Power dressing
In the future, our wardrobes could be filled with shirts that take our temperature and socks that smell of flowers. Gemma O'Doherty reports
Sweaters that measure your heart rate, shirts that know when you're too hot and underwear that can convey hidden messages.
Getting dressed in the morning used to be about protecting one's modesty, keeping warm and reining in unwanted curves.
But in an age where science fiction is fast becoming fact, the contents of one's wardrobe will become a much more elaborate affair in the coming years.
The Californian city of San Diego was the recent venue for an exhibition of computerised clothing that could be appearing in your local Dunnes any day soon.
The Siggraph 2007 exhibition gave a fascinating insight into the ways clothes will be an integral way of how we live in the future whether it be by checking our pulse to charging our laptops.
Among the more popular items on display at the exhibition was the solar bikini, which produces an electrical output that can recharge your mobile or iPod while you're lying back on the beach.
The idea of smart clothing was developed by the US military towards the end of the last century as a way of keeping track of soldiers in battle.
Today, the technology exists to equip soldiers on battlefields with vests that can communicate commands remotely to them from their military base. These smart uniforms, in development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, work by producing patterns of vibration from a command centre that silently tell a soldier to go right, left or return to base immediately as well as other instructions.
A more entertaining way of conveying covert information is the so-called kameraflage, which allows somebody with a digital camera view images on fabric that are not visible to the naked eye.
Another more practical design is being developed by the electronics company Philips which has applied for a patent on technology that can alter the size of clothing to the size of its wearer.
The material they use contains a shape memory that expands to the right size when a current passes through it. When the electricity is removed, it remains the right size for its owner.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this new technology is how clothes will be used in the future to protect health.
Scientists in Europe are at an advanced stage of developing outfits which they say will be able to monitor the body's vital signs and detect illnesses and infections at their earliest stages.
Shirley Coyle, an engineer based at the National Centre for Sensor Research at Dublin City University, is an Irish researcher involved in the Biotex programme, a team designing intelligent fabrics which contain sensors that monitor body fluids such as blood and sweat to allow doctors keep check on recovering patients, people who are chronically ill and injured athletes.
"If clothes could talk, they could tell us so much about our bodies," says Dr Coyle.
"They are an interface between our bodies and the environment and in the future will prove a vital tool in health care. We are creating clothing with sensors that does not intrude on the comfort of the patient with wires.
"The key is trying to blend the technology into the clothes as discreetly as possible. We are developing shirts that will be able to detect a change in heart rate or give a warning as soon as a problem occurs. But the technology has to be very small, very durable and waterproof and that is where it is taking time.
"This is an entirely new area, but every day we are discovering ways of adding new functions to textiles. It has so much potential. Our clothes will definitely play a very different role in the future."
In the early stages, the technology will be able to measure acidity, salinity and perspiration but eventually it will be able to monitor the progress of wound healing and pinpoint abnormalities in the metabolism.
Last month, scientists at the University of Bolton in Britain launched a so-called smart bra that collects data about changes in the breast which could allow women detect cancer at a curable stage. It works using microwaveable antennae built into the bra structure that collate information about any lumps or other abnormalities in the breast.
Scientists stress that the new technology is not meant to replace traditional diagnostic methods but is another tool in monitoring patients and detecting trends away from the hospital setting in their everyday lives.
Trials of smart clothes that can repel insects and shrug off the smell of tobacco and other nasty smells have already proved successful and are slowly making their way into the retail world.
Tracksuits with in-built cooling and socks that smell of flowers will be on the shelves soon and, in the future moisturiser, deodorant, mosquito repellents and even vitamins will be incorporated into fabrics for those in search of an easier life.
As we stand on the cusp of the era of smart clothing, another groundbreaking invention is set to accompany it. An intelligent clothes peg that can sense changes in air pressure before it is about to rain promises to revolutionise housework. It can close itself down before the drops start to fall and prevent washing from being hung on the line.
Sadly, the device has no way of protecting clothes from the rain once they are hung, making it effectively redundant during the average Irish summer.
