Biomimetics, a field of study where the principles of biological systems are applied to synthetic-material production, have lately become central to the creation of smart materials. A smart material is defined as any substance or object that interacts with its environment and responds to changes automatically. Smart paints change color to indicate corrosion of the metal underneath; smart foam, used for sportswear, remembers the way you shape and mold it. If you have a pair of sunglasses whose lenses darken when you walk outside, you’re wearing a smart material on your face.
Smart fabrics, one of the newest applications of biomimetics, have exploded with realized potential in recent years. At scientific institutions across the country, smart fabrics of different sorts are being developed into all kinds of clothes and accessories. Not only are these items fashionable, but they go above and beyond: some can clean themselves, and some can keep you organized, and some might even save your life.
Handbag helpers
Perhaps the most versatile use of smart textiles to date has been developed by Adrain Cable, Gauri Nanda and Michael Bove, engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; their innovation is a line of computerized fabric patches, squares and triangles of computer-augmented cloth that can be recombined in dozens of different permutations. Each patch contains an individual part of an overall system. There are microprocessors, memory chips, radio transceivers, sensors, microphones, displays and batteries.
The MIT team's patches come in a variety of different styles and colors, and as with any fabric, the individual swatches can be sewn into almost any form you can think of. The circuit board inside each patch is waterproofed with resin and padded with a thin layer of foam. Velcro holds the patches together, modified to enable electrical current: power flows from one patch to the next through silver-coated contacts. A number of items can be formed from these materials: belts, bags, scarves, curtains.
In 2004, an article in Gizmag noted that a handbag incorporating the patchwork circuitry of Cable, Nanda and Bove would be able to alert you if you've forgotten your cell phone or keys by recognizing their absence and sounding an alarm. The smart handbag could also light up when it sensed ambient darkness and download weather reports from the internet. In the years since, the handbags have gotten more and more notice, and purses using this kind of technology have started to become commercially available.
Ninety per cent mental
Meanwhile, engineers at Georgia Tech have developed a wearable motherboard called the Sensate Liner for Combat Casualty Care. The Sensate Liner is a single-piece woven garment, rather like an undershirt, with plastic optics fibers threaded in a spiral pattern throughout.
Originally, the Sensate Liner was intended for use in combat conditions; its development was funded by the US Navy. The Sensate Liner uses optical fibers to detect bullet wounds and interconnecting sensors that monitor vital signs during combat. Medical sensing devices attached to the body plug into the computerized shirt, creating a flexible CPU that can react in real time to changes in the environment. The Liner communicates with a medical unit close to the battlefield, meaning a wounded soldier can broadcast a distress signal through the computer on his body.
Each sensor on the Sensate Liner is detachable, meaning it can be placed at a different location if need be; thus the Liner can fit comfortably on different bodies. Also, the sensors themselves can be customized and exchanged for other kinds of sensors, depending on the wearer's needs. The inherent fluidity of the technology means that we may soon see its application in other fields: firefighters could be outfitted with sensors that monitor oxygen, or premature babies could wear some version of the Sensate Liner to monitor their health. If the clothes make the man, it seems increasingly true that the clothes will also make the man safer.
