road map on smart textiles, Textile progress, Vol. 42, No. 2, 107
11. Nick Rawcliff, (2001), Conductive Textiles already revolutionizing our lives, Technical Textile Information, 9, 25
12. Post E.R. et al. (1997), 1st international symposium on wearable computer October 13-14, USA, 167-168
13. 2000, Soft switching helps make smart clothing fact not fiction, Technical Textiles International, September, 19
14. Robert R. Mathur, 2001, Intelligent Textiles, Rev. Prog. Colour, Vol.31, 36-41

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