Smart Clothing Market Wide Underwear Socks Are Intelligent

Recently, the first Asian consumer electronics show (CESAsia) was held in Shanghai. Smart clothing has become a highlight of the exhibition: it can detect many physiological indicators.

Monitoring muscle movement data.

With the positioning function of the insole...

American technology media predict that in the near future, the boundaries between digital products and clothing will become increasingly blurred. Future electronic products can perfectly "hide" in clothing, and integrate all the functions of electronic devices into a real "personal intelligent portable high-tech installation".

Dr. Zhao Yue analysis of Shanghai Institute of science and technology pointed out that the trend of intelligent wearable devices is to "wear it", that is, to keep the intelligent function on daily wear and wear items instead of allowing users to wear new electronic devices.

Smart clothing is in line with the trend of "wear", so it is expected to become the "ultimate form" of wearable devices.

"Twenty or thirty years later, perhaps the wardrobe is smart clothes, we can choose according to the day's travel plans and needs."

Why Europe looks at smart clothes

In recent years, the electronics industry and the information industry have developed a trend of designing and manufacturing high-tech products that can be worn and integrated with clothing, that is, smart clothing.

It combines the frontier technology of electronic information technology, sensor technology, textile science and material science and other related fields, mainly achieves its own intelligence through two main categories: one is the use of smart clothing materials, including shape memory materials, phase change materials, color changing materials and stimulus reaction hydrogels; the other is the introduction of information technology and microelectronics technology into everyday clothing, including conductive materials, flexible sensors, wireless communication technology and power supply, and the latter is also known as wearable technology.

Zhao Yue introduced that smart clothing can not only perceive changes in external environment or internal state, but also respond to such changes in real time through feedback mechanism.

Perception, feedback and response are three elements of smart clothing.

In order to achieve monitoring and feedback functions, the main points of technology include hardware, sensors, electronic components, software systems, micro chips, open networks, application interfaces, smart fabrics, energy systems, fashion design and other elements.

At present, the countries that are actively developing smart clothing are mainly

Finland, Belgium, Switzerland, Britain and other European countries.

The reason is that on the one hand, European countries have strong demand for new textile development; on the other hand, they have the support of advanced electronic, electrical, communication and computer software industries.

Many garment giants hope that the research and development of smart clothing can inject new vitality into the traditional textile industry which is not very prosperous.

The world's leading enterprises in clothing, materials, information and electrical industry, such as

IBM, PHILPS, Fuji and so on have launched concept products. They have the functions of detecting physiological characteristics, health management, life support, sports enhancement, trajectory tracking, entertainment and so on. They also have fashion design elements, trying to meet the needs of specific groups and consumers in the future.

However, the price of these products is still relatively high, which is a major obstacle to their popularity.

The Haines Institute in Germany predicts that smart clothing is a market for billions of people who need millions of applications.

The report of VDC, a famous American market research firm, pointed out that by 2018, the output value of intelligent textiles will reach US $3 billion in the US market alone, and there will be great room for development in the future.

Underwear socks are intelligent.

What smart clothes have appeared in the international market? According to Japanese media, Dongli Co. has launched the world's first smart underwear for measuring heart rate.

It has 3 card size functional materials in front of the chest, equivalent to the electrodes of the electrocardiogram instrument, and can send heart rate data to the mobile phone by connecting with the small dedicated terminals of the shoulder.

Smart phones can display heart rate data after installing special application software.

According to the introduction, functional materials are made of polymer materials with good conductivity, good flexibility and high contact with human body, so that people will not feel uncomfortable when exercising. Sweating will not affect the monitoring data, while ensuring the comfort of human body and ensuring the accuracy of data.

North America has similar products. With the support of NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, a start-up company developed an intelligent T-shirt.

Through the Bluetooth device placed on the T-shirt side pocket, users can acquire real-time tracking capability.

During the day, it can measure heart rate, step number, calorie consumption and breathing data. In the evening, it can monitor sleep, including sleeping posture, heartbeat and breathing activity.

