the application of smart textile for sportswear2
Transcription
the application of smart textile for sportswear2
The Applications of Smart Textile in Sportswear First Author Name (Blank if Blind Review) Affiliation (Blank if Blind Review) Address (Blank if Blind Review) E-Mail Address (Blank if Blind Review) Optional Phone Number (Blank if Blind Review) ABSTRACT As wearable products come to the market, people get more familiar with them. We can use them to surveil our health condition and provide more personal services based on the surveillance. There are big potentials in the sportswear market, as we need more health data for providing better services for trainers’ different sport scenarios. At the meantime, the problems become more and more obvious as well. Accuracy, privacy, social problem have been the hot topics we are discussing. Will wearables stay in current stage, or are they going to somewhere else? Maybe we will not call them wearables in the future, as they become “invisible”. Instead, they will integrate into the conventional things. In this paper, the author is going to focus on one of the wearables’ future form — e-textile (known as electric textile and smart textile), discussing how they become the next wearables, what the advantages they have and what we can do in sportswear with them. Figure 1. Jawbone. for the trainers, such as crossing game to the training, which making their trainings not only efficient but also pleasant. The e-textile can be a new generation of battery as well. As power problem has been the pain point for mobile and wearable products for years, researchers have found a new way to storage the energy in the e-textile. In the near future, e-textile will be applied ubiquitously for sportswear. The wearable technologies will be crossed in the clothing and become invisible. Author Keywords e-textile, textile, knitting, smart, battery, wireless, wearable, technology, system, wireless, power, synthetic biology, ecofriendly, sustainable, cooperative system, cloud services, internet of things. INTRODUCTION For getting more accurate data and giving thoughtful services for the trainers, e-textile will be applied extensively. The wearables will not be the special products from technology companies anymore. The conventional sportswear companies can use them as the ubiquitous textile. We can use the e-textile as sensor, controller even expresser. The e-textile can give preciser body surveillance and better following services than currently popular wearables (such as Jawbone). Based on the preciser data about our body, we can improve the workout environments POINT FIVE E-TEXTILE FOR SPORT The bracelet-like wearable products like Jawbone[1] can not provide the precise health data, although they are the popular wearable products in the market now. As they are very loose on our wrists and they are on the wrists instead of the chests, they can not get persistent and precise enough ECG [2] data as the conventional way we do. ECG, which stands for Electrocardiography, is the process of recording the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time using electrodes placed on a patient's body. These electrodes detect the tiny electrical changes on the skin that arise from the heart muscle depolarizing during each heartbeat. In a conventional 12 lead ECG, ten electrodes are placed on the patient's limbs and on the surface of the chest. The overall magnitude of the heart's electrical potential is then measured from twelve different angles ("leads") and is recorded over a period of time (usually 10 seconds). In this way, the overall magnitude and direction of the heart's electrical depolarization is captured at each moment throughout the cardiac cycle. [3] [4] Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. CHI 2009, April 4–9, 2009, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Copyright 2009 ACM 978-1-60558-246-7/09/04...$5.00. 1 Figure 4. AmpStrip, getting ECG data precisely. Figure 2. Under Armour E39 Electronic Compression Shirt. are just generally telling the users their general health data, and then they do nothing. They are more like accessories but with some “smart” functions. They are not smart. To the contrary, they seems silly. ECG data is very important for the users who are doing sports. It will decide whether the users are losing their fat or sugar. So for the users who want to lose the fat and the users who want to build muscle, they should have different For detecting the more precise data, we can use sensors sticking to the users’ chests for detecting and collecting persistent data. There are some products in the market, such as BioHarness 3 from Zephyr [6] and Ampstrip [7]. Under Armour E39 Electronic Compression Shirt The Under Armour E39 shirt, developed through a partnership with Zephyr Technology. There is a removable electronic monitor. The monitor is combined sensor pack, processor, and hard drive that plugs into the shirt. The sensor measures heart rate, breathing rate, skin surface temperature, and triaxial (3 axes – X, Y, Z – thus three dimensional) accelerometer. Sensor data can be sent via Bluetooth to smart phones and laptops for viewing by coaches and friends. The E39 shirt debuted at the NFL Scouting Combine in February, 2011 and is expected to be available to the public in 2012. Figure 3. BioHarness™ 3 from Zephyr Technology. “The BioHarness™ 3 is the premiere compact physiological monitoring module that enables the capture and transmission of comprehensive physiological data on the wearer via mobile and fixed data networks – enabling genuine remote monitoring of human performance and condition in the real world. BioHarness™ 3 has applications in any field requiring high-level