Expanding Garment Functionality Through Embedded Electronic Technology

Volume 4, Issue 3, Spring2005

Expanding Garment Functionality through Embedded Electronic Technology

Lucy E. Dunne1, Susan P. Ashdown2, Barry Smyth1

1{lucy.dunne, barry.smyth}@ucd.ie Department of Computer Science University College Dublin

[email protected] Department of Textiles and Apparel Cornell University

ABSTRACT

Electronic technology offers exciting new possibilities for functional clothing design. Technology allows a garment’s functionality to become dynamically adaptable, changing in response to environmental or situational changes. However, there are many challenges to integrating electronic technology into a textile-based garment structure. This paper outlines some of the possibilities and challenges to apparel designers in this new field, and highlights the importance of the apparel design perspective in the successful design of wearable technology.

Keywords: Wearable technology, smart clothing, wearable computing, functional clothing, apparel design

1 Introduction influencing variables that lie outside their scope of experience. Electronically augmented clothing has the potential to meet the user’s functional This overview seeks to introduce to needs in a dynamic, efficient manner. apparel designers some of the important and However, the use of electronic and challenging new issues that arise in wearable computing technologies is a relatively new technology design. tool for apparel designers. While electronic components create new design variables for 2 Textile Foundations apparel designers, at the same time the integration of electronics into the body space Historically, functional clothing has creates new variables for technology utilized mechanical means or passive designers. Many current prototypes suffer textiles to achieve its functional goals. from the divide between these two (Watkins, 1995) For instance, cold-weather perspectives. An iterative, aware design clothing has relied on the textile’s and process can in theory help to form a garment’s ability to retain the heat produced complete design perspective, but in practice by the wearer’s body by reducing it is often difficult for designers to imagine conductive, convective, or radiant heat

Article Designation: Refereed 1 JTATM Volume 4, Issue 3,Spring 2005 transfer. Such textile or mechanical on a dark busy street, suppression if the solutions are effective in static or wearer is in a darkened movie theatre). homogenous environments, where the user’s needs and environmental conditions remain 3 Background: Wearable Technology consistent over time. In variable environments or when presented with a As seen in Figure 1, the scope of diverse set of user needs, passive solutions wearable technology overlaps with that of are not always optimal. For instance, should functional clothing. Wearable technology the user of a cold-weather suit find itself contains two sub-groups of interest him/herself in a warmer environment, the here. The first is wearable computing, body- ability of the garment system to retain body mounted devices traditionally more focused heat would quickly become a negative on assuming the kind of information- feature. processing tasks performed by desktop or portable computers. The second is smart New technologies have introduced clothing, garment-integrated devices which ways to create dynamic functionality in augment the functionality of clothing, or clothing and textiles. One such method is the which impart information-processing engineering of adaptive textile structures functionality to a garment. which react to environmental changes by altering their physical properties. Examples of this include phase-change materials, UV- Wearable Technology reactive dyes, and shear-thickening fluid coatings (for more examples see Braddock Wearable and O’Mahony, 1999). Such textile Computers advances can provide garment systems which are engineered to respond to specific changes. Smart Clothing

While adaptive textiles are elegant solutions to the problems they address, this tactic requires custom engineering of a Functional specific textile for every situational or environmental change. The alternative is to Clothing make use of textile and non-textile technologies whose properties change when exposed to an electric current. Electrically Figure 1: Relationships amo ng clothing active materials, when combined with sensor technologies networks, can be used to create many types The field of wearable technology of garment systems that can respond to input from multiple environmental or situational itself is a sub-set of the larger field of changes. For instance, an adaptive textile ubiquitous or pervasive computing. with a phosphorescent surface treatment Ubiquitous computing refers to computing responds to a single environmental change: devices that are embedded in everyday presence or absence of ambient light. An objects, environments, and individuals. electronically active garment system with (Weiser, 1991) They can be anything from the ability to generate a light source (Dunne, simple sensors to high-powered computer Ashdown, and McDonald, 2002) can be systems. These devices can be designed to designed to respond to any number of monitor their environment or selectively contextual changes, providing the system activate their host device based on sensor with enough information to moderate the input, and are incorporated into objects as appropriate activation or suppression of the basic as a thermostat or as advanced as garment response (activation if the wearer is smart appliances. Distributed and ubiquitous computing devices result in a flow of

