Smart Textiles and Intelligent Textiles

Humans are close to textiles more than anything, and certainly, we carry it most, other than anything. The last few decades have shown enormous growth in the development of wireless communication technologies, nanoengineering, information technologies, and miniaturization of electronic devices. These developments draw the attention of researchers to envisage the significant characteristics of these advancements to the belongings with whom we are most close. Researchers are now evaluating the new ideas and possibilities to functionalize this ‘natural necessity feature of human beings’ with emerging technologies into different arrays of human life especially in the Medical and Healthcare management – as mobile monitoring of health care, protection from life risk factors, lifestyle management, rehabilitation and into other facilitation of our lives, by Hybridizing the Smart or Intelligent Technology in Textiles.

Intelligent textiles represent the next generation of fibers, fabrics, and articles produced from them. They can be described as textile materials that think for themselves, for example through the incorporation of electronic devices or smart materials. Many intelligent textiles already feature in advanced types of clothing, principally for protection and safety and for added fashion or convenience.

One of the main reasons for the rapid development of intelligent textiles is the important investment made by the military industry. This is because they are used in different projects such as extreme winter condition jackets or uniforms that change color so as to improve camouflage effects. Nowadays, the military industry has become aware of the advantage of sharing knowledge with the various industrial sectors, because with joint collaboration far better results can be obtained through teamwork.

Intelligent textiles provide ample evidence of the potential and enormous wealth of opportunities still to be realized in the textile industry in the fashion and clothing sector, as well as in the technical textiles sector. Moreover, these developments will be the result of active collaboration between people from a whole variety of backgrounds and disciplines: engineering, science, design, process development, and business and marketing. Our very day-to-day lives will, within the next few years, be significantly regulated by intelligent devices and many of these devices will be in textiles and clothing.

• The range and variety of high-performance textiles that have been developed to meet present and future requirements are now
• Textile materials are now combined, modified, and tailored in ways far beyond the performance limit of fibers drawn from the silkworm cocoon, grown in the fields, or spun from the fleece of
• And the future promises even more!

Smart Textiles and Intelligent Textiles

• What new capacities should we expect as a result of future developments in smart/interactive textiles?
• They should include tera and nanoscale magnitudes, complexity, cognition and
• The new capability of terascale takes us three orders of magnitude beyond the present general-purpose and generally accessible computing capabilities. The technology of nanoscale takes us three orders of magnitude below the size of most of today’s human-made devices.
• It allows arranging molecules inexpensively in most of the ways permitted by physical
• It lets make supercomputers that fit on the head of fiber, and fleets of medical nano-robots smaller than a human cell to eliminate cancers, infections, clogged
• Fibers are relentlessly replacing traditional materials in many more From super-absorbent diapers to artificial organs, to construction materials for moon-based space stations.
• Clothing with its own senses and brain are integrated with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and mobile phone technology to provide the position of the wearer and
• Biological tissues and organs, like ears and noses, are grown from textile scaffolds made from bio-degradable
• Integrated with nano-materials, textiles are imparted with very high energy absorption capacity and other functions such as stain proofing, abrasion resistance, light emission,

A few years ago, smart textiles were presented as imaginary products and as a non-competitive market. After scientific efforts and development phases, nowadays SFIT is an implanted customer interest and is presented as the future of the textile industry. A lot of commercial products are available and, as was presented during this document, many scientists are developing new solutions, ideas, and concrete products. Some approximations reveal a market size of 1 billion dollars by 2010, which certainly explains the current passion for these new developments.

What are smart textiles?

Smart textiles are defined as textiles that can sense and react to environmental conditions or stimuli from mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, or magnetic sources. According to functional activity, smart textiles can be classified into three categories:

Smart textiles are materials that are developed and/or designed for a special need or application where very high performance is required. Smart textiles may combine fabrics with glass, ceramics, metal, or carbon to produce lightweight hybrids with incredible properties. Sophisticated finishes, such as silicone coatings and holographic laminates, transform color, texture, and even form.

Smart Textiles Materials should have the following

• Optimized moisture management
• Better heat flow control
• Improved thermal insulation
• Breathability
• High performance in hazard protection
• Environmental friendly
• Increased abrasion resistance
• Health control and healing aid
• Body control
• Easy care
• High aesthetic appeal
• Enhanced handle
• High/low visibility

The action of Smart textiles