wireless and remote physiological monitoring, including research, training and wellness situations.” [8] sport intensities. [5] Continuously monitoring users’ heart rates through cycles of training, sleep, and recovery provides insights that will greatly improve their performance. Without this insight, they run the risk of undertraining, or even worse, overtraining and potentially injuring themselves. So if we can not get the accurate data, our training goal will not be easy to receive and we will be easy to get injuries from the sports. Getting accurate data is the very basic and necessary step for having further training coach as well. As the sports wearables can get personal health data, they can give personal training guides in the following step, which makes the training more efficient and suitable for individuals. In the past, we are suffering from the general training plans. They often prompt our suspects, as we have trained ourselves by the guides for a while, but having no obvious improvements. So the personal data and training coach are very important and useful for us. Maybe it is because the imprecise data, the products like Jawbone have not provided following training guide for users. They Instead of using textile to detect user’s health condition, it give a alternative way. The sensor which is called as the monitor can attach to the user’s chest. It allows we to get higher accurate data. By this way, we do not need to manufacture the e-textile. It can be applied to any clothes. And we do not need to worry about the common problems, such as stretchability, washability, durability, as it is not a part of the clothes. It is a compromising way for solving the data problem. 2 Figure 5. AmpStrip, waterproof. Figure 7. MiCoach product. conditions. The sensors, processing unit and battery are housed in a fully sealed medical grade silicone module for durability and protection. The entire module is waterproof and can operate in temperatures from 40-110 degrees Fahrenheit. Integrated memory allows for up to 24 hours of data collection between background syncing, giving users untethered freedom to train without worrying about their gear. AmpStrip uses a 32-bit ARM MO processing unit to manage the continuous heart rate, activity, body position, etc. monitoring. [11] Figure 6. AmpStrip, adhesives. AmpStrip The AmpStrip looks like a sticker which we can stick them directly to our body, under our chest. Then it can detect our ECG data precisely. Its size is just 3.5 inches long, 1 inch wide and is less than one quarter of an inch thick including the adhesive. It weighs less than 0.4 ounces. There is a single lead ECG sensor to capture heart rate with precision. A 3-axis accelerometer to detect motion in all planes which is converted by its proprietary algorithms into specific activities and effort levels. It also includes a skin proximity thermistor to detect skin temperature. It provides replaceable adhesives for using with AmpStrip, which called Competitor grade. Competitor grade is designed to stay on under the most rigorous conditions, including pool and ocean workouts and strenuous whole body efforts for 3 or more days. The adhesives are bio-compatible to ISO 10993 and are the same formulations used by similar body adhesive products. AmpStrip transmit the data by its patented techniques in conjunction with Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE) to achieve significantly reduced energy consumption and maximize data capture and battery life. The AmpStrip is FCC [9] and CE [10] compatible. For the power source, it uses a 20 mA wireless rechargeable battery. By the official introduction, its battery will only need to be recharged every 7 days under constant daily use in normal AmpStrip collects $388,864 USD by April 4th, 2015. And it opens pre-order. It is a more progressive product than BioHarness™ 3 and give more professional data than Jawbone-like products. It allows us to have better knowledge of our health condition during and after our trainings, which is very helpful for both professionals and amateurs. But it is a little awkward that we stick some “sensors” on our naked body. It is unnatural. Besides, it looks not that fashion. But if we design it by another form it may be more attractive. For example, we can design it like a tattoo which is comparatively natural for human body. But that will have another technology solution, such as applying conductive ink. And the power problem will be another tough obstacle. The author will try to find the solutions by researching on etextile and demonstrate in the following passages. MiCoach MiCoach is a smart sport branch from Adidas. It provides 6 products for surveil our health condition during the sports, which are Fit Smart, Smart Run, Smart Ball, X_Cell, Speed Cell and Heart Rate Monitor. By these products, the users 3 Figure 8. MiCoach Heart Rate Monitor. Figure 10. The conventional way for creating Conductive Fibers. (a) Metal coated wire combined in iron tube; (b) Several diameter reductions of tube; (c) Bundling of tubes; (d) Leaching, realizing fibers. Figure 9. MiCoach Smart Ball. Figure 11. Schematic of conductive fiber twisted with the normal fibers. can realize their body condition and analyze their strategy by permanence data. [12] small device that fits in to a pocket, positioned on the back of the individual, in the player’s undergarment. Connected to a series of electrodes and sensors, it transmits to a computer using wireless more than 200 pieces of data a second for each player. The coach can view the figures using an iPad. He can simply select which player he wants to see the results for, and compare them with other athletes or get a view of the whole squad. It