Article Designation: Refereed 2 JTATM Volume 4, Issue 3,Spring 2005 information that pervades our living spaces. products that are inefficient or unattractive This may seem like a ‘futuristic’ concept, to users. In wearable technology but in fact most of us interact with specifically, this is often seen in the ubiquitous technologies every day: from integration of existing portable or mobile automatic door openers to self-flushing technologies into a garment. While the toilets. We also interact with personal body- hands-free approach can be effective, worn computing devices on a daily basis: garment-integration is often not the best cell phones, PDAs and portable music solution. players are all often mounted on the body; in pockets, bags, or carried by hand. The reason for this springs from the disparity in product cost, expected lifespan, Mobile body-mounted devices take and situational appropriateness between a variety of forms: garments and complex electronic · Carried devices, which are placed in technologies. A garment is developed in a pockets or bags, and are not designed to few months, produced in a season, and be worn continuously. expected to be worn anywhere from a few · Body-mounted devices, which are months to a few years. Portable technologies designed for constant wear but do not like cell phones, mp3 players, PDAs, or necessarily take the form of a traditional laptop computers are developed in a year or garment, and are instead strapped on or more, produced in a similar time frame, and otherwise affixed to the body (see expected to last 3 years or more. Therefore, Bodine and Gemperle, 2003 for two when the two are integrated, their cost and example s) life cycle must be reconciled. Consumers are · Garment-integrated devices, which not willing to pay for an expensive are designed for constant wear and are technology (such as a personal computer) embedded into a garment; these often every time they purchase a jacket, and the function only when the user is wearing producer of the jacket will have difficulty the garment, but may also be removable shifting a product line from producing new (Barfield et al., 2001) models every 3-6 months to producing new · Implanted devices, which are models every 1-2 years. implanted directly into the user’s body; these are usually not intended to be More significantly, the device and the removable (Holland, Roberson, and garment are expected to function in a Barfield, 2001). different set of environments. Most garments are situationally specific in some This review will focus primarily on way: they are designed for specific garment-integrated devices, as these are the environmental conditions and social most relevant to apparel-based research. environments. Portable devices, on the other hand, are generally required in a broader set 4 Wearable Technology: A New Design of situations. If an mp3 player is Challenge permanently integrated into a garment, then that specific garment must be worn any time As with any attractive new technology the user wishes to make use of the device. or concept, one major design problem is Either the garment must become as versatile over-application. There is a tendency on the as the device, or the device must become part of designers and developers to create inexpensive enough that the user may own wearable technology for the sake of as many devices as situational garments. wearable technology. This results in the “because we can” application, or In the design of wearable technology, applications in which a problem is sought the designer must continually ask: why is which fits a pre-existing solution. this device wearable (or garment- Unfortunately, this kind of reverse design integrated)? Would the device function process often leads to applications or better as a portable device? Better yet, the Article Designation: Refereed 3 JTATM Volume 4, Issue 3,Spring 2005 design process should start from an existing often a blocky, rigid object of considerable problem, and technology only be applied size relative to the planar surfaces of the when it is the best possible solution. human body). Most available power sources are similarly constructed as rigid blocks, 5 New Parameters for Design adding even more bulk, stiffness, and weight. Most current wearable technology research is driven by the computer Careful distribution of these solid science/electrical engineering disciplines. elements over the body surface can reduce Therefore this research often reflects the their perceptibility and discomfort. traditions, logic, and common practices Gemperle et al. address this issue in current in those disciplines. These practices determining optimal shapes and body differ from the norms of apparel research in locations for wearable technology their narrow focus on the information space (Gemperle et al., 1998.) The shapes in that versus the body space. However, many study, however, must be held close to the body-centric wearability issues such as body in order for their comfort to be weight distribution, movement and mobility, preserved. In a garment-integrated sizing and fit, thermal management, and paradigm, the garment structure may not moisture management are crucial to the permit objects to be maintained in contact comfort and functionality of a wearable with the body surface. Gemperle’s device. As functional apparel designers parameters can still be used to guide object know, an uncomfortable or badly designed placement, but in the garment-integrated protective garment loses its protective case, existing garment structures must also abilities completely when the user alters the be taken into account. Bulk and stiffness of configuration or refuses to wear it. In mass- electronic components can often be market wearable technology, this problem is incorporated into a garment in places where magnified. An average user will not tolerate bulk or stiffness already exists: in areas of discomfort (physical or social) or difficulty garment padding or interfacing. Figure 2 of use in a device which provides only illustrates body areas where garments are marginal benefit or slightly increased often padded or stiffened: blue areas convenience, as is the case with many non- represent padding; grey areas represent niche-targeted wearable technologies. stiffening. Exploiting pre-existing volumes or areas of stiffness will be easier in more While apparel designers are structured garment systems. The business accustomed to taking into account the suit, for example, provides a good deal of physical impact of a garment on the human available real estate for incorporating body, the integration of electronic electronic components, and is also worn in components into apparel introduces many many situations and environments which new variables to be addressed by the may present a need for wearable devices designer. Among these are (Dunne, Toney, Ashdown, and Thomas, bulk/weight/stiffness, thermal and moisture 2004). management, flexibility/durability, sizing and fit, and device interface.

