Knitting wearable technology

Garments made of fabric embedded with technologies such as flexible circuitry, antennas and power sources will revolutionize life in the 21st century—once methods to manufacture those wearable products can be harnessed. An agreement between Genevieve Dion, director of Drexel University’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design, Philadelphia, Pa., and Shima Seiki USA Inc., Monroe Township, N.J., a knit production machinery and support company, may bring mass production closer to reality. The company’s $1 million investment in the Shima Seiki Haute Technology Laboratory at Drexel will allow Dion and an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the colleges of Engineering, Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems to develop smart textile applications and methods of production. Whether the wearable technologies deliver messages, power computers or track patients’ vital signs, the challenge continues to be to find practical processes to bring them to life.