Electronic Smart Textiles

The components of an electronic smart textile that provide several functions are sensors unit, network unit, processing unit, actuator unit and power unit. On the smart textile, several of these functions are combined to form services. Providing information, communication or assistance 

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McAdams E.T., McLaughlin J, Anderson J McC., Wearable and implantable monitoring systems 10 years experience at University of Ulster Proc. Wearable Electronic and Smart Textiles Confi, Leeds, UK, 2004. 

In terms of market opportunities, and referring to both the application method and the textile as a substrate, the need for functional prints and coatings that enable the development of smart textiles and wearable electronics will be rising and will move from 30% predominantiy printed and 6% on nonrigid substrates to 45% predominantly printed and 33% on nonrigid substrates by 2022 (Ghaffarzadeh, 2013). 

Smart textiles are also available as consumer sportswear, which can monitor parameters such as heart rate and running statistics linking wirelessly to electronic devices such as iPhones, as with the Nike + products or smart phone android apps, as with the Adidas miCoach system. 

Ropert, A., 2013. Wearable electronics 2.0, presentation. In Session Smart Textiles - From Research to Products, Avantex Symposium, Frankfurt, Germany, 11.06.2013. 

Hertleer, C., Grabowska, M., Van Langenhove, L., Catrysse, M., Hermans, B., Phiers, R., Kalmar, A., Van Egmond, H., Matthys, D., 2004. Towards a smart suit. In Wearable Electronic and Smart Textiles, 11th June, Leeds, UK. 

One further and final area of possible development will be in the smart textile field where there is a desire for fibres which may have a heat-sensing property which may then enable them to either alert the wearer (in protective clothing, for instance) or transfer electronic or other signals when embedded in a composite should a potential fire threat arise. This latter will be of increasing importance as the continued increase in use of textile and fibre-reinforced composites replaces conventional materials in the transport sectors, for example. 

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the OFSETH smart textile for the monitoring of anesthetised patients under MRI. The sensor part is in charge of acquiring the waveform, which is trananiued to the optoelectronic module, where optical to electronic (O-E) conversion is performed. Finalfy, the signal is conditioned to be digitalized and transmitted to the monitor.

D fabrics, panels, and preforms are being increasingly used in aerospace, medical, automotive, armored vehicles, marine, boat and shipbuilding, construction, wind energy, electronic textiles (E-textiles) and smart textiles wearables, and other industrial applications. 

The book is organized in three parts containing chapters on smart textiles for medical purposes transportation and energy and finally protection, security, communication and textile electronics. 

Smart textiles for protection, security, communication and other electronics... 

Initially, and from a purely technical point of view, the smart textile concept may be perceived as the result of a convergence between two industries textiles and electronics. The miniaturization of electronics makes it possible for people to carry with them all kinds of devices, qualified as portables , that have functions ranging from leisure (Walkman, MP3, portable television) to communication and information management (mobile phones, personal digital assistants) to health (pacemakers, physiological sensors of parameters). 

Various electronic part classifications that can be included in smart textiles are presented below, according to four principal recurring topics peripherals, processing data, connectors and energy. A short description of these components is provided below, in order to better understand the objectives of research undertaken at the present time on the electronics related to oneself. 

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