The manufacturing of so-called "smart clothes" has ushered in a textile revolution. What makes these clothes "intelligent" is the integration of electronical components. Through the use of new fibres and yarns functional textiles are being produced which can integrate both cosmetic and medical systems. Consequently, smart clothes are items which can "think" and "act", thus protecting the people wearing them.

The great potential of intelligent clothing lies, among other things, in the recognition and interpretation of the wearers' movements, in the transmission of invisible body signs (such as sweating or trembling) or in the production and storage of energy in the clothes.
In the beginning, intelligent clothing was mainly used in the fields of protective wear, sports, outdoor and fashion. In the meantime, smart clothes have also found their way into the healthcare, routine management and entertainment markets.

The following examples show the great technological standard of functional textiles which are being used already today:

Heatable ski jackets
The company rent a scientist GmbH has developed an electrically conductive yarn which is expandable, kink resistant, washable and can even be processed by textile machines. This special yarn called "novonic" is used for heating, as a USB data carrier, to supply electricity and as a sensor. Thus, from the innovative yarn a heatable ski jacket was produced with a textile cable harness. Apart from its warming function, this intelligent jacket is extremely durable and can be washed in traditional washing machines.

Warming underwear
To fight off the cold, warmX GmbH has developed an undershirt which without the use of heated filaments or similar means is self-warming. To this purpose, silver-plated polyamide fibres have been integrated into a knitted fabric, while a mini power controller on the front of the undershirts supplies the required energy. Two warming zones around the kidneys closely stick to the skin of the wearers, thus making them feel comfortable and warm. Despite its special properties the warming undershirt can be machine-washed at 30°.

The jacket that can see
One of the latest developments on the smart clothes market is the GPSoverIP jacket which boasts a lot of features: along with a mobile phone and an MP3 player it also contains features for locating people. To this purpose, the entire electronic equipment of the so-called "GPS eye" for determining and transmitting position data was miniaturised specifically with regard to locating people. The wearers of this innovative jacket thus cannot only be located within buildings with the accuracy of GPS, but also in realtime.

A fabric for protection from mobile phone radiation
A German yarn expert has developed a special fabric that can be integrated in men's outerwear as a protection from mobile phone radiation. This fabric called eBLOCKER is being integrated into the inner pockets of jackets where, due to the high portion of silver used and its special manufacture, it absorbs almost 100% of the electrosmog produced by the mobile phone. However, this does not affect the functioning of the mobile phone.

Fitness computer within sports underwear
The "BeatClip" is a fitness computer with a mobile radio connection which is sewn into sports underwear. In this way it is possible to display on the mobile phone e.g. heart rate signals and other data. In addition, the athletes can send their training data via internet to their home PCs on which they can plan and analyse their fitness program with the help of a special software included in the package.

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