5.1 Bulk/weight/stiffness

Electronic components, while ever decreasing in size and weight, are generally relatively stiff and solid. Because off-the- shelf computer components and circuitry are generally designed to minimize their physical size by centrally locating all components on a single board, the result is Article Designation: Refereed 4 JTATM Volume 4, Issue 3,Spring 2005 advances in miniaturization have not been paralleled by similar advances in component power consumption. As a result, for a consistent level of functionality smaller components generally are hotter. Locating heat-producing elements in such a way that their heat is diffused away from the body into the environment or dissipated by body areas of high circulation and heat transfer (such as the limbs) can promote user comfort (Starner and Maguire, 1998).

Currently, almost all electronic circuitry is constructed on some sort of printed circuit board (PCB), made up of Figure 2: Common Areas of Garment layers of impermeable resin. The body, Padding or Stiffening however, continually produces moisture which is often used as a means of 5.2 Thermal and Moisture Management conductive heat transfer. Placing an impermeable, heat producing device over Clothing comfort is closely related to the body surface can both prevent the transport or conservation of heat and evaporative heat loss and add to the trapped moisture throughout the garment system. heat. Additionally, as trapped moisture Computing and electronic components are builds up, it may pose a threat to the device all resistive to some degree. In a resistive itself—excess moisture may create a short device, a portion of the electrical current is circuit or corrode interconnections. lost as radiant heat. Thus, electronic components produce heat, some more than 5.3 Flexibility/Durability others. This heat can be damaging to the computer system and heat dissipation is Standard solid PCBs are often difficult to often a priority in system design. integrate into clothing or body-mounted Microprocessors and other complex chips forms because of their inability to conform must be cooled in order to prevent (statically or dynamically) to the contours of malfunction of their fine circuitry. This is the body. Flexible PCBs are available with usually accomplished using a heat sink or a optimal bend radii of 1-2 millimeters. fan. However, the flexibility of a populated board is dependent on the layout of its Excess heat can also be a problem in a components. Boards are only flexible garment system. In cooler environments, the outside of the regions populated with user may not experience discomfort from the components. Aggressive flexion or torsion heat generated by the device. The user’s in a populated region will weaken electrical body itself can then operate as a heat sink to connections and could cause components to absorb excess heat. However, in warmer be ripped free of the circuit board. environments both the user’s body heat and the device’s heat must be removed or Flexibility and durability are trade- diffused. Depending on the external offs in wearable electronic design. In temperature, this task can be difficult. It is general, more flexible circuitry is less important for the apparel designer to take durable, and vice versa. However, it is not into account the specific areas of a device necessarily the individual components that which may produce heat. The smaller the are the issue—fine-gauge wires and area over which electronic components are conductive fibers used for connectors are distributed, the smaller the area over which very flexible and durable, for example . More their heat is initially distributed. Recent often the interconnections between elements Article Designation: Refereed 5 JTATM Volume 4, Issue 3,Spring 2005 pose durability problems. Weak points such range from no physical interface at all as pin connections and solder joints must be (automatic or sensor-driven interface), to a strain-relieved to promote durability, and complex keyboard/mouse based interface. this strain-relief is often not flexible. The issue of user interfaces in wearable systems is a heavily researched area (for In order to create flexible PCBs for many example s, see ISWC, 1997-2004). garment integrated wearable electronics the Interfaces must be useable while mobile, in component layout must be designed with a variety of environments, and often while components clustered in areas that can be involved with other tasks. From the garment stabilized against bend and torsion perspective, they must be accessible, Stabilized areas can then be connected comfortable to operate (ergonomic), and not together by unpopulated (and thus still create mobility or comfort restrictions. flexible) boards. Alternately, the design may While these issues are complex in the be segmented with components distributed physical domain (issues of ergonomics, over many small inflexible PCBs joined wearability, comfort, and ease of access), together with ribbon-like flexible there are still more issues in the cognitive interconnections. domain. The structure of an interface has a significant impact on the user’s ability to 5.4 Sizing and Fit successfully accomplish tasks and attend to other input. Multiple concerns related to issues of sizing and fit are introduced when technology is 6 Introducing the Information Flow incorporated into a garment. As previously discussed, wearable technology often Computing and communication incorporates bulky or solid areas, which technology introduces a new modality to must be situated at specific locations