is not only for surveilling body, but also give following service based on the datas, which is more progressive than Jawbone-like products. In sports, training is getting more scientific and accurate, the smart products have big potential in this area. The Fit Smart and Smart Run can set and achieve the users’ weekly goals or setup personalized training plans. And they will provide simple to understand guidance of their workout intensity to keep them on track. Their main functions are measuring real-time heart rate, calories, pace / speed, distance and stride rate all from the wrist with no additional sensors required. Smart Run also can provide music or radio when the users have their sports. The X-Cell and Speed Cell are sensors for tracking speed, stride rate even jumping especially the users are playing basketball or football. The Heart Rate Monitor is for detect heart rate. It is similar with Under Armour E39 shirt. But it does not come with the shirt. The users can tie them on their chest by strap. E-TEXTILES AS SENSORS BY NON-PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES The Ways for Making Non-printing E-textile In the point five e-textile part, the author has already introduced the products in the transition stage to real etextile. We can see the big potential of these smart products, but we also find the forms for these products are not ideal. They are compromises because of technology. In the future we do not need tie sensors on our body. The sensors will “disappear”, and we even can not notice them. The e-textile will be the better form for the sensors. It is more natural and can provide more precise data by better surveillance for us. The Smart Ball is for football player. By integrated sensor, the player can know the ball’s speed, spin and moving path. So the player can give instant feedback and improve their skill by guidance. The training of AC Milan FC is an application model of MiCoach. [13]The miCoach Elite System’s development began in 2010 with MilanLab’s collaboration. It allows coaches and players to measure statistics such as cardiac frequency, speed, pace, distance, and positions on the field. It allows the whole squad or individual players to monitor their force and strength during training sessions. It is a 4 Figure 12. Yarn-based transistor. Figure 14. Screen printing fabrication for conductive tracks. Figure 13. (a) Twisted metal wire: The metal wire is twisted around the polymer yarn; (b) Metal coating: The polymer yarn is physically/chemically coated with a thin metal layer; (c) Metal fibers: The conductive yarn consists of metal multifilaments. Figure 15. MiCoach Men's Training Shirt and Sports Bra. There are two main ways of making e-textile, which are printing and non-printing. The author will describe the nonprinting e-textile in this part. There are many ways for creating electrically conductive fabrics, such as Conductive Fibers, Treated Conductive Fibers, Conductive Fabrics and Conductive Inks. The conventional way for creating Conductive Fibers is wire drawing, a mechanical production process. This process is characterized by its various drawing steps, called coarse, medium, fine and carding train. For Treated Conductive Fibers, “instead of attaching electronics to textile substrates, the yarns of the textile can be functionalized with electronics. Electrically conductive fibers can also be produced by coating the fibers with metals, galvanic substances or metallic salts. Coatings can be applied to the surface of fibers, yarns, or even fabrics to create electrically conductive textiles. Common textile coating processes include electroless plating, evaporative deposition, sputtering, coating the textile with a conductive polymer. In a method to fabricate fibers with different material layers and material structuring is presented. The fabrication process is based on the conventional preform-based fiber-processing, easily yielding kilometers of functional fiber during the process.” “There are different ways to produce electrically conductive fabrics. One method is to integrate conductive yarns in a textile structure, e.g., by weaving. However, the integration of conductive yarns in a structure is a complex and seldom a uniform process as it needs to be ensured that the electrically conductive fabric is comfortable to wear or soft in touch rather than hard and rigid. Conductivity can be established with different thread types.” “Interactive electronic textiles can also be produced by using conductive inks. First of all conductive inks must contain an appropriate highly conductive metal precursor such as Ag, Cu, and Au NPs and a carrier vehicle. Most of them are water based: water is the main ink component and to limit contaminants, it must be as pure as possible. These specialized inks can be printed onto various materials, among them textiles, to create electrically active patterns. Screen printing also makes integration with planar electronics simpler than with conductive yarn systems.”