Dear colleagues,

Textile is a fabric (Woven or knitted) made from yarn or any kind of material composed of natural or synthetic fiber.

Electronictextiles, or E-textiles are fabrics that able electronic components such as batteries lights, sensors, and microcontrollers to be embedded in them. E-textiles with classical electronic devices: such as conductors, integrated circuits, LEDs, OLEDs and conventional batteries embedded into garments. E-textiles with electronics integrated directly into the textile substrates, this can include either passive electronics such as conductors and resistors or active components like transistors, diodes, and solar cells. The development of textile-based wearable electronics is the hot point of research that can be integrated with sensors to be used for health monitoring, smart cars, energy harvesting, military protective clothing,..etc

There are three distinct generations of textile wearable technologies:

1-First generation attaches a sensor to apparel. This approach is currently taken by sportswear brands such as Adidas, Nike, and Under Armour

2-Second generation products embeds the sensor in the garment, as demonstrated by current products from Samsung, Alphabet, Ralph Lauren, and Flex

3-Third generation wearables: the garment is the sensor. A growing number of companies are creating pressure, strain, and temperature sensors for this purpose.

Smart textiles; are fabrics that have been developed with new technologies that provide added value. It perceives environmental conditions or stimuli.

These stimuli could be thermal, biochemical, mechanical, electrical, magnetic or other source. It can be made from materials ranging from traditional cotton, polyester, and nylon, to advanced Kevlar with integrated

functionalities

There are two kinds of smart textile (fabric) products:

1-Fabric with textile-based sensor electronics: weaving can be used to incorporate electrically conductive yarn into a

fabric to obtain a textile that can be used as a “Wearable Motherboard”. It can connect multiple sensors on the body, such as wet gel ECG electrodes, to the signal acquisition electronics

2-Fabric that envelopes traditional sensor electronics Types of Smart textile:

• Passive smart is able to perceive the data about environmental conditions such as sensor

• Active smart is able to perceive and respond such as sensor with actuation properties

• Very smart materials sense, respond, and adapt to perform a function in a conventional or pre-programmed manner that can attain an even higher level of intelligence such as sport jackets

• Uses :

-Health monitoring of vital sigs such as heart rate, respiration rate, temperature, activity, and posture

-Sports training data acquisition

-Monitoring personnel handling hazardous materials

-Tracking the position and status of soldiers in action

-Military applications : Soldier's bulletproof kevlar vest if the wearer is shot, the material can sense the bullet's impact and send a radio message back to base

-Monitoring pilot or truck driver fatigue

-Diagnosing amputee discomfort-Innovative fashion (wearable tech)

-Regain sensory perception that was previously lost by accident or birth