Real Wearable Technology Has Ten Commandments.

Wearable technology is also known as

Electronic textiles, which are able to respond to changes in the external environment and human needs, are attracting increasing attention from manufacturers and consumers.

Some experts even predict that smart clothing can be more attractive to the public than smart phones.

Because of the large and intimate contact between clothing and human body, wearable technology does seem to have an irresistible potential for development.

For thousands of years, although clothing has made great progress in material and manufacturing technology, its two basic functions, body protection and body decoration, have not changed, and have been serving mankind well.

In fact, when inspecting a garment unearthed from an ancient tomb, its structural and design changes are surprisingly small.

The interesting problem is that our life, pportation, housing, and even food and drink are constantly updated in form and function, and why clothing is basically unchanged.

Since modern times, textile industry, represented by spinning, weaving, knitting and so on, has been at the forefront of the traditional manual operation to the pformation of mechanization and industrialization.

Entering the twentieth Century, the pioneering innovation in chemical technology has spawned artificial fibers and synthetic fibers, greatly expanding the quantity and variety of raw materials.

Nowadays, textile materials can be produced in large scale and rapidly, so as to continuously expand their functionality at reasonable prices.

Now, through the development of real wearable technology, we may witness another start of clothing innovation.

In real wearable technology, electronic devices and textiles are integrated into one another, not only as portable accessories, such as watches, bracelets, lenses or other electronic devices attached to clothing.

In order to make wearable technology succeed in today's big background, it is very important to explore and understand the reasons behind the seemingly everlasting clothing.

10 of the most notable are listed below.

The two major functions (or 10 "commandments") reveal why clothing can serve mankind well in such a long history.

1. strength and durability

In order to protect our body, clothing must be tough and durable when it comes to sharp hard objects.

2. enough flexibility and flexibility.

In order to enable people to function normally, clothing must be stretched easily to adapt to human movement.

3. lightweight

No one wants his / her clothes to be a burden when they dress.

4. fit

Clothing should make the wearer look elegant, at least not like a tin man.

5. breathability and comfort

Physical comfort must be maintained.

So that people's skin can "breathe", the sweat secreted is exported and evaporated.

6. warmth retention

The primary function of clothing is to help people keep out the cold in cold weather.

7. skin safety and contact comfort

Clothing should avoid any unbearable feeling or potential danger to the body and skin under any circumstances.

8. refurbishment capability

Clothing must be cleaned repeatedly / cleanly.

9. aesthetic considerations

Clothing needs to be designed, printed, dyed and so on to make it pleasing to the eye.

10. cost

Although price is not an inherent characteristic of a commodity, it is unquestionably an important factor in determining consumer acceptance and whether the product can be successfully sold.

Now, let's take a look at the current situation.

How to satisfy the above demanding and even seemingly contradictory requirements at the same time.

(1) most of the fibers used for conventional clothing are polymers, so they are lightweight and processable. They can be processed into yarns and fabrics on a large scale and eventually become garments.

Therefore, the above mentioned light weight, softness and durability can be realized at reasonable cost.

(2) from fiber, yarn, fabric to clothing, a multi-stage incremental structure is adopted to form porous materials with different sizes of capillary pores, so as to achieve hydrophilicity, dyeability, permeability and comfort.

(3) friction is the only "adhesive" in clothing. It can ensure the integrity of the whole structure and the mobility of the internal components, and the two contradictory properties through twisting, entanglement, interweaving or weaving.

Due to the sufficient integrity of friction, the seemingly opposite properties including strength, flexibility, tensile and fitness can coexist harmoniously.

The above 3 basic requirements (single or multiple combinations) determine the current form of clothing.

If we try to deviate from them, they will inevitably lead to a serious deterioration of clothing performance and greatly reduce consumer recognition of clothing.

Given the current technology and foreseeable future development, there is enough confidence to predict that polymer fibers will remain a key element in any successful wearable technology.

Any other material, including metals, semiconductors and electronic equipment, can only be added to the polymer fiber body in a small amount or attached to it in the form of functional patches.

In addition, to completely ignore these 3 basic requirements and develop a brand new clothing system, at least in our lifetime is impossible to achieve.

Many people believe that wearable technology is entirely dependent on the development of the required microelectronics and optical devices. Textiles, as a passive substrate, have little room for innovation.

In fact, in order to successfully achieve commercialization of the truly integrated wearable technology, new basic integration technology units must be developed, namely new power technology compatible with textiles, input and output systems based on textiles, flexible sensors, etc.

Obviously, the progress of this emerging field is highly dependent on multidisciplinary research cooperation and relies on Collaborative Innovation between two distinct industries, electronics and textiles / clothing.

There is little communication and cooperation between the two industries, and there are also great differences in research and development level.

But if we hope that in the near future, wearable technology will be as popular as mobile phones, then more active and effective cooperation and innovation between various sectors of the electronics and textile industry will be crucial.

Of course, there are still some non-technical problems.

For example, thousands of people at the same time in the concert hall or sports field, are faced with different styles, styles, cultures, colors, designs and so on.

In contrast, other related products such as mobile phones or cars can not be requested to have the same variety.

This inevitably leads to huge differences in concept and design between different industries.

In addition, because of the relatively low cost of general clothing, the pace of fashion substitution can be accelerated.

But if we add more expensive electronic equipment, the price of clothing will certainly increase.

Will you throw away a T-shirt that is embedded in complex devices but is out of favor?

Therefore, wearable technology is most likely to penetrate into the most demanding markets for clothing performance and additional functions, such as military, sports and medical fields, as well as extreme environments such as fire and polar exploration.

Other applications will be gradually incorporated into everyday clothing after the above functional and commercial problems are resolved.