Smart clothes arrives to improve our life

"When talking about smart fabrics, all words have double and triple meanings," says Oriol Boix, professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), which explains that in his case he works "taking textiles and adding technology".

The 'dressable' technologies are clothing, footwear or accessories that incorporate microcontrollers and technological elements with applications in very diverse fields, such as a reflective vest for cyclists that can help them signal the turns.

Boix says that "grace is to incorporate something in the tissue, such as a microcontroller that is capable of making decisions or making calculations, in addition to other elements such as sensors, LED lights or something that emits sound".

The use of these fabrics is very diverse and can be used with artistic or fun objectives, as is already being seen in some parades with models with LEDs that respond to the movement, or on plays with garments with optical fibers that react to the movement to the movementof actors and dancers.

Social aspect

But they also have a more social aspect, focused on health or care, such as garments that serve to control body temperature, know to which side are the north and south or to control whether a dependent person is moving too far from home.

"When you go to a concert there is already a lotfashion catwalks, although he thinks they will have to go a few years."The most health -oriented part or monitoring things is more difficult to integrate into the fashion part because they are very different worlds," he adds.

Experts explain that it is very unlikely that these garments have health contraindications, because there is "very low tensions at all times, that they are not any problem".

They claim that Stem, the acronym for the English of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and that groups the four major areas of knowledge in which scientists and engineers work, has to give way to Steam, adding the 'to' art, because the"Technology falls short without design and ergonomics" and it is necessary that "things not only work, but want to use them".

"For us, the most common is to put the technology on top of the fabric or make circuits with driver sewing thread," says Boix, which also says that microcontroller plates are different for 'dressing' technology, round instead of rectangular, because when the garment folds, the plate is broken, nor does the fabjerea be pierced.

Was without power

The normal thread used to make clothing is insulating, but the one used for this type of clothing has a stainless steel component that allows circuits with it, although there is also the option to make a separate circuit to mounton the fabric without sewing it.

"In general, everything that is electronic can be washed as long as it is done without power supply," says the teacher, since everything is encapsulated because there are more and more load systems that do not need any hole, such as watches and bracelets thanThey can be immersed.

They believe it is possible that within a time, as with some smart watches now, there are t -shirts with batteries that are necessaryBut that, for now, they do not have much tour.