Open-Source Hardware for Interactive-Textiles (OSHIT)

Aside from being a great acronym, I think its an idea that should be considered. Over the next few days I hope to explore this idea in detail. What exactly does "open-source hardware" entail? It is the idea that a design for a technology component is not proprietary and is open for anyone to use -- HOWEVER, any resulting product made from the open-source component is considered open itself. A handful of groups around the world have dabbled in open-source hardware, probably the most popular lately is the Italian group Arduino.

Lest we forget that there are both open-source for electronics, but ALSO for sewing.

The first question that comes to mind is "how will companies make money?" Well, they're going to have to sell products...good products.

The idea is that commoditization of technology will expedite its incorporation into products hitting the marketplace and lower development costs in the meantime. This notion does not decrease the value of quality to the consumer -- so it will reward the companies who make the best products in the eyes of the consumer (not the ones with the biggest legal team).

I know that this discussion can't be completed in one post -- so hopefully some interesting counterpoints will be raised to challenge the OSHIT notion...

Plastic Electronics recap

The conference was not bad (although my mobile-blogging ability was somewhat hampered as you can tell from the half-hearted post below) -- and from an "interactive-textiles" viewpoint it was good to see some new faces that may not have been exposed to Smart-Textiles otherwise. It was good to see these two communities together (I even thought so last year) -- but it felt like the Smart Textiles section was the read-headed step-child of the conference. It would have been nice to have had at least one talk from that section in the plenary, but hey -- it's a start and there'll always be room for improvement (plus, what has really been done in "smart-textiles" to warrant that much attention?).

What was my favorite talk? Probably the one I thought was going to be the worst (just by its title) -- Dermot Diamond's "New Ways to Sense the Molecular World Using Switchable Sensors." He covered a wide range of potentially disruptive technologies that few people are pursuing. If you have the chance, check out what he's working on.

Looks like the next SmartFabrics will be in Rome in March -- stay tuned...

+plastic electronics

Plastic Electronics in Berlin

I'll be there -- hopefully some of you will be there as well. For those who can't make it, I'll try to post some highlights when I get back (or possibly from on-site if the wireless situation is amenable). See you there!

Fibretronic puts a new spin on Interactive Textiles

Let's face it, most of these garments, bags, etc. that have some degree of added capability (whether by electric controls, solar panels, etc) are pretty expensive...and this is a detriment to the market because it seriously limits your consumer base. Aside from that, I'll wager that individual consumer tastes change at a much more rapid pace than this type of technology can keep pace with. Enter Fibretronic's ConnectedWear...

The idea is that the largest cost drivers (control modules, etc) are separated from the soft-goods and can be purchased separately. So we could theoretically buy several cheaper "enabled" garments and only one control module.

Exactly how much this will lower the barriers to entry for other remains to be seen, but hopefully this will catch on. Anyone else think this is a good idea?

Iverson, Watch Out!

It looks like the "Intelligent Knee Sleeve" from several years ago morphed into an elbow sleeve that basketball and "netball" players can use to help develop their shots. The research behind this started at the Austrailian S&T arm known as CSIRO; we've talked about them before.

This sleeve provides audible feedback to the user as it undergoes mechanical stresses -- in other words, each movement provides a sound. For sports that require a precise and repeatable motion (jumpshot anyone?) the sleeve can be used as a training aid. Earlier applications of the technology were used on knee sleeves to assist users on "landing" after jumping -- probably a little more of a stretch in my eyes. If anyone remembers the presentations from CSRIRO back in 2002-2003, they compiled a bunch of gruesome sports injuries which their research would eventually prevent -- I never saw so many people in a room squirm in their seats in unisom.

We'd love to hear from anyone who has actually used these sleeves as training aids -- it is an interesting concept, but how well does it work?

Inteltex Consortium

So it looks like there is yet another consortium for Smart Textiles in Europe -- not sure what affiliation this has with some of its predecessors, but anyway it is called "Inteltex."



