Smart textiles are materials and structures that can sense and react to environmental stimuli. They include self-cleaning carpets, memory fabrics, and fabrics that regulate temperature. Smart textiles can be divided into passive materials that only sense stimuli, active materials that can both sense and respond, and very smart materials that can sense, respond, and adapt. They use materials like conductive fibers, shape memory alloys, and microencapsulated phase change materials. Applications include sportswear that regulates temperature, medical clothing that monitors vital signs, military uniforms that detect hazards, and fashionable apparel that changes color or plays music. The future of smart textiles may include clothing that emits scents, becomes rigid to immobilize injuries,

1. Smart Textiles
The future of fibres & fabrics
Granch Berhe
2015

2.  Smart/interactive textiles (SIT) are materials and
structures that sense and react to environmental
conditions or stimuli, such as those from
mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, magnetic
or other sources.
♦ SIT are no longer a science-fiction fantasy. For
example, there are in the market self-cleaning
carpets, memory-shaped and environment-
responsive textiles, and anti-insomniac micro-fibers.
1. Introduction1. Introduction
♦ Smart materials appear to “think” and some have
“memory” as they revert back to their original state

3. Processing
Trigger or
Stimuli
Sensing
ActuationResponse
or Action
CONTROLLING
The sensors provide a nerve
system to detect signals
The processor analyzes and
evaluates the signals
The actuators act upon the
detected and evaluated
signal either directly or from
a central control unit

4. 2. Types of smart textiles2. Types of smart textiles
Smart textiles can be divided in to four types based on their functions.
1. Passive smart materials are materials or systems which only sense the
environmental conditions or stimuli.
• They are just sensors. They show up what happened on them, Such as changing
color, shape, thermal and electrical resistivity.
• e.g. a shirt with in-built thermistors to log body temperature over time.

5. 2. Active smart materials: that can both sense and respond to the external
conditions or stimuli.
• If actuators are integrated in the passive smart textile, it becomes an active
smart textile as it may respond to a particular stimulus,
• e.g. the temperature aware shirt may automatically rolls up the sleeves when
body temperature becomes elevated.

6. 3. Very smart materials: are materials and systems which can execute triple
functions; First, they are sensors which can receive stimuli from the
environment; Secondly they are able to give reaction based on the stimuli;
Thirdly they can adapt and reshape themselves accordingly to the
environmental condition.
4. Materials with even higher level of intelligence develop artificial intelligence
to the computers.
• These kinds of materials and systems are not fully achieved in the current
investigation of human beings.
• This may be achieved from the coordination of those Very smart (intelligent)
materials and structures with advanced computer interface.

7. 3. Materials for smart textiles3. Materials for smart textiles
• Metal fibers
• Conductive inks
• Quantum tunneling
composites-change from
insulator to conductor
• Inherently conductive
polymers
• Optical fibers
• Nano particles
• Organic semi-conductors
• Shape memory fabrics
smart materials have appropriate responses
– photochromic glass
• darkens in bright light
– low melting point wax in a fire
sprinkler
• blocks the nozzle until it gets hot
– acoustic emission
• sounds emitted under high stress
– embedded optical fibres
• broken ends reflect light back
– microporous breathable fabrics

8. 4. Relation and difference with
technical textiles
4. Relation and difference with
technical textiles
• Before the existence of smart and interactive textiles, technical and
functional textiles served the human race in all aspects of application areas.
• Tents, ropes, ship guiding fabrics, military garments, curtains, bandages and
others were used in the past many centuries. Still these and other technical
and casual clothing‘s are on use many folds times.
• It is undeniable before the development of smart textile; the functional
textiles were the advanced textiles.
• However whatever they perform they are not active. They are passive. They
are not designed to regulate themselves. No smart material is applied to
them.
• They can be protective cloth but cannot be as the smart protective clothing.

9. • All smart materials involve an energy transfer from the stimuli to response given out
by the material. They are integrated and complex materials.
• They have the ability do some sort of processing, analyzing and responding. Even
they can adapt to the environment. They can be described as textile materials that
think for themselves.
• They got full ability to change themselves depending on — temperature, pressure,
density, or internal energy—will change. The amount of energy transferred to make
this change is determined by the properties of the material. This relationship
between the amount of energy required and the degree of the specific change
governs the behavior of all materials, including smart ones.
• In technical, high performance and conventional textiles materials, the properties
scale the relationship between state change and energy transfer is not a complicated.
It is straight forward.
• If they get energy or any stimuli from the outer environment they do not do any
change on it .They just resist it. Or absorb it.

10. Engineered Textile Materials
HIGH
PERFORMANCE
Comfort
Durability
Protection
Appearance
Retention
Sustainable Resource No Environmental
Harm
Safe Human Use

11. 5. Some applications of smart textiles5. Some applications of smart textiles
Sports and Human Performance
• The sports sector, through seeking to improve athletic performance,
personal comfort and protection from the elements
• e.g. breathable waterproof fabrics such as Goretex® and moisture
management textiles like Coolmax®.
• It is even possible to maintain constant body temperature using phase-
change technology

12. Personalized Healthcare
• The concept of personalized healthcare empowers the individual with the
management and assessment of their own healthcare needs.
• Wearable devices allow physiological signals to be continuously monitored
during normal daily activities. This can overcome the problem of infrequent
clinical visits that can only provide a brief window into the physiological status of
the patient.
• Smart clothing serves an important role in remote monitoring of chronically ill
patients or those undergoing rehabilitation.
• It also promotes the concept of preventative healthcare.

