CONSUMER
Smart clothing gets musical
29-04-2002
by
German company Infineon has outlined plans for new high-tech textiles and demonstrated a washable "music jacket" prototype that lets the wearer play MP3 files.
Last week the German semiconductor company demonstrated a variety of prototypes for wearable microchips that can be sewn directly into clothing and other textiles. The company said that one possible application for the new fabrics is a prototype audio module which Infineon claims is already production-ready.
Infineon worked with the German Master School of Fashion in Munich to design various pieces of clothing that can play MP3s and that can be washed without the need to remove the electronics.
The MP3 jacket would be comprised of four units, including a microcontroller/sound processing chip, a removable battery and multimedia card (MMC) module, an earplug/microphone as well as a flexible sensor keyboard. All of the components are electrically interconnected through fabric strips with embedded conductors and the audio chip can directly be linked to microphones, earplugs, memories, keyboards, displays, sensors and actuators.
The division behind the new technology is Infineon's Emerging Technologies Group. For now there seem to be no plans to put the new clothes into production but the company thinks that in time there will be uses for the new fabrics in the entertainment, communications, health care and security industries.
"True to our motto 'Never stop thinking,' our researchers have been addressing a subject that will be ubiquitous in a couple of years," said Dr. Sonke Mehrgardt, chief technology officer at Infineon. "The further evolution of our information society will make everyday electronic applications ever more invisible and natural. The enabling technologies we presented today are a major step toward this objective."
Other applications in the works at Infineon include similar wearable chips used to monitor patients' vital signs. The company says it hopes to incorporate wireless technology into the fabrics as well for remote monitoring and data transfer purposes. In the future, the company also envisions outfits that would use a person's body heat to power the electronic devices in their clothes.
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