[14] MiCoach Men's Training Shirt and Sports Bra More progressive than last 6 miCoach series products, the training shirt and bra apply e-textile technologies to themselves. The sensors are knitted inside the textile that they can surveil and provide preciser data. There are no strands for holding the sensors. But the users have to use miCoach heart rate monitor or compatible transmitters from leading sports technology brands to get and send data. Then the users can use their mobile phones to receive and check the data. The technologies originally from a company called NuMetrex. In 2008, global sports apparel company adidas acquired Textronics and its NuMetrex line of heart rate monitoring apparel and electronics. [15] Omsignal Shirt Omsignal is company engaging in biometric smartwear. The smart shirt made by Omsignal is knitted with sensors 5 Figure 15. Omsignal shirt, black box, mobile app. as well. There is a famous cooperation with Ralph Lauren. The shirt can surveil the user’s heart rate, count calorie, step even track breathing. It is well designed that it adopts user’s body shape and feels like a second soft skin. It features climate control and moisture-wicking fabric to keep the user cool. The user can treat this shirt as any other high performance apparel, as it soft and washable. Users do not need to worry about breaking the wires. They even can not realize the existence of the sensor and wires. There is also a small box for collecting and sending the data to other devices. The box can capture and collect heart and breathing signals from the user. Then it can transmit the data to a phone using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). The box can work for 1 day of continuous use or up to 10 training sessions before recharging. It cannot be washed but it can protect the wearer from rain, splashes and sweat. When the user wears it for training, he/she should attach the box to the shirt on the left side of the chest. [16] Figure 16. Athos sportswear, mobile app. payable now, but they may not be adapted in the future. If we make the sensors “invisible”, and the users can not realize their existence, the products can be adapted • • • •• • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • easier. Omsignal shirt is knitted with soft conductive fabrics and sensor, which makes it look like a common sportswear. There is no geek look anymore. But it can still surveil our body well and give precise ECG data. The only obvious pain point is the little black box. The box is for providing power, collecting data and sending data to other devices (such as phone). For the good points, it is more economic. We do not need to provide every Omsignal shirt with a little black box. The user can only have one box for his/her several shirts, as they may change the shirt every workout. It is also easier for us to change the battery, as it is outside the clothes and easy to take down. In the past, when people run on a machine, they have to hold the sensors on the machine for reading only their heart rate. Besides the behaviors are dangerous if they are running in a fast pace. The wearables like Jawbone can solve parts of the problems, but they can not get constant and precise data, as the devices on the wrists are very loose. The AmpStrip can get the precise data as it can be pasted to the user’s chest directly. The data could be much accurate than the data coming from wrists. But the AmpStrip is a little bit weird. It is a compromise between needs and technologies. The band-aid sensors are useful, doable and Although knitting sensors in clothing makes higher quality surveillance, there are still some pain points. However comparing with Jawbone-like products, it is a big progress from accuracy and acceptability. 6 Figure 17. Athos Core. Athos Sportswear Athos is a company that helps people reach their fitness goals by enabling them with technology that was previously reserved for elite sports performance institutes. The product, Athos sportswear is knitted with conductive fabrics and sensors as well. It provides a tight shirt and pants for the trainers. The sensors are knitted all around the clothing. It can surveil your whole body. Except for tracking the ECG data (such as heart rate, breathing pattern), it can detect EMG (electromyography) data as well. That means the sportswear can know the muscle status. It provide choices such as loosing weight, building muscle and cardio. Based on different purpose, it gives different plans. During the workout, the sportswear can show the user which muscle is practiced well, which muscle is lack of practice, and it can also prevent overtraining based on the data. The user can see these data very clearly from his/her phone. Athos sportswear is not only for surveillance, but also for coaching the performance in a more scientific way based on the data. [17] Figure 18. XelfleX sportswear. Figure 19. XelfleX, the movement tracking. Tracking EMG data is a progress than tracking ECG data. But there is still space for iteration. Although it has accelerometer, it can not get precise motion data. Through Athos app, we can see our muscle intensity, but we can not see the movement. For some sports like tennis and golf, they require accurate movements to improve performance. Even for workout, the standard movements can give efficient training, which can save energy and prevent bone joints from overtraining as well. Athos sportswear is a outstanding product in the market, but it still has challenges and chances for future iteration. Like Omsignal shirt, Athos sportswear comes with a “core”. The core is the brain of the sportswear. It contains the electronics and intelligence to collect and interpret the biosignals, sending the information to the mobile device via Bluetooth. Athos sportswear is more progressive than Jawbone-like wearables, even than Omsignal shirt. As training, the users do not only need the ECG data, but also need EMG data. For the Jawbone-like wearable products, they only provide some ECG data which seems not limited for the users. The users want to have further service, such as how to make or change the workout plan based on the data. If the products can not satisfy these needs for the users, they are just redundant accessories. But providing further and scientific service, like coaching, are not practical based on inaccurate and poor data. So the Jawbone-like wearables meet their embarrassments. XelfleX