on the apparel functionality: managing the flow of body in order to preserve comfort, mobility, information. In the wearable sector of and wearability. In some cases, device ubiquitous computing, the potential for functionality is dependant on components almost limitless informational functionality being located in very specific body areas in is introduced into the body space. However, order to operate as designed, such as sensors in such a system the management of or actuators. demands on the user’s attention and cognitive processes is essential. Imagine a Most current wearable technology wearable system with the ability to provide research involves the production and testing the user with unlimited and uninterrupted of a very limited number of research access to the world’s knowledge base. The prototypes. Consequently anthropometric utility of such a system is obvious, but how variation in the subject pool is generally would the system function? Requiring the small, and issues of sizing and fit are not user to actively query the system for addressed. Similarly, anthropometric information drastically reduces the potential differences between the sexes have rarely utility. The system then would be limited by been addressed: for instance, the male upper the user’s cognitive capacity for active chest is a planar surface that is appropriate queries. At times the user may have need for for distribution of rigid objects. Rigid information but lack the time or ability to objects placed in the same location on the query the system. Should the system then be female chest would not be comfortable. designed to actively provide information based on, for instance, conversational cues, 5.5 Interface the situation becomes reversed: one can imagine the user inundated with The user interface of a standard information, only a portion of which would garment is usually limited to closures, actually be useful. adjustment points, and/or pockets. In an intelligent garment, the user interface can Article Designation: Refereed 6 JTATM Volume 4, Issue 3,Spring 2005 Since wearable technology is ever- (or not) within a device based on the context present and part of the user’s immediate model. body space, it has the potential to make far more obtrusive demands on the user’s attention than ambient or environment-based technology (like desktop computers or smart Aware Processor appliances). Wearable technology is more Output pervasively present in many more Sensors environments and situations than stationary technology. It also enters into social interactions to a much higher degree than Data Decision Change peripheral technologies: this is commonly experienced when a portable telephone Figure 3: Context Awareness rings, interrupting a face-to-face conversation. The first step, sensing, can take many forms. From direct sensors that detect 6.1 Cognitive Ergonomics simple changes such as light levels, temperature, or presence of a specific As the functional possibilities of chemical to less direct sensors that detect wearable technology expand, the designers more complex changes such as microphones of such technologies must come to or cameras. Any given contextual cue may understand cognitive patterns and design the be detectable using several different information flow around these needs. This methods : for instance, location can be field of study is known as Cognitive established using global positioning systems Ergonomics. The scope of the field is large, (GPS), infra-red detection, radio-frequency covering issues such as problem-solving (RF) tags, or simply with a password- strategies, attentional abilities, social protected door. Depending on the negotiations, and trust or mistrust patterns. complexity of the contextual element and on In the same way that physical ergonomic the directness of information gathered by the principles guide the design of successful sensor, the signal processing may be quite physical structures, cognitive ergonomic minimal or very elaborate. Data from a principles guide the structure of the switch may require very minimal information flow (Long and Whitefield, processing, where determination of 1989). conversational patterns from a microphone or face recognition using a camera are far 6.2 Context Awareness more complex processes. Once the cue is extracted from the sensor, it may need to be In order to reduce the user’s cognitive incorporated with other sensor data into a conceptual model of the user’s context. For load and tailor the information flow, wearable technology can make use of sensor example, a light sensor in a wearable system input. Many different types of sensors can can be used to detect the ambient light levels be used to build a concept of the user’s of the user’s environment. However, that context: their physical location, social data alone may not be sufficient to situation, and cognitive/emotional needs. distinguish between a dark outdoor space There are three steps to context awareness, where light is required and a dark indoor as illustrated in Figure 3. First, information space (such as a movie theatre) where light about the user’s specific context must be is not desirable . Temperature, sound, collected via discreet sensors or sensor location, and movement data could inform a networks. Second, that raw data must be more accurate and detailed model. processed, and synthesized into a conceptual model of context on which a decision is Once the contextual model is based. Third, some action must be initiated generated, it can be used to inform the operation of a system through various types

