Interactive and Experiential Design in Smart Textile Products and Applications

Abstract:
The technical textiles industry in the USA and the EU is growing. As we advance into the knowledge age, objects and material technology will disappear into our material environment, turning unintelligent objects into active and intelligent participants in our lives. As much of our environment is made up from textile materials, they will be the targets of smart engineering. The future of smart textiles will rely on the convergence of electrochemistry and textiles in order to process electronic polymers into fibres and fabrics. The integration of smart functionality into clothing and other textile products will radically change the culture surrounding these products, fundamentally altering people's relationships with them and the way they use them. Smart functionality will also have an impact on the way products are designed and the materials developed.

The original presentation was one of three comprising a special session on ’Intelligent textiles, social interaction and emotional aesthetics’, of which I was theme chair. It led to the publication of an abridged peer-reviewed article in Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (ISSN: 1617-4909), June 2004 and a later published full version, ‘Interaction design in smart textiles clothing and applications’, in the book Wearable Electronics and Photonics, (Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2005). The original presentation explores the background theoretical framework to my AHRC-funded fellowship research (2003-2006). The current growth in the technical textiles industry globally is highlighted and related to the continuing advancement of the Knowledge Age, suggesting that technology will disappear into our material environment, turning it into an intelligent participant in our lives. The scope for smart clothing to enable new methods of accessing entertainment, culture and communication is discussed.