XelfleX is from product design and development firm Cambridge Consultants. XelfleX is a novel type of smart textile that turns garments into active motion sensors. It can be used to make comfortable, washable, robust clothing. “The technology could be used for fitness and sports 7 Figure 21. Pacific Rim, a science fiction movie. Figure 20. The new piezoelectric fabrics combine Teijin’s polymer and textile technologies. coaching – to help perfect a tennis serve, golf swing or ski technique, for example. It could also be used as part of physiotherapy to help patients recover after injury, surgery or neurological problems. Or it could be used for motion capture for gaming, film making and virtual reality applications, thanks to its ability to make multiple accurate angle measurements. By integrating the fibre into a closefitting garment, the movement of a joint can change the amount of bending at a defined sensor point in the fibre. Up to 10 sensors are possible along each fibre – with the initial light pulse sent by an LED in the electronics pack. Algorithms then turn the results from the sensors into guidance that users can easily understand, giving feedback on their posture and movement, and coaching them on how to improve. It’s the latest example of how technology can bring advanced sport technique training within the reach of any athlete. Figure 22. The scene of driving the robot, Pacific Rim. Expo at the Tokyo International Exhibition Hall in Japan, in January, 2015. “The fabrics comprise a piezoelectric poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) and carbon fibre electrode. Plain, twill and satin weave versions were produced for different applications: plain weave detects bending, satin weave detects twisting, and twill weave detects shear and three-dimensional motion, as well as bending and twisting. The sensing function, which can detect arbitrary displacement or directional changes, incorporates Teijin’s weaving and knitting technologies. The function is said to allow the fabric to be applied to the actuator or sensor to detect complicated movements, even three-dimensional movements.” [18] Kansai University and Teijin is working on the weaves and knits for fabric applications that enable capture human actions by wearing clothes. They expect the fabrics can be applied to the Internet of Things, such as surgery, artisanal techniques, space exploration and etc. Piezoelectricity has the ability to generate electric charge in response to mechanical stress. It also has the opposite effect – the application of electric voltage produces mechanical strain in the materials. Both of these effects can be measured, making piezoelectric materials effective for both sensors and actuators. XelfleX can help sportswear capture trainer’s movements. Based on the movements, we can design suitable coaching for them. Take football as the example. Place kick is a common kick needing trick and skill. It requires not only force, but also kick position. If the player want to train his/ her place kick skill, we can use this technology to help them. David Beckham is a famous professional player for his place kick from England. As we can use XelfleX to track his movement, we can analyze his skill. Then we can use the data from him as the reference to help other player improve their own skills. It is not for copy David’s skill and require others to follow. It is for provide references and help other players to improve or form their own skills. Based on data, the process could be more efficient. Piezoelectric Fabrics from Kansai University and Teijin The world’s first polylactic acid (PLA) fibre and carbon fibre based piezoelectric fabrics has been developed in Kansai University and Teijin by Prof Yoshiro Tajitsu, Faculty of Engineering Science. The university has introduced the new piezoelectric fabric at the 1st Wearable 8 Figure 24. The right one is the outer layer (the holes are underneath the circles); the left one is the basic layer (the holes are half open). Figure 23. elliptical cross-trainer. As this fabric becoming mature enough and being eligible for manufacturing, we can not only apply it to the Internet of Things for science, but also apply it to the sportswear. As living in the city, outdoor sport is not as healthy as in the country, because of the polluted air. But the indoor workouts, such as the workouts in the gyms, are boring. People go there for loosing weight, building muscle and keeping healthy with little pleasure and fun. It is not easy for them to keep on doing the workouts. Sometimes it is painful. The workouts in gym have nothing to do with pleasure for common people. That is the reason why many people easily give up going to the gym for the workouts. However there are a lot of sport activities which are fun but limited by the space, such as football. If the trainer likes football, but it is hard for him/her to join a football game in the field, he/she has to go to gym for other sports to keep him/her healthy. But the equipments in gym are much less fun than football. He/she feels the workouts in the gym are painful and hard. Then he/she may give up the workouts soon. But if we can provide “football game” in the gym, the trainer can have more fun and forget the pain during the workouts. It is not realistic,if we move the field into the gym. However by applying piezoelectric fabrics to our sportswear, we can provide the trainer a virtual “football game”. Figure 25. The working mechanism of the holes in the fabric. Having workouts does not only emphasize efficiency, although efficiency is very important and basic for workouts. We should consider entertainment and fun as well. By applying the advanced wearable technologies, we