I suggest checking out the website -- let me know if you can find anything in the way of results or at least project descriptions, etc. There appear to be a number of partner companies and universities involved in the consortium that appears to be broken out by nano/materials specialists, fiber/yarn manufacturers, and textile companies.



However, one of the most interesting things I found on the website was the consortium's video. At first the video looks to be nothing more than a powerpoint slide-show, but toward the end they show some pretty good clips of processing capabilities: fiber extrusion, fiber webs, needle-punch nonwovens, and electrospinning.

Please let us know if you have any further info on the projects being pursued under this consortium...

Berlin -- Who's In?

So I just happened to be flipping through one of the many, many, MANY mailers I get from Pira and Intertech and saw the Plastic Electronics brochure. To my surprise they have snuck in an "Smart" Textiles program -- which begs the question, "will this be Pira's offering of Intelligent Textiles for the year?"
The offering for talks is not that extensive, but I guess the main draw is the display, OLEDs, and power programs. And while it is a relatively small offering compared to previous conferences, perhaps the inclusion with similar technology areas will create unique collaborations and opportunities. Let's hope so...maybe I'll even get to go!

iPhone chest-harness

Peel's iphone chest-harness at the OR Show in SLC

iPhone glove

Peel (peelsports.com) had the iPhone running glove with an integrated
iPhone chest-harness.

SMIT

We applaud snappy acronyms around here -- and SMIT is at the top of my list right now.

The idea of telling someone that I work in the SMIT industry is appealing b/c its like a combination of "smut" and "s*#t." If you've purchased this report, please contact us ASAP, we would love your feedback...

We're Back, and we're mobile

That's right, we're on the move now. You'll next see us at the OR Show (Summer Market) and we'll post straight from floor via phone when we see something that YOU need to see.

If you're going to be there let us know!

SmartFabrics Recap!

Another SmartFabrics conference, but with very few surprises this time. The talks I thought would be good were, and those that I had low expectations for weren't as great. What I didn't plan on was to see Robin Shephard (formerly of Eleksen) give as much insight as he did concerning the abrupt decline of Eleksen.

Certainly we'll be seeing case studies in future classes at business school -- but it would have been fun to have had the chance to see it in the "E-dreams" documentary context.

There also seemed to be a great deal of emphasis on the "wearable computing" aspect of SmartFabrics. While there's nothing wrong with that, it would have been nice to see more technology talks at the fiber/yarn/fabric level vs. just device integration.

Other notable talks included Crosslink's talk on electroluminescent fabrics for tents/shelters, Nyx Clothing's talk on power requirements and connector testing, and a view of the back-end processing and modeling of e-textiles from VA Tech's Tom Martin.

I understand that next year's conference will be in Rome, which makes it a tough sell to get the boss to pony up the cash for travel -- I guess we'll have to start working on it now.

SmartFabrics 2008

It's time again for SmartFabrics, this years conference will be held in Charleston, SC.

Given the location I'd expect heavy participation from Miliken, but I guess we'll see this week. Talks that I'm officially looking forward to:

• Torsten Linz's seminar on Integration Technologies for Electronics in Textiles


• Robin Shephard's take on Eleksen as a Success Story


• Winston Shih's North Face talk


• Stacey Burr's Textronics talk


• Fred DeAngelis's talk (I always expect a good talk from him)

As things happen at the conference I'll try to post -- otherwise expect a good recap...

Burough Check...

I'm re-engaging after a necessary absence (work-life overwhelming at the moment). As part of the ramping up process, I'm doing a "burough-check" of sorts to see who's doing what. I'm assuming that the usual suspects (NTC-types) are represented (check my research section), but what about the new faces and the foreign research entities (MIT-ISN, CSIRO, my UK brethren, etc.)? I am guessing we'll see at the NTC Forum in Greenville?

On the industry side, I am really looking forward to seeing what is new at SmartFabrics this May. I am not overly optimistic however, as I'm guessing the same people will be saying the same thing. Maybe I'll be wrong, but if history is any indication, I will be right...

Facebook!

We believe that Facebook should no longer be limited to high-schoolers and university-types; and we plan to exploit the excellent networking features of the site. Check out our group page and join!