Article Designation: Refereed 7 JTATM Volume 4, Issue 3,Spring 2005 of actuators. These range from those which products, such products are few and far- control information flow (alerting the user to between. Besides the problem of effective new information at a time when it is product design, there are also many convenient to attend to it) to those which difficulties in physically integrating control the physical environment (altering electronic components into textile structures. the garment’s temperature, color, structure, To minimize these difficulties, a common or function). approach in commercial garment-integrated devices has been to maintain (to the extent 6.3 Sensing the Body possible) the integrity of both garment and device by incorporating the device in to a One of the most compelling needs for special pocket in the garment. However, this wearable technology is in the continuous approach centralizes the device’s bulk and monitoring of the human body, be that for weight, adds unnecessary volume and medical monitoring or to inform the stiffness, and necessitates the incorporation operation of a context-aware computerized of the entire device into one garment. If the application. While many technologies that device is broken down into its component are often made wearable (such as music functions (sensing, input, output, processing, players or telephones) function nearly as power, etc), then it becomes possible to well (or sometimes better) as portable incorporate only the necessary components devices, almost all continuous body-sensing into each garment structure. The sensors, for technologies must be worn to be effective. instance, can be placed in an undergarment, However, because of their ubiquitous, or an input/output device in an outer layer. constant-wear nature, such technologies Processing and data storage can be left in a must prioritize the effects of the technology portable device that can then be used in on the user’s physical comfort as well as many situations or with different garments. social comfort. Traditional sensing Integration of only garment-appropriate technologies are rarely designed for technology reduces the physical presence of continuous, on-body use: those that require wearable technology but also minimizes the skin contact are generally designed to be added cost to a garment, making it much used in a hospital or doctor’s office, and more accessible to the consumer. those that do not are generally designed for use in stationary devices. Consequently, the Distributed integration, while often achievement of certain design goals for optimal for wearability and added cost, existing sensors (such as durability) is presents significant production challenges. ultimately detrimental to the user’s comfort The stability and durability of electronic when applied to the wearable environment. components, as previously discussed, is For example, durability often equals compromised by integration into a flexible stiffness, which results in a solid device that substrate. And unlike pocket-based can cause discomfort by localizing pressure. integration techniques which preserve the Textile -based sensors offer a compromise integrity of garment and device, the solution to this problem, by retaining the manufacturing processes of textile, garment, tactile characteristics associated with and device must be much more closely comfort and wearability. Many textile -based integrated. Figure 4 outlines an example of sensors are actually sensing materials used an integrated production scenario, where the to coat a textile or sensing materials formed product moves between apparel/textile and into fibres and woven or knitted into a electronic processes. textile structure (DeRossi et al., 2003).