All these data will be synchronized to the supporting applications via Bluetooth or uploaded online for remote viewing by coaches and health care doctors.

Sweaters and pants are very warm, but when people walk into a heated room or do a lot of exercise, they need to take them off.

Two students at University of Toronto in Canada plan to change this situation. They produce a self heating underwear that can automatically adjust their temperature according to the needs of users.

The clothing called "FuelWear" allows users to set their favorite body temperature. If the actual temperature is low, it will automatically heat; if the body temperature is too high, it will automatically cool down.

The "air conditioning clothing" can provide 12 hours of heat, and there is not much problem in the whole day.

Smart socks have also joined the ranks of smart clothing. In 2015, CES exhibited one.

This kind of socks is not made of thread knitted fabric, but uses special sensor fiber fabric.

Because of its close fitting nature, it can accurately detect movement and fitness data, such as walking and running steps and distance, weight changes.

Smart socks need an electronic sensor installed on the stockings to collect data.

After one charge, it can last for more than 6 hours.

The company that developed it also developed a supporting application for it, supporting iOS, Android and WindowsPhone three systems, providing functions similar to voice trainers.

In this field, scientific researchers in Shanghai also have something to do.

Recently, experts from Donghua University have developed piezoelectric fiber insoles.

It can pform the mechanical energy generated by human movement into electrical energy, and can also charge while walking, providing a solution for the energy problem of wearable equipment.

The research team integrated the piezoelectric fiber and the insole. Through the piezoelectric fiber, the small amount of energy generated at each step of the running would gather and confluence, and 214 LED lights could be lit up with the "micro motion energy" of the human body.

At the same time, through the rectifier circuit, it can also supply all kinds of portable electronic products.

Smart clothing industry in Shanghai

Zhao Yue analysis pointed out that the development of smart clothing has 4 important stages: breakthroughs in key technologies and materials; independent research and development of key units and products; low cost, green scale production; personalized design to meet the needs of consumers.

At present, China's intelligent clothing market is at its initial stage, and has made breakthroughs in the first and second stages, but it has not yet formed a mature intelligent clothing product, and it has not enough reserves in scale production, and it has not fully integrated with fashion design.

She believes that in the process of building a globally influential technological innovation center, Shanghai has the conditions and the foundation to vigorously develop the smart clothing industry.

First of all, Shanghai has the basis of R & D and manufacturing of textiles and clothing.

The city has already formed a textile production chain with production bases all over the country, and the main raw material producing areas and product markets are unimpeded overseas. The representative enterprises are Shanghai Textile Holding Group.

In terms of research and development, the State Key Laboratory of fiber material modification, School of materials, Donghua University, has a team to study smart fabric.

Secondly, Shanghai has the basis of fashion design and cultural innovation.

In 2010, Shanghai was awarded the title of "Creative City Network - the capital of design" by UNESCO.

Shanghai's creative industry with design as the leading factor is becoming a new engine of economic pformation and development.

Moreover, the cultural background and the fashionable pursuit of the eight faces have created a good ecological environment for the development of creative industries.

Third, Shanghai has a relatively high level of information technology and precision manufacturing.

In the new generation of information technology, such as Internet of things, sensing technology, integrated circuits, urban networks, and advanced manufacturing, the city has good technical reserves and material foundation.

Fourth, the medical level is ahead of the country and the health industry is developing well.

Smart clothing is promising in the field of health care and providing for the aged. In the process of promoting this industry, Shanghai can test and pilot applications in a large number of tertiary hospitals, making smart clothing a "personal assistant" for patients with chronic diseases and the elderly.

Smart clothing as the "ultimate form" of wearable devices, the target product of intelligent and functional development of clothing industry will enter into people's life in a large scale in the future.

Smart clothing is expected to become an innovative industry in Shanghai to give full play to fashion design, clothing manufacturing, high-end equipment manufacturing and the new generation of information technology advantages, so as to meet the social challenges of population aging and meet the needs of all kinds of users, such as universal health management.