Smart clothing are getting more and more popular since everyone has to wear clothes everyday, otherwise you might get caught for indecent exposure. In this case, putting smart techniques into the clothing is the best way for people to carry and use them, especially for elderly people since the chance of their losing devices are much higher than the youngsters. And also, since clothes is the only thing that can cover up all your body, it can achieve the protecting goal more thoroughly. Nowadays, companies are putting more and more efforts into developing these new products. There are many smart clothing products on the Internet which are already on sale and the prices are reasonable. Although they are more expensive than the normal clothing, they require much more functions other than covering your body.
Recently, more and more companies focus on the development of the smart clothing. Most of them are for fitting and exercising purposes, while others are for convenience or especially made for the elderly people. Some well known companies had already put their smart clothing on sale. For instance, Lumo Run can reduce your chance of getting injured via collecting datas. What’s more, the battery of the sensor need only one time charge a month. Hexoskin Smart can monitor your heart rate, breathing and movement. It also fits with a bluetooth smart sensor, and you can place your favorite apps into it. OMsignal Bra records your running distance, heart rate, breathing rate and can tell you whether you are ready enough to go back to the gym. Moreover, it fits every sizes of cups since every thread of it can be adjusted. Sensoria running socks can help users run with better form and can thus reduces the chance of injury. However, not only people who exercise need those smart clothing, babies need them as well. Owlet Smart socks can connect to your cellphone and send you datas of the baby’s heart rate and breathing rate. In this case, you can keep track of your baby’s health conditions. Neopenda Smart Baby Hat can also help record the temperature of babies and send those datas to the chart, where nurses and doctors can know all babies’ conditions through a glance of the chart. Those who don’t like to pay by cash might need the smart clothing, too. Lyle & Scott Contactless Jacket can make their dream come true. You might hear some saying “May I pay by cuff?” That is how this smart clothing work. You can pay by simply putting your sleeves on the inductor. For elderlies, UK universities have figured out a material which is thin and light and can absorb energy. With these features, elderlies won’t get hurt when falling down since the smart clothing help absorb the energy. Some smart clothing are designed for the disables. For example, they replace the buttons with magnets. In this way, the clothing is much more easily to be put on. It can also let the clothing stay clear of the wheel chair. There are also smart gloves which can let you operate your cellphone screen without taking off the gloves. Georgia Tech developed a smart clothing which can detect bullet wounds and can be used in the military services. There are even smart clothing that can tell you how your pets feel. Smart clothing are now designed for all kinds of peopled even animals.
Since the ratio of the elderlies are getting higher and higher, developing the smart clothing for the elderlies are becoming more and more important. Those clothing can not only help make their life easier and can also make the work of taking care of them more convenient. Some of them are already available on the Internet. Most of them features the convenience of machine washable even with the magnets replacing buttons or with batteries inside the fabric. A British manufacturer, Philips, develops a smart clothing whose fabric is mixed with a removable 9V batteries and is washable without causing any damage to the batteries. And almost every smart clothing for elderlies are extremely elastic so that they can be comfortable. Some of them contain sensors and can precisely measure the heart rate, breathing rate, blood oxygen rate……etc. And the sensors will send the datas to a screen so that one can keep track of the condition of the elderlies. Since some of the elderlies can’t move freely on their own and have to sit on a wheel chair. So some companies also aim to make clothing that can easily put on without standing up. Georgia Tech also develops smart clothing that can monitor the diseases. I consider those features to be useful. With these features, the elderlies can have a more convenient life, and so do their nurses.
One of the hottest group which is working on the project is a group from the UK universities. Daniel Plan from Imperial College London and other group members invented a material known as Armourgel, which can help prevent elderlies from fractioning their hips while falling down. The material is not only light, thin but can also absorb the energy while strong forces hit it. It is four times thinner and much more flexible than the motorcycling gear. In this case, it can easily fit in any garments. The work in the lab is going on pretty well. However, to let the product go into the market from the lab is really challenging. Although they receive an amount of scheme to help develop the smart clothing, the price is still way too high to let ordinary people to afford it. Philips also develops a smart clothing which contains a GPS inside it, so that you can know where the elderlies are if they got lost. In my opinion, these features are extremely important since they matters about the safety and security of the elderlies. The invention of the material is pretty significant because there are already many materials which can prevent injuries for a long time, but all of them are all too heavy and thick. They can indeed reduce the chance of getting injured, but are not the ideal things to be worn all day.
