Wearable Technology

Wearable technology (also called wearable gadgets) is the technology, which provides the cordless communication with the computer, allowing one to interact with an environment, perceiving signals, processing information and launching responses.

The means, which help to communicate are routers, smart clothing, watches, and other accessories.

Wearable technology provides unusual properties for clothes, like tracking information related to health and fitness.

Such clothes can, for example, either collect data and automatically transmit it wirelessly to an external computer, or process independently, and react to the results of calculations without user intervention.

Electronics for smart clothes

Smart clothes can be equipped with:

Textile I/O devices. For example, SOFTswitch develops a fabric that, when pressed, produces electrical signals. Their technology is based on the effect of quantum tunneling in a composite material. A simpler method of creating a textile keyboard is to use layers of conductive and insulating fabric, which respond to touch.
Sensors for measuring heart rate and respiration, using electrodes for cardiogram and pressure sensors or other technologies; for example, using a technical term: ‘Bragg fiber grating’;
Accelerometer or stretch sensors for tracking human movements;
Optical fiber that allows you to track gaps in the tissue and thus obtain information about a possible injury to a person, or information about the content of various substances in the air/ temperature fluctuations (in addition to optical fiber, this sensor contains chemicals that react to the composition or temperature and affect the passage of light through fiber);
Heating elements;
Solar batteries.

In addition, other electronic devices, such as players, GPS systems, etc. can be built into "smart" clothing.

Data from the sensors go through the primary processing with electronics, sewn into the clothes, and then in many cases are transferred to a smartphone or other external device, where they are analysed by mobile applications.