13. Military/security
• In extreme environmental conditions and hazardous situations there is a need
for real time information technology to increase the protection and
survivability of the people working in those conditions
• The requirements for such situations are to monitor vital signs and ease
injuries while also monitoring environment hazards such as toxic gases.
• Wireless communication to a central unit allows medics to conduct remote
triage of casualties to help them respond more rapidly and safely.

14. Fashion/lifestyle
• The development of high-tech advanced textiles for initial high-value
applications such as extreme sports will eventually find its way into street
fashion

15. Biomimetics
Speedo – ‘Fastskin’ – developed through the observation of the
shark and how it swims fast through water. Garment & fabric
technologists worked with Marine biologists to stimulate a sharkskin
fabric and suit structure, together with computer scientists, using
the latest body scanning technology to create a second skin.
Speedo’s Fastskin® swimsuit was developed
using V-shaped fibers which mimic the ridges
found on the skin of a shark
6. New smart textiles6. New smart textiles

16. Biomimetics: Lotus effect
• most efficient self-cleaning plant
= great sacred lotus
(Nelumbo nucifera)
• mimicked in paints and
other surface coatings
• pipe cleaning in oil refineries (Norway)
Images from
 http://library.thinkquest.org/27468/e/lotus.htm
 http://www.villalachouette.de/william/lotusv2.gif
 http://www.nees.uni-bonn.de/lotus/en/vergleich.html

17. Functional
Functional Textiles are designed specifically for an end
purpose with added attributes. Fabrics are now available to;
Help protect exposure to UV radiation for swimmers
Anti allergy, absorbent & antibacterial products used in
medical applications, Fabrics incorporating moisture
management systems – used for speedy evaporation of sweat,
Reflective textiles for safety garment ,Insulation & buoyancy
fabrics for activities in water.

18. Future
Seamlessly manage your music and mobile phone from a control panel, with
backlit digital display, located externally on your sleeve.
One-touch phone control including voice dial, receive and end a call and
mute function via Bluetooth wireless connection between your jacket and
phone
One-touch iPod control, including playlist, artist, album and track navigation,
volume up/down and play/pause/stop via an intuitive click wheel style button
Removable control panel, speakers, mic and rechargeable battery
Compatible with any brand of Bluetooth 1.1 or 1.2-enabled mobile phone
that supports “headset” or “hands-free” Bluetooth profiles
Compatible with any Generation 3 or newer iPod with Docking Connector
(Excluding iPod Shuffle) Burton and Motorola have launched the Burton
Audex line of winter jackets with a hidden network of wired and Bluetooth
connections that let you take mobile calls while listening to an iPod on the
slopes. A sleeve LCD panel features caller ID and track controls.

20. Light emitting
Luminex is a new fabric (non reflective) that can emit its own light.
The Luminex fibres are optical and emit light in darkened situations.

21. Life Saving
DuPont is part of an effort by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) to develop materials to equip the U.S. soldier of the future with
uniforms and gear that help heal, shield and protect them against
chemical and biological warfare Engineers and scientists will work to
develop ideas such as a uniform that is nearly invisible and soft clothing
that can become a rigid cast when a soldier breaks his or her leg.

22. Change colour & shape
Fibres That Can Change Colour and Shape on
Command
Smart fibres can function as conductive "wires" and
react to signals from electricity, heat or pressure.
Researchers are experimenting with different fibre
profiles -- oval, square, or triangular -- that can be
made to contract or expand to loosen and tighten
clothing to make the wearer warmer or cooler.
For example, conductive fibres could change colour on
command from an electric signal that changes the
reflective quality of specially dyed fibre/cloth. Thereby
enhance fashion as well as function.

23. Emitting scents
The dress mimics the body's circulation
system, the senses and scent glands. The
veins and arteries flow freely as the new
interactive fabric emitting a selection of
scents depending on your mood.
The Smart Second Skin Dress – emitting scents depending on your
mood and requirements. A sleep suit has been developed to emit
lavender for insomniacs when they wake to calm the wearer and
send them back to sleep.

24. Waterproof clothing
(material or structure )
• Goretex®
• micro-porous expanded PTFE
discovered in 1969 by Bob Gore
• ~ 14 x 1012
micropores per m².
• each pore is about 700x larger than
a water vapour molecule
• water drop is 20,000x larger than a pore

25. Phase changing Materials for thermoregulation:
• PCM possesses the ability to change their state with a certain temperature
range.
• it is developed under NASA
• Textiles containing phase change materials react immediately with changes in
environmental temperatures, and the temperatures in different areas of the
body.
• When a rise in temperature occurs, the PCM microcapsules react by
absorbing heat and storing this energy in the liquefied phase change
materials.
• When the temperature falls again, the microcapsules release this stored heat
energy and the phase change materials solidify again

26. PCM-microcapsules

27. Shape Memory Materials
• There are two types of Shape memory materials . The first classes are
materials stable at two or more temperature states. In these different
temperature states, they have the potential to assume different shapes,
when their transformation temperatures have been reached. This
technology has been pioneered by the UK Defence Clothing and Textiles
Agency.
• The other types of shape memory materials are the electroactive polymers
which can change shape in response to electrical stimuli. In the last decade
there have been significant developments in electroactive polymers (EAPs)
to produce substantial change in size or shape and force generation for
actuation mechanisms in a wide range of applications.