7 Challenges of Manufacture

Although wearable technology has recently emerged on several occasions from academia into commercially-available Article Designation: Refereed 8 JTATM Volume 4, Issue 3,Spring 2005 Textile production: Integr ation of microchips user a tone only when the knee is in a good incorporate conductive and other electronics landing position. pathways components

This type of simple device requires Textile production: laminate/protect much less commercial development than a electronics garment-integrated cell-phone. The Apparel production: component pieces are much less expensive, garment pieces cut from and much less numerous, yet the benefit to textile the wearer is clear. Conductors joined across Apparel production: seams 8 A Case Study: Activity monitoring garment fabricated using soft sensors

Displays and peripherals Monitoring of a user’s basic level of integrated into garment physical activity is often of use in context awareness. Such information can be useful Figure 4: Example Distributed in determining whether a user is walking, Technology Productio n Process standing, or running, where the user is pointing or looking, or how long a user’s The integration of the production body has been in one position. processes of electronics and apparel may be assisted by cutting-edge apparel production As previously discussed, monitoring methodologies. Digital textile printing the body often imposes a certain level of technology and CAD patterning software, discomfort on the user. In particula r, many for instance, may assist in the layout, mechanisms for recording motion or attachment, and interconnection of position are intrusive, constrictive, or bulky, conductive pathways in a cut-and-sewn and can require skin-tight garments or skin- garment. adhered elements. However, these same cues can be monitored using textile - and Many recent commercial forays into garment-based solutions. wearable technology have involved products of considerable computational complexity As the body moves within a (for examples, see Adidas, 2004 and garment, dynamic forces are generated Infineon, 2002). Products of this level of between the body and the garment. complexity require significant development Equipping the fabric of the garment to and production costs. Consequently, the respond to these forces can make it possible product price increases. Simpler devices to gather data directly from the garment rarely hit the market, perhaps because without altering its tactile and visual companies wish to present a more properties, or requiring the user to don new “impressive” offering. But simple garments or wearable devices. In this way, electronics can often provide considerable the user’s body movement can be deduced increase in functionality at little cost. The from the movement of his/her garments. knee sleeve developed by Munro et al One method for accomplishing this task is to (2004) uses a textile -based elongation sensor coat a textile or foam with a conducting to sense the angle of the knee joint. Rather polymer, such as polypyrrole. The polymer than use extensive technology to alter that coating has little effect on the substrate’s angle, the device simply provides the user hand, flexibility, or elasticity, and the with direct feedback about the joint’s coating is durable and resistant to movement. For instance, the sensor can laundering. When stretched, bent, integrated into an analog circuit containing compressed, or deformed, the coated only a few components that outputs an structure becomes more conductive, and that audible tone that varies as the knee bends. change can be electronically monitored Slightly more complex circuitry gives the (Brady, Diamond, and Lau, 2005). Through Article Designation: Refereed 9 JTATM Volume 4, Issue 3,Spring 2005 selective coating of specific garment areas, and needs only to be adapted to the apparel forces created by joint movement, external environment. pressure (sitting, leaning, lying or standing, carrying a bag, etc), or even physiological 10 Acknowledgements functions such as breathing can be monitored (Dunne, Brady, Diamond, and This material is based on works supported Smyth, 2005a). Combinations of sensors can partly by the College of Human Ecology at be used to detect complex information such Cornell University and partly by Science as joint angle (Dunne et al., 2005b). Foundation Ireland under Grant No. 03/IN.3/I361. The advantage to embedding sensing Thanks also to Susan Watkins for invaluable intelligence into the garment itself is that the assistance in the development of this work. sensor and the technology become minimally invasive for the user. There are References no separate devices and no tactile discomfort for the user: from the user’s perspective, the