Preparing to say, “I told you so”

It’s interesting to me how the smart fabric segment of the advanced textiles industry has found ways to maneuver around the limitations inherent in powering smart fabric products. In essence, a battery in the form of a puck, as it’s now called, provides the power—one way or another. Workarounds have been largely clever manipulations of this fundamental: smaller, a different shape, smaller still, contained in a more obtuse location, smaller yet again. But they’re still there. 

Not for long. Of all the advances that can be achieved with more research and the endless creativity of those challenged with inventing improvements, this one element has been the stumbling block to a true breakthrough. But that breakthrough is on the horizon. 

Anybody could have seen it coming with the announcement in 2022 that the U.S. government was stepping in to fund a project with the droll name, SMART ePANTS, initiated and to be overseen by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). With more than $11 million committed to the project, it has the wherewithal to make things happen—and relatively quickly. 

Organized in three phases over three years, we’re already closing in on the end of the beginning of it all. Our feature, “Next generation smart textiles are on the horizon,” offers some insight, provided by the program’s director, Dr. Dawson Cagle, about its current status and what will happen next. Let’s just say, pucks are on the way out. If the alternative (or there may very well be more than one alternative) performs as required (Phase II) and is washable (Phase III), we will truly be entering a new era for smart materials. 

I’ve predicted this before, but I’m so confident about it that I’ll just say it again. There will come a time—and it’s not that far off—when any soft, flexible substrate will be able to be “smart.” This could, in fact, be the case right now, but the puck thing … 

And the money thing. The solutions now being researched and soon to be tested will have to be economically feasible to gain the traction needed to achieve viable commercialization. But it will happen. I would assume that ever more sophisticated artificial intelligence capabilities will help to get us to the ubiquitous stage. Maybe not in my lifetime (given my age), but younger generations will grow up with a world of smart products made from soft, flexible substrates—and see it as unremarkable as our ubiquitous smart phones. 

Janet Preus is senior editor of Textile Technology Source. She can be reached at janet.preus@textiles.org.