The fusion of electronics and textiles holds promise to create intelligent, innovative products for numerous apparel applications. The future holds the potential for wearable health monitoring, performance-mapping sport wear, wearable displays and controls, electronic protective clothing, and also new fashion alternatives. Antennae assesses the emerging technologies, their potential, and likely short to medium term success.The pioneers and the opportunityThere are pioneering industries that have already commercialized a limited product range. The entertainment industry sells clothing with integrated players, radios, and speakers. The problem is that the overall “size of the prize” is limited in this space.But, there is an emerging opportunity in health-orientated sports products. While monitoring devices for apparel are still in early development; the space potentially offers a big return on investment. Just look at the US$16 billion revenue stream generated by one of the world’s leading companies, the Adidas Group (includes the Adidas, Reebok, Taylor Made and Rockport brands) last year.There is an emerging opportunity in health-orientated sports productsThe development of personalized health monitoring devices is a major driver for advancements in wearable electronics and smart clothing. Health monitoring can detect and track many different environmental and physiological parameters, such as temperature, local humidity, relative motion, heart and respiration rates, blood pressure; the list goes on.Embedded components could include sensors, actuators, energy management systems, and human-machine interfaces. The challenge is to make the components small, light, flexible, washable, and robust enough to operate in a wide range of ambient conditions.The current technology driving smart textilesMultiple electronics companies, research organizations, and textile multinationals are investing in wearable electronics. Innovation focuses across a wide range of technological development that includes sensors, nanotechnology, flexible electronic devices and chip designs, organic semiconductors and conductive polymers.To make all this possible it is crucial to develop two new materials — Flexible sensors and novel weave structures, with polymers a key component of both.Polymers that alter their properties due to changes in environment - temperature, pressure, humidity, or the presence of specific molecules - are important for flexible sensors. Conductive polymers such as polypyrrole, polyaniline and polythiophene are popular emerging sensing materials that can be a solution coated on conformable surfaces or spun and incorporated into other woven and non-woven goods. However, their slow response rate and instability over time require further development for use in practical applications.R&D pioneers: BiosensorsResearches from the Indian Institute of Technology have demonstrated a novel biosensor fabricated from unsaturated polymer resin based on esterification of dimethyl terephthalate and ethylene glycol. This biosensor outperforms the existing foam-based and metallic sensors in both durability and stability, with testing for radial pulse sensing showing 87% accuracy. Novelty of the proposed technology is in the fabrication of the biosensor as textile treads that can be easily processed and dyed and incorporated as regular textiles.R&D pioneers: StretchableGrowing attention is being paid to stretchable electronics for large-area sensors that can be employed for electronic artificial skin. It can be used for robotic applications or distributed on potentially unconventional surfaces. University of Tokyo has developed novel stretchable elastic conductors based on carbon nanotube/rubber composites that can be integrated into sensing and actuating devices. Researchers have demonstrated that organic field-effect transistors for sensing applications can remain fully functional even when stretched by 25%. High elasticity of these transistors will broaden the choice of fabric materials for wearable applications.Stretchable silicon will continue to compete with organic semiconductors and may offer a paradigm shift from rigid chips to conformable electronics if silicon chips can be incorporated into stretchable substrates. But organic semiconductors are faster and require less power than silicon chips. MC10, a US start-up company, has developed a high performance chip based on CMOS technology with proprietary interconnects to sensors and packaging suitable for conformable electronics that can be easily incorporated inside a garment. Currently, in collaboration with Reebok, the company is developing chips for stretchable materials for health monitoring applications.R&D pioneers: NanotubesCarbon nanotubes offer the potential for wearable power conversion to support garment-embedded electronics. Their high conductivity, large surface area, and porous structure make it promising for use in supercapacitor applications. But importantly their performance combined with simple, scalable fabrication process makes it a practical solution to the question of power supply.Stanford University has demonstrated the technical feasibility of such supercapacitors based on conformal coating single-walled carbon nanotubes on cotton fabric. The devices exhibited excellent charge retention, significant cycling rate, and high specific capacitance.Short-term barriers to jumpDespite the significant progress in the development of flexible electronics and electronic textiles, there remain challenges to electronic consumer textile goods. Problems arise from the lack of involvement of the fashion industry in new product development. At present pioneers are within sports apparel. As a result, many prototypes have a very technical appearance and lack aesthetic appeal. Successful commercialization of smart clothing requires joint development by both electronics and fashion players to address the consumer market drivers and yield goods that show novelty, differentiation and high functionality.The longer-term opportunitySeveral different consumer and demographic trends will drive the continued merging of clothing and electronics. The aging population will fuel demand for functional apparel that can continuously monitor the wearer’s well being. High performance and professional athletes will need active monitoring during competition and training. Finally, the overarching macro health and wellness consumer trend will likely mean the mass market entry of health monitoring clothing and other wearable systems. The future will bring technological advancements providing new materials combined with better performance. They will need to focus on sensing devices with improved reliability, sensitivity, miniaturization, integration, lifespan, better data acquisition and communication and the overall system cost reduction.Wherever you stand, the future of electronic integration into clothing appears bright.

L. is a condom company with a cause: to empower women globally by supporting the human right to safe sex. For every condom purchased, one is distributed in a developing country.

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Zeo tracks and measures your unique sleep patterns through the electrical signals naturally produced by the brain. As a result it can set the alarm to only awaken you during light sleep to ensure that you feel less disturbed and more refreshed.

Nintendo have continued to push the boundaries in the gaming market. Later this year Nintendo will introduce the Wii Vitality Sensor – a pulse sensor that clips on to the player’s finger and connects to the Wii-mote. It measures heart rate to determine levels of excitement, nervousness and even concentration, with the data then used to adjust game difficulty.

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