will have more chances to make the experiences of the workouts much more efficient and pleasant. If we can drive robots like the pilots in Pacific Rim (a movie) in the virtual world when playing the elliptical cross-trainers in the gym, that will be amazing. The trainers will have more passion to play. When they are happy and excited when playing the elliptical cross-trainers, it is easier for them to keep on playing. As a result, people will enjoy working out, as the workouts are not as hard and boring. Adaptive Survival Clothing Temperature adaptive textile could be very useful for people’s daily life. There is a prototype by Jacqueline Nanne who was a student in Industrial Design Department at the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands in 2013. The inspiration comes from the temperature and moisture regulation properties of wool and human body. The fabrics are designed to adapt to the temperature of the human body and the environment. The design context is for the survival in the wilderness. Coming to the survival, As the fabrics can track the movements and human body (shape), we can “put” the trainer to a virtual world. In the virtual world, we have not only his/her movements data, but also his/her 3D body data. So we can build a precise virtual trainer and his/her virtual world. During the virtual football game, trainers can easily forget their boringness and hardship. Their sports become fun, and it is easy for them to keep on workouts with more passion. 9 Figure 26. Applying the material to the clothing. Figure 28. The stretchable printed circuit from MC10. Figure 27. the incorporation of amperometric sensors printed on the paint. people often add or remove layers of clothing to keep a comfortable temperature. This design is intended to decrease the number of times one has to stop to change clothing, and keep comfortable when taking a break or climbing a mountain. There are two mechanisms for adapting temperature. A base layer reacting to skin temperature has holes like pores that open and close. The second mechanism is inspired from animal’s hair erecting when cold. This has been used in the outer layer, which responds to differences in environmental temperature. However both are activated using temperature-sensitive memory wire (Nitinol). There are three layers for keeping the user comfortable with the changing temperature. There are holes structured in the basic lay, which can wick away the moisture from the user’s skin. If the user feels hot, the holes will open and let the cool air in. When the body cools down, the holes will close to maintain insulation. The middle layer is fro insulating from the cold. The holes in outer layer responds to environment changes, such as weather, vegetation, altitude and etc. The designer also makes a concept of applying this material to the clothing. Jacqueline applies the material on the chest, abdomen, neck/upper back, and lower back part for keep the user comfortable. [19] Figure 29. Biostamp from MC10. example. When we run for a while, we normally feel hot and want to take off our clothes for cooling down. But when we running, there are no place for us to place our clothes. Normally we have to tie the clothes on our waist. But it makes our waist too hot. However if our sportswear is made of this kind of smart material, we do not need to take them off. Even replacing with waterproof material, we do not need to put on raincoat when raining or snowing. One sportswear can be for all situations. These materials are very functional and can change our wearing habits. How to fuse them with fashion will be the challenge. E-TEXTILES AS SENSORS BY PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES Except for knitting sensors in the fabric, we can also print the sensors and circuits on the fabric. By the printed sensors we can get the precise data as well. Thick-film Textile-based Amperometric Sensors and Biosensors This smart material can not only detect our body and show us data, but also provide us direct services. In the sport scenarios, we really need some sportswear can change their structure for making us comfortable. Take running as the A group of researchers have screen-printed the incorporation of amperometric sensors into clothing. The electrochemical sensors are printed directly on the elastic 10 Figure 31. Hitting test with Reebok CHECKLIGHT. Figure 30. Reebok CHECKLIGHT. bodies. They try to extend human capabilities by making high-performance electronics virtually invisible, conformal, and wearable. They reshape rigid, conventional electronics into thin, flexible devices that can stretch, bend and twist seamlessly with people’s bodies and the natural world. And they are making them affordable for the everyday consumer. They are pioneering technology that will protect our troops, treat heart arrhythmias, monitor a sleeping baby’s temperature and maybe one day prevent brain seizures. In 2008, the founder Professor John Rogers of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign came up with something that would change people’s lives – stretchable circuits. They have taken Rogers’ brilliant stretchable electronics platform out of the lab and into commercial product development with best-in-class partners who share their vision for extending human capabilities and pushing the status quo. They are developing revolutionary products that transform the way we think about electronics and their interaction with the human body. band of underwear that offers tight direct contact with the skin. The textile-based printed carbon electrodes have a well-defined appearance with relatively smooth conductor edges and no apparent defects or cracks. The sensors are stretchable and foldable. The sensors can measure hydrogen peroxide and NADH, and could potentially monitor chemicals found in sweat through dehydrogenaseand oxidase-based enzyme sensors (for example, ethanol and lactate). Applications include healthcare, sport, and military monitoring. “The favorable electrochemical behavior is maintained under folding or stretching stress, relevant to the deformation of clothing. The electrochemical performance and tolerance to mechanical stress are influenced by the physical characteristics of the textile substrate. The results indicate the potential of textilebased screen-printed amperometric sensors for future healthcare, sport or military applications. Such future applications would benefit from tailoring the ink composition and printing conditions to meet the specific requirements of the textile substrate.”