NWC @ CES: Best Dressed Companies Wearing 'Smart Fabrics'

Originally Published on TechWeb News

Several companies have separately developed thin conductive materials that manufacturers can sew into shirts, pants, jackets, and other consumer products to house electronic controls for devices. The materials and garments are being showcased at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

Elam EL Industries Ltd. and Eleksen Ltd. are two companies that have separately developed thin conductive materials that manufacturers can sew into shirts, pants, jackets, and other consumer products from hiking equipment to camping gear. The products are dry-cleanable and machine-washable. Geared toward both the consumer and the industrial markets, the idea is to integrate technology into apparel. Everything from light sources to electronic controls for devices such as bar-code scanners, computers, walkie-talkies, cellular phones, MP3 players and other mobile devices is available.

"The real challenge is educating consumer and industrial markets about smart fabrics," said John Collins, vice president of marketing and business development at Eleksen, which initially focused on the consumer market.

Industrial applications are on Eleksen's roadmap. It is working with a U.S. manufacturer for industrial products to integrate handheld-device capabilities into wearable applications where the keypad is embedded into a shirt or a glove.Research firm Venture Development Corp. (VDC) forecasts the global wearable electronics market will reach $535 million in 2007, up from $360 million last year. The estimates include general-purpose computing and communications wearable systems, such as finger-worn bar code or radio frequency identification (RFID) scanners and other warehouse applications, as well as the biophysical wearable market for monitoring devices, such as shirts and armbands to measure heart rate, blood pressure, and sleep state.

And although VDC is reluctant to forecast the infotainment-wearable market, such as conductive fabrics for Apple Computer Inc.'s iPods and Bluetooth headsets, Eleksen in 2005 sold more than 80,000 sensors for wearable apparel and sporting goods that manufacturers embedded into jackets and backpacks. Some sensors were sold to Kenp Inc. and sewn into the Kenpo Jacket for iPod that were sold through Macy's, Dillard's, and CompUSA during the 2005 holiday season.

Eleksen smart touchpad fabric is based on a sensor that is .5 millimeter thick that apparel and sporting goods manufactures Spyder Active Sports Inc., O'Neill Inc. and Kenpo Inc. have embedded into jackets, backpacks and other garments. Two layers separate five-layer laminate conductive fabric that controls an electronic device, such as the iPod.

Pressure buttons on the sleeve of the jacket, for example, provide on/off and volume control to the iPod in the wearer's pocket. The technology works very similarly to touch screen technology with the exception that it is 100-percent fabric, Collins said. There are no wires or transistor in the sensor.

Elam EL Industries Ltd.'s electroluminescent fibers and flexible linear lighting, meanwhile, is created with semiconductor fabrication technology. The 360-degree light source, called LyTec, is the first washable light source designed for apparel, according to Amanda Levine, Elam marketing manager. "It can withstand 25 regular wash cycles," she said. "It's not for everyday apparel like underwear, for example, but rather safety vests for warehouse workers or hats, sneakers, and backpacks."L.L. Bean in July introduced the Original Book Pack with sewn-in LyTec wires in its fall 2005 catalog. The idea behind the product, Levine said, was to keep kids visible to motorists especially at night. The linear strands come in five thicknesses from 1.2 millimeter to 5 millimeter. The strands are cool to the touch and available in red, blue, green and more.

Both Elan's Levine and Eleksen's Collins are that confident electronic textiles will catch on. Collins said "This technology has the potential to remap the way people view wearable electronic fabric and even remake manufacturers."