Meet other Facebook folk with an interest in our technology area and make the world a little smaller...

Power Scavenging 2.0

A few months ago (has it really been that long?) I posted the story about the Australians kicking off a new initiative for a power-scavenging shirt at CSIRO (that post can be found here). In that post a mentioned (and linked to) a group of guys who are working at the nanoscale to achieve the energy harvesting. And while it was certainly impressive, they were only able to scavenge at ultrasonic harmonics (not mechanical) -- well guess what? They've now developed a methodology to grow the scavenging nanowires on the surface or polymeric fibers and can harvest mechanical energy. The group's homepage can be found here, I would suggest reading through the previous papers first to get a sense of how they've progressed over the past few months.

They estimate that with this fibers integrated into a yarn, a square meter could yield roughly 80 mW -- granted this is assuming A LOT (the ability to make enough of this fiber affordably, the ability to make a yarn, and an interconnect scheme with low loss!) however it at least gives some vague parameters for developers on the other end to pull this through as it develops. Of course, the usual applications are mentioned: ipod shirt, biomedical applications, etc...but I feel like there are much cooler applications that can be explored, what do you think?

Surveillance Vest!

I love this post (saw it on gizmodo via Danger Room)-- it is the perfect snapshot of where we are in terms of technology for Interactive Textiles... (at least in the marketplace). May I present the surveillance vest!

Discrete electronic components with a honkin' big battery pack. I seem to recall someone at a SmartFabrics conference refer to this as the "textile as a container" methodology. I really think we can do better (flexible polymer-ion battery, fiber-optic mic, textile button interface -- ok, admittedly the camera is a bit harder). But in terms of its actual application you might as well be wearing this:

The gizmodo posting is good, the comments are better. The company's website can be found here. It is obvious that their strong-suit lies in the back-end and infrastructure rather than the sensors and packaging -- but if the iphone and ipod has taught us anything it is that design and packaging equal adoption.

I've also read a good blog on why the spider-suit idea is dead in the water...I'll address that in the coming days...

Fashion and Interactive Textiles

To be cool is to be fashionable. It seems that these days technology and fashion are starting to merge -- see Angel Chang and Elena Corchero. And while certainly not mainstream yet, you can see trends developing out of niches. But we don't typically talk fashion here, other people do that much better than we do (see talk2myshirt.com or this blog entry) -- in fact I've taken my own jabs at it from time to time.

But I will say this, these types of efforts do push people to think in different ways about technology and how they interact with it. The fuel for most of these efforts is of course the emergence of the cell phone and the ipod -- all of a sudden there are technologies that people want with them at all times...since we have our clothes with us at all times (mostly), it seems like a great fit. But I don't think we're quite there yet (at least on the technology side). We have yet to get away from bulky processing and power (although Nantero and Konarka are making headway). We need textiles to "enhance" the technology, not hold it -- we can buy an elastic band for that or simply use a pocket. It's expensive to integrate the technology and thus its only available in high end items that can absorb the cost -- and with Eleksen's hiccup we may have seen that the business model isn't proving out for that route either.

So who do we look to? Who still researches this stuff? Check out these efforts in the US, and these companies/universities in Europe...

The OR Show recap

It was truly exciting and there was lots of technology to see -- unfortunately there was very little in the way of "interactive" textiles. There was a good deal of heating applications in apparel with a number of companies such as Mountain Hardwear, Outdoor Research hinting at using the technology as well as a handful of less-technical products that used the technology for novelty purposes.

But still no major technology insertions coming from the big companies...

So the question remains: Are interactive-textile technologies doomed to remain confined to SkyMall or will they actually find their way to be adopted by more established companies?

Winter OR Show

I am heading to the Winter OR Show this month (January 23rd - 25th in Salt Lake City) and I'm looking forward to seeing some new technologies hitting the market. Hopefully we'll see something beyond the standard "ipod" or "MP3 jacket" type of product.




This winter season is expected to have more interactive textiles than the summer show, but we'll have to wait and see. For a look back at the sparse "summer market" OR Show, visit my August review. Stay tuned...