Phoning it in: smart accessories for fitness

May 1st, 2013

The Apple Store offers dozens of sports coaching and fitness applications for the company’s iPhone, iPod and iPad technologies, including 321 Run, iSmoothrun and Runtastic. Using those apps while on the move can be challenging—unless athletes add a Runalyzer blue from Runware, Saint-Denis, France, to their accessory kit. Lightweight, ultra-thin, flexible and comfortable, Runalyzer blue, […]

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Smart textiles for protective gear

April 1st, 2013

A new book, Smart Textiles for Protection, outlines how materials that sense and react to environmental conditions are being integrated into personal protective clothing—and examines a wide range of end-use protective applications. The book explores material types, surface treatments, nanofibers, smart barrier membranes, sensors, actuators and computers in protective wear, and also provides a discussion […]

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Knitting wearable technology

May 1st, 2012

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., […]

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The future for smart textiles

May 1st, 2012

According to the latest issue of Performance Apparel Markets by Textiles Intelligence, Wilmslow, U.K., smart textiles and wearable technology are poised for rapid growth, if key issues with power sources and laundering can be resolved. Internet-savvy younger users want connectivity, speed and multiple-function communication options. The aging population will benefit from wearable technology that monitors […]

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High-tech textile products

January 1st, 2012

Bekaert Textiles, Waregem, Belgium, has launched MediTiss® high-tech textile products designed for the healthcare and hospital market, including smart fabrics used in the SensoTiss mattress cover, which can alert nursing staff or a caretaker when a patient leaves his or her bed. Created to optimize bed comfort and focus on the welfare of patients of […]

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Incredibly smart textiles

October 1st, 2011

As understanding evolves and resources become available, interactive textiles could be headed into the mainstream Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak may be fiction, but it could be a reality in the not-too-distant future. That may be a matter of physics, but perhaps a smart textile will help it along. Who would have thought a decade ago […]

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