Smart Fabrics And Wearable Technology

The name electronic textiles or e-textiles also refers to smart fabrics. Some consider smart fabrics the next biggest innovation in wearable technology. These fabrics combine convenience and wearability with high-tech functionality using modern electronics. These textiles may look like standard fabrics but are much more than that. These contain sensors, complex circuitry, and other tech components.

Currently, this technology can feel as far away, just as smartwatches did decades ago. But the truth is that tech-filled fabrics are nothing new. In the 19^th century, early concepts of the technology appeared and one of the first integrated microcontrollers for textiles appeared in the mid-1990s.

1. Gaming

In today’s era, one cannot be sure that what you see is real. The reality can perhaps be changed. In the gaming field, you can witness a completely different aspect of reality with the help of Virtual Reality. Even if you are sitting in your room. You can travel to places more like Middle Earth from Lord of the Rings or maybe visit Narnia or even Westeros from Game of Thrones. Virtual reality headsets are an example of wearable technology that can change your imagination about the world. One of the most popular applications of these headsets is gaming. Many games are compatible with different VR headsets. For example, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, Sony PlayStation VR, etc.

2. Jewelry

Who doesn’t like jewelry? Jewelry is fashionable, fun and also adds a bit extra by complementing your attire. With the introduction of wearable technology, jewelry has several other uses than just looking good. For example, there are smart rings that track and monitor your health record. These rings track and send the record to your smartphone. Oura Ring is one such example of it. It is a smart ring that can track your physical health and monitor your vitals while you are sleeping. Companies like Joule create earring backings that you can pair with any earrings. These track your heart rate, physical activity levels, and calories burned.

3. Health

Health is the topmost priority in anyone’s life. As there is a saying, health is wealth. One must prioritize health over everything as, there is nothing you can do if you are not good health-wise, so it is vital to take care of yourself. However, this might be challenging and easy to forget in the hustle-bustle of life. Fortunately, there are different types of health wearable tech that can help you with it. There are posture aids that can help you maintain the correct posture to prevent back pain. A fine example of this is the Upright Go posture trainer. You can attach the device to your upper back, which will give you gentle vibrations whenever you recline your posture.

4. Security

You might have seen those spy movies where the hero has worn glasses. Those glasses are only actual mini-computers, and can scan the villain providing you all the information. Those glasses might become a reality because of the combination of facial recognition with computer vision and wearable technology. Police officers can make a great use of these glasses. They can wear these glasses and identify the culprits just by matching their image using the facial recognition feature. Do you know what would be way cooler if security cameras were incorporated with these smart glasses using IoT so that police officers could immediately identify any suspects around them? The Netherlands is already using these smart glasses called Vuzix Blade Smart Glasses. The national police has really been successful and satisfied with its application.

5. Fitness

A famous application of Wearable Technology has been in the field of fitness from the start. Fitbit is less of a fitness monitor and more of a fashion device these days. Fitbit is a company that promotes fitness. It creates smartwatches and other activity-tracking bands that helps you monitor your fitness including heart rate, sleep quality, steps walked, distance covered in kilometres daily, etc. Whatever Fitbit product you may buy, it is connected to an app that records and shows your daily activity. You can connect multiple Fitbit devices to your app and automatically sync with your device.

6. Life Belt

In the medical sector, the role of a life belt is crucial. It is a valuable decision-support tool. What role the life belt plays is that it is a trans-abdominal wearable device. To avoid frequent visits of additional patients, it ensures remote health monitoring. Sometimes, it becomes challenging and time-consuming to take individual care of every patient. So, it becomes convenient when hospitals use Life Belt to improve patient’s living and health conditions.

7. Defense

Smart textiles have also a wide use in defense. In extreme conditions, there is a need for real-time information technology to increase protection and ensure the survival of the people working in those harsh conditions. Smart textile has been able to do it efficiently.

8. Life Jacket

A life jacket-like life belt is also a medical device which monitors blood pressure and heart rate. All the information is transferred to a computer device and is read by medical staff. Hypertension and blood pressure can be calculated with the help of a life jacket.

9. Entertainment Wear

Smart textile plays an important role in the entertainment industry. Entertainment wear has a special colour, heat and light-consuming power. These wears reflect a special effect when the dancer moves. So, it appears more fabulous to the audience.

10. Health Care

Smart textiles are already being used for health care. The high technology allows us to support Personal Health care. The discovery and development of wearable monitoring systems are already having an effect on healthcare in the form of Telemedicine. Wearable devices allow physiological signals. Thus, daily life becomes so much pain-free.

Conclusion

As you have read above, there are several applications of Wearable Technology in various fields. Some of these are already making a difference in the market, while some are still early in the experimental stage and may come out brighter.