Adidas (2004) Adidas introduces the 1, garment remains the same. Returning to the the most advanced shoe ever made. issues discussed in section 5, it is clear how Press release, available at such a textile -based sensing device could aid http://www.adidas-salomon.com/en/ in problems of thermal and moisture bizmedia/toolkits/one/adidas_1-english management, as well as stiffness, by .doc retaining a soft, breathable textile structure. Barfield, W., Mann, S., Baird, K., 9 Conclusion Gemperle, F., Kasabach, C., Stivoric, J., et al. (2001). Computational The perspective and knowledge base Clothing and Accessories. In W. of apparel design is crucial to the design of Barfield & T. Caudell (Eds.), successful wearable technology. However, Fundamentals of Wearable Computers just as the technology designer’s perspective and Augmented Reality. Mahwah, NJ: is incomplete with respect to apparel, so is Lawrence Earlbaum Associates. the apparel designer’s perspective with respect to technology. While collaboration Bodine, K., and Gemperle, F. (2003) removes the need for one person to be an Effects of functionality on perceived expert in all of the fields that influence comfort of wearables. Proceedings of successful design in this arena, it is very the 7th International Symposium on helpful in facilitating collaboration if all Wearable Computers, Washington, team members have some working DC. knowledge of all the variables involved; both of textiles and user needs and of Braddock, S.E., and O’Mahony, M. technology capabilities and functions. (1999) Techno Textiles: Revolutionary Fabrics for Fashion and Design. As a developing field, the inter- London: Thames and Husdson. disciplinary components that make up wearable technology are still relatively Brady, S., Diamond, D., and Lau, K. isolated from each other. Dialogue is crucial, (2005) Inherently conducting polymer between apparel and technology designers modified polyurethane smart foam for and especially between apparel and pressure sensing. Journal of Sensors technology producers, to identify and and Actuators A. In Press. resolve the problem areas. The potential of technology to expand the functionality of De Rossi, D., Carpi, F., Lorussi, F., apparel is immense, and by no means a Mazzoldi, A., Paradiso, R., Scilingo. futuristic possibility. The technology exists, E.P., and Tognetti, A.(2003) Electroactive fabrics and wearable Article Designation: Refereed 10 JTATM Volume 4, Issue 3,Spring 2005 biomonitoring devices. AUTEX the skin. In W. Barfield & T. Caudell Research Journal, 3(4). (Eds.), Fundamentals of Wearable Computers and Augmented Reality. Dunne, L., Ashdown, S., and McDonald, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum E. (2002). Smart systems: wearable Associates. integration of intelligent technology. Proceedings of the First Conference of Infineon (2002) Wearable electronics. the International Centre for Excellence Corporate publication, available at in Wearable Electronics and Smart http://www.infineon.com/cgi/ecrm Fashion Products. Cottbus, Germany. .dll/jsp/showfrontend.do?lang=EN& channel_oid=-11511 Dunne, L., Toney, A., Ashdown, S., and Thomas, B. (2004) Subtle integration of technology: a case study of the ISWC (1997-2004). Proceedings of the business suit. Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Wearable International Forum on Applied Computers. IEEE CS Press, Los Wearable Computing. Bremen, Alamitos, CA. Germany. Long, J. and Whitefield, A. (1989) Dunne, L., Brady, S., Diamond, D., and Cognitive Ergonomics and Human- Smyth, B. (2005a) Initial development Computer Interaction. New York, NY: and testing of a novel foam-based Cambridge University Press. pressure sensor for wearable sensing. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Munro, B.J., Steele , J.R., Campbell, Rehabilitation. 2(4). T.E., Wallace, G.G. (2004) Wearable textile biofeedback systems: are they Dunne, L., Tynan, R., O’Hare, G.P.M., too intelligent for the wearer? Studies Smyth, B., Brady, S., and Diamond, D. in Health Technology and Informatics. (2005b) Coarse sensing of upper arm 108, pp. 271-277. position using body-garment interactions. Proceedings of the 2nd Starner, T., and Maguire, Y. (1999). International Forum on Applied Heat dissipation in wearable Wearable Computing. Zurich, computers aided by thermal coupling Switzerland with the user. Mobile Netwo rks and Applications, 4, pp. 3-13. Gemperle, F., Kasabach, C., Stivoric, J., Bauer, M., & Martin, R. (1998). Design Watkins, S. M. (1995). Clothing: The for wearability. Proceedings of the 2nd Portable Environment. Ames, Iowa: International Symposium on Wearable Iowa State University Press. Computers, Pittsburgh, PA. Weiser, M. (1991). 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