Intelligent textiles reduce the risk of falling for the elderly

By Zhao Xinhua

Drowning is a serious risk to children.If the child is wearing a smart anti—drowning device,the device can automatically detect if the wearer is in danger of drowning and send an alert to the guardian's mobile phone.In daily life and sports,the application of wearable electronic devices in underwater can effectively detect or analyze the underwater activity characteristics of wearers.For example,athletes can monitor their electrophysiological information changes in real time when train—ing in rain or water.

"According to the data,your physical strength is to the limit,please adjust your exercise status as soon as possible!" A wearable health moni—toring system,which can be used to detect wrist pulse and respiration,can also monitor human posture,such as: running,walking,jumping,sitting,climbing stairs,falling,etc.In addition,it can also predict the accuracy and coordination of body posture,with a total accuracy of 92.7%.It has a certain application prospect in the tracking of body coordination in sports.

Electrically conductive textiles make it possible to produce inter—active electronic textiles.There are many applications for conductive textiles.They can be used for communication and antennas,entertain—ment,healthcare,safety,homeland security,computation,thermal purposes,protective clothing,wearable electronics,and fashion.

Conductive polymers can be prepared by chemical or electro—chemical oxidation polymerization or by chemical catalytic synthesis.Conductive polymers can be used in electrically conductive smart tex—tiles including fibers,yarns,fabrics,and textile goods.The conductive fibers obtained through special treatments such as mixing,blending,or coating are known as conductive polymer composites (CPCs),and can have a combination of the electrical and mechanical properties of the treated materials.

Conventional polymer fibers may be coated with a conductive lay—er such as PPy,copper,or gold.PPy—based composites may overcome the deficiency in the mechanical properties of PPy,without adversely affecting the excellent physical properties of the substrate material,such as its mechanical strength and flexibility.The resulting products combine the usefulness of a textile substrate with electrical properties that are similar to metals or semiconductors.Nanoparticles such ascarbon nanotubes can be added to the matrix to achieve conductivity.Polymeric fibers containing conductive carbon are produced with sev—eral methods such as loading the whole fibers with a high concentra—tion of carbon,incorporating the carbon into the core of a sheath-core bicomponent fiber,incorporating the carbon into one component of a side-side or modified side-side bicomponent fiber,and suffusing the carbon into the surface of a fiber.

Conductive fibers/yarns can be produced in filament or staple lengths and can be spun with traditional nonconductive fibers to create yarns that possess varying wearable electronics and photonics degrees of conductivity.Through processes such as electrodeless plating,evapora—tive deposition,sputtering,coating with a conductive polymer,filling or loading fibers,and carbonizing,a conductive coating can be applied to the surface of fibers,yarns,or fabrics.Printing of circuit patterns is carried out on polymeric substrates such as films and fabrics using conductive inks.Textiles coated with a conductive polymer,such as PAn and PPy,are more conductive than metal and have good adhesion,but are difficult to pro—cess using conventional methods.

The application of conductive smart textile in combination with electronic devices is very widespread.In location and positioning,they can be used for child monitoring,geriatric monitoring,inte—grated GPS (global positioning system) monitoring,asset tracking,etc.In infotainment,they can be used for integrated compact disc players,cell phones,electronic game panels,digital cameras,video devices,etc.In health and biophysical monitoring,they can be used for cardiovascular monitoring,monitoring the vital signs of infants,monitoring clinical trials,health and fitness,home healthcare,hospitals,medical centers,assisted—living units,etc.They can be used for soldiers and their personal support in the battlefield,space programs,protective textiles and public safety (firefighting,law enforcement),automotive,exposure—indicating textiles,etc.They can also be used to show the environmental response such as color change,density change,heating change,etc.Fashion,gam—ing,residential interior design,commercial interior design,and retail sites are other applications of conductive smart textiles.