Enhanced IR Radiative Cooling of Silver Coated PA Textile

Smart textile with IR radiative cooling is of paramount importance for reducing energy consumption and improving the thermal comfort of individuals. However, wearable textile via facile methods for indoor/outdoor thermal management is still challenging. Here we present a novel simple, yet effective method for versatile thermal management via silver-coated polyamide (PA) textile. Infrared transmittance of coated fabric is greatly enhanced by 150% due to the multi-order reflection of silver coating. Based on their IR radiative cooling, indoors and outdoors, the skin surface temperature is lower by 1.1 and 0.9 °C than normal PA cloth, allowing the textile to be used in multiple environments. Moreover, the coated fabric is capable of active warming up under low voltage, which can be used in low-temperature conditions. These promising results exemplify the practicability of using silver-coated textile as a personal thermal management cloth in versatile environments.

Modular Piezoresistive Smart Textile for State Estimation of Cloths

Smart textiles have found numerous applications ranging from health monitoring to smart homes. Their main allure is their flexibility, which allows for seamless integration of sensing in everyday objects like clothing. The application domain also includes robotics; smart textiles have been used to improve human-robot interaction, to solve the problem of state estimation of soft robots, and for state estimation to enable learning of robotic manipulation of textiles. The latter application provides an alternative to computationally expensive vision-based pipelines and we believe it is the key to accelerate robotic learning of textile manipulation. Current smart textiles, however, maintain wired connections to external units, which impedes robotic manipulation, and lack modularity to facilitate state estimation of large cloths. In this work, we propose an open-source, fully wireless, highly flexible, light, and modular version of a piezoresistive smart textile. Its output stability was experimentally quantified and determined to be sufficient for classification tasks. Its functionality as a state sensor for larger cloths was also verified in a classification task where two of the smart textiles were sewn onto a piece of clothing of which three states are defined. The modular smart textile system was able to recognize these states with average per-class F1-scores ranging from 85.7 to 94.6% with a basic linear classifier.

Study of the optimization of embroidery design parameters for the Technical Embroidery Machine: derivation of the correlation between thread consumption and electrical resistance

The smart textile industry has become increasingly interested in textile products with electronic functions. In these smart textile products, sensing and data communication are conducted through conductive circuits by conductive threads. In embroidery technology that uses conductive threads as the material for the conductive line as a circuit, their resistance is an important factor when designing a product. The main purpose of this study was to derive an equivalent circuit model and a calculation equation for the consumption of conductive threads according to the embroidery design parameters. The effects of the embroidery design parameters on the appearance and electrical characteristics of the conductive line were also analyzed. The appearance and electrical characteristics of the embroidered conductive line were different when the embroidery design parameters were not the same. The calculation equation for the consumption of conductive threads could establish a quantitative system that could indicate the line resistance of an embroidered conductive line using the embroidery design parameters and the given thread resistance.

Smart textile device for shooter’s fingers movement monitoring

BACKGROUND: The manner in which shooters pull the trigger may significantly affect the shooter’s results. Shooting coaches are often not able to detect incorrect pull because of gun movement during the shot and recoil. OBJECTIVE: Development of the smart-textile based trigger pull monitoring system and demonstration of its ability to distinguish correct and wrong triggering techniques. METHODS: Two separated knitted resistive pressure sensors were integrated over III and II phalanges in the index finger fingerstall; single sensor was integrated over both III and II phalanges of the middle finger fingerstall. Resistance of the sensors was measured in a course of shots, performed by expert shooter, which simulated typical novice’s trigger pull errors. RESULTS: Sensors’ resistance recordings were made for following erroneous trigger pull motions: pulling of the trigger with index finger’s II phalanx instead of III; fast and jerky trigger pull (trigger tear-off); too fast release of the trigger after shot; and excessive grip force, applied by middle finger. For each type of erroneous movement, recordings waveforms included distinguishable features that characterised a particular type of error. CONCLUSIONS: The developed trigger pull monitoring system provides signals that could be used for recognition of the incorrect trigger pull motions during gun shots.

Conception and evaluation of a washable multimodal smart textile

Smart textiles can support people with specific needs and diseases, such as diabetes or heart disease. Currently there are efforts to combine continuous mobile monitoring with other health-related conditions. On this basis, algorithms could be developed that can be used to detect unusual or critical conditions. A study was to investigate whether a previously developed washable Multi-Modal Smart Textile (MMST), based on inexpensive materials, would provide valid and reliable results with regard to the vital parameters of pulse, temperature and mobility. The measurement of the vital parameters was carried out with the developed prototype MMST as well as with validated devices. All electronics including the rechargeable NiMH has been washed more than 30 times with different methods and it remained fully functional. The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for pulse (temperature) measurement ranged between 0.036 and 0.232 (0.077 and 0.817) depending on the activity of the tested individuals (standing, sitting, lying down, moving). Cohen’s Kappa for the detection of the body position was 0.765. For the parameter of pulse, the results indicated an insufficient derivation for both validity and reliability. Due to flaws in the methodology applied, the validly and reliably for the parameter of temperature could not be determined. Valid and reliable results were obtained for the parameter mobility/change of position. If the MMST (after modification of the prototype) achieves reliable results, there are many advantages for people giving and receiving care on a budget price, even in threatening emergency situations.