As for me, I think that there are still some other ideas that can be adopted in the concepts of developing smart clothing. First of all, for the convenience and comfort aspect, I think the clothing should be able to adjust its thickness when the temperature changes, and can suck the air into the space between the layer of the garments whenever the temperature is too low, so that it can defeat the cold. And the sleeves should stay where they are after one strolls them up. In this case, it won’t fall down while you are doing works. As for socks, they should be able to adjust its shape according to the shape of your feet. Some elderlies might have problem of cutting its own toenails due the the poor eyesights. If the socks can adjust its shape according to the nails which are too long, it can reduce a lot of pain. Also, the gloves must have the ability of self cleaning. It is not that convenient for the elderlies to wash their gloves often, so the self cleaning gloves can bring them convenience. The clothing must also be anti-UV. Thus, it can protect the elderlies from the sun burn. And for the safety aspect, I think that the material of preventing fraction is pretty important. However, another common problem that happens on the elderlies is spraining the waist or back. Thus, the smart clothing should contain some materials which can fix your waist and back in the proper position. And the smart shoes should be able to adjust its shape according to the owner’s walking habit and analyze the best shape to reduce the chance of getting injured. And the closing should contain a small calling device which can call out whenever the wearer needs help. However, all the battery-needed-devices or sensors must be waterproof or must still be safe after exposing to water. As for the fashion aspect, I consider that the clothing should also look fashionable ad stylish. Some elderlies may feel shame to go outside since they are no longer that beautiful when they get old. Stylish clothing can somehow encourage them to go out. And also, the smart clothing should have the ability to sense the disadvantage of the wearer’s figure and adjust its shape to make the wearer “looks” better. I also think that the clothing should contain the massage service. Elderlies often feel back sore, arm sore…..etc, so the massage service becomes important since it can help reduce their pain and illness. Inside the clothing, there should also be a tiny radio. Elderlies feel boring easily, and can then lead to dozing off all day. A tiny radio can easily solve this problem. It can not only prevent them from feeling boring, but also dementia. What’s more, a strong water absorbing material is essential for making the underpants. Some elderlies have the problem of urinery Incontinence, so they will need underpants which can rapidly absorb the liquid and can also prevent the pants from getting wet. And the clothing should not be sticky after the wearer sweats. That would cause them feel uncomfortable. And a reminder is also needed. The nurses can input some schedule into the reminder and the reminder can remind the elderlies of when to take medicine or exercise. Automatically paying sleeves are also required. With this function, the elderlies won’t have to worry about accidentally losing money. These are my ideas toward the smart clothing. Although some of them are still not accessible currently.
The development of the smart clothing are now quite popular, however, there are still some hurdles that need to be overcame. For instance, the price is the biggest problem. Many inventions exists only in the laboratories since they are way too expensive to offer to the people around the world. Some are not that expensive, but can’t be quickly produced in a short time. That is, producing them cost lots of time. In this case, even though people can afford them, there are no many of them in the market for people to purchase. Another big problem is that the technology is not advance enough. There are still many material and chemical properties that we haven’t discovered yet. To solve these problems, experts of different subjects need to work together. A making of a smart clothing requires the efforts and knowledges of different experts. The aim is to make the smart clothing cheap, affordable and wearable. And after we overcome these hurdles, we still have to persuade the elderlies to adapt these new inventions since they might not trust them or refuse to wear them. In order to solve this problem, advertisements are required. We have to let the people around the world know the products first, and then build trusts between the products and the elderlies. What’s more, they have to be easy to learn to use. Elderlies are not that used to 3C devices, and they can’t learn to use them that quickly. The most ideal product is that it can be controlled by “mind” so that the elderlies don’t have to learn to use them. They simply have to think about what they want the devices or sensors to do. Moreover, eco-friendly is also a goal to achieve. We can’t damage the environment only to make some smart clothing. However, eco-friendly materials often cost more. Whether the eco-friendly materials can meanwhile be affordable is unknown. And the last thing is that the sensors and devices require electromagnetic waves. Some researches suggest that those waves are a kind of disturbance to our brain. In this case, wave breakers are needed as well.
Although there are still a lot of improvements to be done on the development of the smart clothing, it is surely going to bring people, especially the elderlies, conveniences and safety.
Reference:
http://ldt.stanford.edu/~jeepark/jeepark+portfolio/cs147hw8jeepark.html