28. Cont. …Cont. …
• Shape memory materials are alloys, such as nickel-titanium for increased
protection against source of heat. It is in the shape of spring and integrated in
the layers of garment
• Electroactive polymers are polynorborene-based

29. Chromic Materials
• Are those which change their colour reversibly according to external
environmental conditions, for this reason they are also called chameleon fibres
• Chromic materials are the general term referring to materials which radiate the
colour, erase the colour or just change it because its induction caused by the
external stimulus,
• Photochromic: external stimulus is light.
• Thermochromic: external stimulus is heat.
• Electrochromic: external stimulus is electricity.
• Piezorochromic: external stimulus is pressure.
• Solvatechromic: external stimulus is liquid or gas.

30. Pressure response Fabric
D3o is a new innovation
It is a soft malleable material
most of the time, but when it
comes into contact with force, it
hardens on impact
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKQxDoXqc_I
Memory Foam is temperature &
pressure sensitive foam that moulds
to the shape of the body & returns to
normal when pressure is removed.

31. Thermochromic Colour
Thermochromic textiles change
colour with heat. They are
engineered to change colour at a
particular temperature.
There are serious
medical uses as well
as novelty ones, e.g.
liquid crystal fabric
strip thermometers, &
baby sleep-suits to
monitor temperature.

32. Photo chromic dyes
Photo chromic dyes
react to UV light &
change colour. They
can be useful for
monitoring the
amount of time
children spend in the
sun, to prevent
sun-burn.

33. Interactive or Electronic Textiles
An interactive fabric
incorporates
electronics that are
activated by a power
source. They are still
Smart fabrics, they
just require a power
source.

34. WEARABLE ELECTRONICS
• They can be used in wearable
textiles to dial telephones,
pager messages and control
music from MP3 players.
• Examples include a business
suit with a mobile phone
incorporated, a child’s anorak
with a tracking device,
sportswear to monitor heart
rate, aerobic outfits with
music players incorporated,
and club wear which changes
colour etc.

35. Detection of Vital Signals
Sensatex is developing a SmartShirt™
System specifically for the protection of
public safety personnel, namely firefighters,
police officers, and rescue teams. Used in
conjunction with a wireless-enabled radio
system, the SmartShirt™ can monitor the
health and safety of public safety
personnel/victims trapped in a building or
underneath rubble with the ability to detect
the exact location of victims through
positioning capability. In addition to
monitoring vital signs, the system can
detect the extent of falls, and the presence
of hazardous gases; it also offers two-way
voice communication

36. Warning Signaling
A combination of sensors and small flexible light emitting displays
(FLED) can receive and respond to stimuli from the body, enabling a
warning signal to be displayed or sent. The sensors can monitor EKG,
heart rate, respiration, temperature, and pulse oximetry readings. If
vital signals were below critical values, a FLED would automatically
display, for example, a flashing red light, and a wireless
communication system could send a distress signal to a remote
location.

37. Global Positioning System (GPS)
Textiles integrated with sensory
devices driven by a GPS can detect a
user’s exact location anytime and in
any weather. Interactive electronic
textiles with integrated GPS enhance
safety by quickly locating the wearer
and allowing the suit to be heated.
GPS can provide added safety for
firefighters and emergency personnel
by facilitating offsite monitoring of
vitals

38. Wireless, hands-free communication
Fabric area networks (FANs) enable electronic devices to exchange
digital information, power, and control signals within the user’s
personal space and remote locations. FANs use wireless RF
communication links using currents measuring one nanoamp; these
currents can transmit data at speed equivalent to a 2400-baud
modem

39. Micro-encapsulation
Chemicals /
Fragrances are
captured in
microscopic
polymer bubbles
which are added
to natural or
microfibres.
When the fabric is
rubbed or comes into
contact with the skin,
the bubbles slowly
burst to release their
content

40. Nano Technology
• Nano-particles are permanently attached to cotton or synthetic
fibers. The change occurs at the molecular level, and the particles can
be configured to imbue the fabric with various attributes. Nano-
technology combines the performance characteristics associated with
synthetics with the hand and feel of cotton
• Nano-fibers 1/1000 the size of a typical cotton fiber are attached to
the individual fibers. The changes to the fibers are undetectable and
do not affect the natural hand and breathability of the fabric
Nano-fibers attached to
cotton fibers
Nano-fibers cause
liquids to roll off

41. Smart-fabric
• pine-cone model
• adapts to changing
temperatures
by opening when warm or
shutting tight if cold