What else can you do besides anti-virus wearable smart clothing?

The 2016 Olympic Games is in full swing in Brazil in South America. For the possible Zika virus, some sports teams put on special anti-virus clothing. It is said that this fabric uses anti-microbial technology to resist mosquito bites.

In addition to the role of “mosquito repellent”, researchers and designers are also trying to invent more new materials and develop wearable device technology to make clothing more versatile. For example, it can provide a mechanical cooling function, while providing a mobile power charging function, a real-time recording of sports data, and giving feedback and suggestions for "fitness clothes"; detecting body size and fat and thin "measurement" "Discoloration" that changes the color of the clothes according to the user's mood or willingness; even "invisible clothes" that help people integrate with the surrounding scenery, and so on.

In the foreseeable future, will smart clothing become a small, lightweight, power-saving and versatile utility?

You can listen to music by touching the cuffs

There is such a jacket, it can be used to play music, it can also measure pulse and blood pressure, and can adjust the warmth according to changes in the outside climate; forget to bring the key when going out, or the wallet is dropped on the ground, it can also promptly remind... …do you like it?

Recently, Google has cooperated with a clothing brand to launch a smart jacket. This product, which looks just like ordinary clothes, is actually hidden. It allows the wearer to touch and slide the cuffs of the jacket to listen to music, answer calls, get navigation information and more.

In addition to being suitable for outdoor riders, this smart jacket can also be used in different occupations such as security guards and cleaning staff. According to the research and development staff, the cuff area with multi-touch sensor is “slim, flexible and flexible”, which is not significantly different from normal clothes. Moreover, it can be cleaned normally, "just remove the electronic tag." This electronic tag connects LED components, tactile components, batteries and sensors and can be removed at any time and has a charging function.

More tempting for "lazy" is a sneaker that automatically laces your shoes. The running logic is roughly: installing a row of small motors at the shoelace holes on both sides of the shoe, the motor and the sensor of the sole together; the sensor records the key data of the shoe owner's weight, foot and body center of gravity; according to the data sent back by the sensor, The motor will tighten the shoelace like a fishing rod's bobbin, thus achieving the effect of automatically tying the shoelace.

In theory, as long as the sensor, battery and power unit can be properly configured, this technology can be successfully applied to clothes, so that the clothing has smarter and more diverse functions.

Monitor heartbeat blood pressure and give advice on care

It is estimated that in 2016, smart clothing shipments will reach 26 million, making it the largest shipment of wearable devices. Considering that both men, women and children need to wear clothes, smart clothing is expected to become a "muji" that extracts big data from the human body.

A laboratory in Brussels, Belgium, is developing a magical dress that is leading the trend. The biggest highlight of this kind of clothing is the function of medical monitoring. The layer closest to the body can monitor the body's heartbeat, blood pressure, body temperature and so on. Multiple sensors are installed inside the garment, and environmental changes can be monitored sensitively, such as by monitoring changes in light to detect changes in daylight and night.

In the United States, similar "basic" clothing has gone out of the lab. According to reports, a technology company launched a "ribbed cotton sweater." In fact, it consists of conductive fibers and cotton fibers that can be embedded in the sensor and receive data for monitoring the life characteristics of the wearer. Once the wearer has a heart attack or collapse, he will be alerted in time.

In China, recently held at the 2016 Guiyang International Big Data Industry Expo, a smart dress that can collect the physiological conditions of the driver's body temperature, breathing and body posture was officially unveiled. According to the research and development personnel, smart clothing can not only connect the data of the car, but also aggregate the data of the driver and the environment. By passing back the driver's physiological data, it is possible to determine whether there is fatigue driving, drunk driving, and driving while making a phone call. The simulated driving on the scene showed that the “driver” had five accelerations, five speedings, two sudden braking, two sharp turns, two lane changes, and one turn signal did not turn on. The "driver" eventually scored 3.8 points due to factors such as the integrated environment. This score is indicated in red, indicating a certain danger.

Pick up the spray and "spray" out the fit clothing

The integration of mobile power, sports bracelets, and portable fans will make smart clothes cumbersome? With the development of wearable technology, this problem is expected to be gradually solved.

Researchers at Ohio State University have been able to embed circuits into fabrics with an accuracy of 0.1 mm. This high precision makes it possible to integrate electronic devices such as sensors and memory into clothing.

In order to maximize the precision of the embroidery technique, it is usually necessary to use a pure silver wire. But the sterling silver wire is not like a thick wire, it can provide surface conductivity, so the researchers turned the pure silver wire into an embroidered shape, which improves the surface conductivity and enhances the performance of the antenna or sensor.

Previously, researchers used silver-plated polymer wires of 0.5 mm diameter, each of which was wrapped with 600 thinner filaments. Now the new line has a diameter of 0.1 mm and only 7 filaments. Each filament is made of copper and coated with pure silver.

Smart materials are endless, not just that. Get up in the morning, pick up a can of spray, and face your body, you can directly "spray" the desired clothing. Moreover, you don't have to worry about wearing more and less, because it can increase the warmth or breathability as the outside temperature rises or falls. Such a scene may become a reality with the aid of a bacterium.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's research team hopes to introduce Bacillus subtilis, a microbe that expands and contracts according to atmospheric moisture and skin sweat, as a nanoactuator that responds to changes in body temperature and humidity. This active nanoactuator can be made into a biofilm and printed on a spandex multilayer. In a large humidity environment, the synthetic biological skin can respond, causing the flap around the hot zone to open, thereby achieving optimal ventilation.

In fact, today's researchers are no longer satisfied with the development of aesthetically pleasing or organic fabrics, but are committed to developing the various functionalities of the fabric itself, such as the intelligent response to odors, colors, and the like. Among them, the most surprising and expected may be "invisible clothes."

In 2012, a Canadian biotechnology company said that “quantum invisible” materials can achieve “complete invisibility” by refracting ambient light. A few days ago, the research team at Queen Mary's College, University of London, UK, sprayed a nanoparticulate material onto the surface of the object, which eventually made it "completely disappear." Perhaps soon, these new materials can be used to make "invisible clothes."

Pursue "cooler" and don't forget to be dirty

In the future, smart clothing will be a huge market covering billions of people and millions of applications. However, the smart clothes currently on the market are mostly made up of a variety of sensors, that is, the electronic devices are mainly attached to the clothes. In the next step, how to make the sensors, wires and insulated wires into the clothes and fibers, make the smart clothes more light and durable, and highlight the health regulation function, which is the focus of researchers and designers.

“A trend in the apparel industry is that technology will become the core of fashion.” Wang Xinxi, a senior commentator in the TMT (tech, media and communications) industry, believes that the essence of smart clothing is to combine the real world with the virtual world, just like giving tradition Clothing and a "menu", through this menu, people can connect the Internet with the real scene to achieve free communication.

However, unlike the smart clothing that focuses on sports and health, the domestic focus is more on the intelligence of life scenes. Therefore, while pursuing “cooler”, “more sensitive” and “more change”, smart clothing should not forget the comfort, at least to be resistant to dirt.