[20] Reebok CHECKLIGHT is a co-project with Reebok, which is a head impact indicator. In the heat of competition, athletes aren’t always aware of the severity of a blow to the head. They are delivering a simple solution that using multiple sensors to capture head impact data during play, while being virtually invisible to the athlete. Tucked under any helmet, this smart, sensing skullcap serves as an extra set of eyes on the playing field, contributing crucial information towards the assessment of each athlete. Because the best offense is a good defense. [21] It is a very smart way to apply sensors to the our clothes. As Jawbone-like wearables can not always stick to our body tightly, we can not get consistent and precise data from the user. The products like Omsignal shirt can get precise data but then it becomes our only shirt for outfit. Whatever we like it or not, we have to wear it and show it to other people. However the underwear is different. They are much more natural than the Jawbone-like wearables in our daily life. We normally wear underwear everyday. Besides no one can see them when we wear them. And we can have more options for our outfits. The stretchable printed circuit can be easily applied to the sportswear. It gives a chance to make body surveillance technologies ubiquitous for the conventional brands. It can be adapted to any tight shirts, short, underwear even shoes. Except for the sportswear, MC10 can be applied as our “second” skin, the tattoo. MC10 electronic tattoo called the Biostamp. It can be stuck to the body using a rubber stamp, and protected using spray-on bandages. The circuit can be worn for two weeks. As having the wireless antennae, builtin sensors, wireless power coil, it could get our body data MC10, Stretchable Printed Circuit MC10 is a innovated technology startup company from Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company is developing a manufacturing technology that will allow digital circuits to be embedded in fabric or flexible plastic. MC10’s approach means we will no longer “wear” technology like jewelry but have it sit unobtrusively on our skin or inside our 11 Figure 33. Stretchable e-skin material. Figure 34. Lighter than the feather, e-skin material. E-skin from The University of Tokyo Professor Takao Someya and his research group has developed a thin, light and stretchable circuit, which is considered as e-skin. One decade ago, Professor Takao Someya’s research group created a flexible electronic mesh and wrapped it around a robotic hand. They dreamed of making an electronic skin for a robot. The robot can measure some of the person’s vital signs when it shook hand with a human. Today they are still working intensively on e-skin, but their focus now is on applying it directly to the human body. Such a bionic skin could be used to monitor medical conditions or to provide more sensitive and lifelike prosthetics. They try to use stretchable material for electronic circuit for adapting to human’s soft body. After much experimentation, they conclude that the plastic films are very promising. They adapt well to the mechanical strain. They cost very little, and they’re compatible with new manufacturing processes that can produce large, flexible sheets of electronic materials— including roll-to-roll manufacturing methods now being developed. By using inkjet and other printing processes, manufacturers can significantly reduce production costs. For example, inkjet technology can deliver the exact amount of any substance you want applied to precisely targeted positions, which reduces the waste of raw material. Printing processes can simultaneously apply the coating and the circuitry pattern of thin-film materials, which are usually performed as separate steps when semiconductors are manufactured via lithography. Compared with vacuum- Figure 32. Gilded skin: Takao Someya’s latest e-skin material is one-tenth the thickness of plastic kitchen wrap, and it can conform to any body shape. and transmit them to other devices, like computer, mobile phones or tablets. The sportswear by knitting sensor technologies can get our data more precise than Jawbonelike wearables. As the sensors are knitted in the clothing, we can not see them, which makes the sportswear looks more natural rather than hybrid technology look. But they have to stick a small box to them, as they can not provide power and transmit the data by themselves. The small box is cumbrous for the sportswear. But as limited by the technologies, we can not get rid of the box. When coming to the printed circuit, MC10 has solved these paint points. If we can apply MC10 to the sportswear, we do not need any other devices for applying power can transmitting data. There will be no redundancies on the sportswear anymore. Even more, the MC10 can evolve to be our second skin, the tattoo. Tattoo is getting more and more acceptable by the public. Tattoo sticker is also popular in the market. If we can cross MC10 to the tattoo sticker, it will look better than the pure technology product. 