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Macey,
M. 2002, 'Smart outfit has everything sewn up', The Sydney Morning
Herald, 20 Feb 2002.
Smart
outfit has everything sewn up
Safety ... intelligent knee sleeve could stop sports
injuries.
By
Richard Macey
Australian
scientists are working on developing so-called intelligent clothes
that could adapt to changing weather conditions, protect against
injuries and even stop us losing personal items.
They say their research will lead to the creation of clothing with
mobile phones, CD players and computers woven into the fabric.
Similar technology would also allow clothing to react to the elements,
keeping the wearer cool, warm or dry when necessary.
Barry
Holcombe, a principal research scientist with the CSIRO's Textile
and Fibre Technology Division, explained that electronic sensors
would command the fabric's fibres to change shape, protecting the
wearer from the heat, cold or rain.
Dr Holcombe said the technology, being pioneered with the Intelligent
Polymers Research Unit at Wollongong University, had been made possible
by the invention of something that seemed impossible two decades
ago - plastic fibres that conduct electricity.
"Plastic conductive polymers are a relatively new invention.
They are not yet as good as metal conductors but they are getting
better," he said.
Plastic conductors were so much more flexible than metal wires they
could be woven into fabric, allowing people to wear their mobile
phones, rather than carry them.
"The conductive yarn would look like part of the textile ...
completely indistinguishable from rest of your clothing," said
Dr Holcombe. "You would have to strip off to lose your mobile
phone."
During cold snaps, weather sensors woven from plastic conductors
would order clothing fibres to swell, trapping body heat, while
in hot weather they would push the fibres apart.
"It is already chemically possible to switch on and off water
repellents," said Dr Holcombe, who admitted that while such
clothes would not be draped over catwalk models in Paris and London
this year, he believed "they will be available in 15 to 20
years".
In a step towards their creation, the CSIRO and Wollongong University
scientists have already developed a knee-pressure sleeve coated
with conductive polymers that can teach athletes, from footballers
to winter Olympians, how to land safely after a jump.
Sensors detect the angle at which the knee is bent. When the best
angle is reached the sleeve beeps.
Suits with plastic sensors could help golfers: "When everything
is in the right position to hit the ball - limbs, wrists, neck and
head - there would be an audible tone.
"It doesn't take much to think up 100 possible applications,"
said Dr Holcombe, who believed manufacturing such textiles would
rejuvenate Australia's clothing industry. "Not a lot of work
is being done in this area ... we are at the forefront."
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