12 Figure 36. Operating a text-speller by thought. gold electrodes only 300 nanometers thick and 30 micrometers wide mounted on a soft plastic film. This assemblage stays stuck to the body using electric forces known as van der Waals interactions—the same forces that help geckoes cling to walls. The electrodes are flexible enough to mold onto the ear and the mastoid process behind the ear. The researchers mounted the device onto three volunteers using tweezers. Spray-on bandage was used once twice a day to help the electrodes survive normal daily activities. The electrodes on the mastoid process recorded brain activity while those on the ear were used as a ground wire. The electrodes were connected to a stretchable wire that could plug into monitoring devices. The device helped record brain signals well enough for the volunteers to operate a text-speller by thought, albeit at a slow rate of 2.3 to 2.5 letters per minute. The scientists hope to improve the speed at which people can use this device to communicate mentally, which could expand its use into commercial wearable electronics. They also plan to explore devices that can operate wirelessly. [23] Figure 35. Brain Computer Interface from John Rogers. deposition methods, which use a huge amount of electricity to pump the air out of a big stainless-steel chamber, printing processes use minimal power. [22] As thin, stretchable and light, we can also apply this printed circuit to sportswear. The author has described applying piezoelectric fabrics from Kansai University and Teijin to sportswear, that we can cross the workouts with virtual games for better sport experience. By this e-skin, we can make the sportswear lighter and fitter to our body. When we do workouts, our sportswear will not interfere our movements. If using piezoelectric fabrics, our sportswear will be thick and make us hot. Besides they will look very clumsy which is not suitable for workout look. By applying e-skin, the sportswear can keep its original shape. The technology will not interfere the outfit, and it can be invisible. Then the design and technology can be well twisted together. As thin, light, stretchable and durable, the invisibility of these technologies will be the trend in the near future. People will not consider them as the advanced technology. They will get used to them and take them for granted. They will even ignore their existence. By detecting brain signals, we have the potential to analyze the trainers mental condition, which is also important for improving the workout experience. When you have the running in the gym, have you ever felt boring and preferred running in somewhere else, like forest, beach, or city streets? The environment can give us mental pleasure when we have the workouts. For example, if we can detect the runner is bored by the running machine when he/she running in the gym, we can use projection mapping to mock the environment to another environment, such as forest. When the trainer is running in the virtual forest, he/ she can see trees, flowers, rivers and animals. The fresh and excited journey will make his/her running pleasant. As living in air, light, noise polluted cities, people have less chances to have the outdoor sports. How to improve or provide rich workout environment to the trainers is an important topic as well. But as different people prefer different workout environments, we need the sportswear to get personal data. Based on these data, we can design different environment for different needs. The services will be more personal and thoughtful. We even can change suitable workout environments for the trainers in different stage by detecting their mental activities. As thus the Brain Computer Interface from John Rogers John Rogers and his research group develop soft, flexible and wearable electrodes temporary tattoo which can stick onto and near the ear for detecting brain signals. It can stay on for more than two weeks even during highly demanding activities such as exercise, swimming, even showering and bathing. The device consists of a soft, foldable collection of 13 have a rough view of our conditions, but not be able to provide further services for our sports. They could be fashion products in the market, but they do not have promising futures. The sportswear made of e-textile could be the future of wearables. But now these sportswear come with little boxes, which are for providing power, processing and transmitting data. The boxes are redundant for the sportswear. However, as the technologies become mature, the boxes will not be necessary anymore, and the wearable technologies will be invisible. Besides, the wearable technologies could change the whole experiences of workouts. Sports could be more interesting than the past. As e-textile could be a carrier of electricity, the long lasting power problem may be solved as well. E-textile is the future of wearable products, as they are more powerful, natural and adaptable. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Acknowledgements to Sabine Seymour and Parsons the New School for Design for supplying the resources and texts in order for me to undertake this research project. Figure 37. Recipe for conductive textile: dip cloth in nanotube ink, dry in oven for 10 minutes at 120 degrees Celsius. REFERENCES 1. Jawbone. https://jawbone.com. collected data are not only for viewing, but also for better designing following services. 2. Mann, Douglas L.; Zipes, Douglas P.; Libby, Peter; Bonow, Robert O. 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