More evidence that the wearable electronics market is sizzling, Spanish not-for-profit the Textile Industry Research Association (AITEX) is developing intelligent clothing that will exploit the wireless-sensor talents of Spanish chip maker Farsens. AITEX is designing textiles that will perform energy harvesting via tailored-in flexible antennas. The energy harvested from RF signals will be used by Farsens’ RFID chip to drive a variety of sensors embedded throughout the clothing. Typical functions for the sensors include motion and temperature monitoring, to name just two
AITEX energy harvesting technical textile with an embedded RFID sensor.
Initial designs of maintenance-free and intelligent clothing will rely on temperature and motion-detection sensors with future versions including heart rate and other bodily activity for fitness and healthcare apps. Previously, AITEX designed clothing that handled temperature, heartbeat, and breathing monitoring using Bluetooth technology. However, this approach involves larger, active devices and shorter battery life. The association’s new approach with passive electronics, energy harvesting, and Farsens chips intends to eliminate these issues.
AITEX energy harvesting technical textile with an embedded RFID sensor.
To employ the necessary sensors without batteries, AITEX enlists Farsens’ ANDY100 RFID chip. Energy harvested by the flexible antennas is used by the chip to manage sensors and send data wirelessly back to the system.
This sounds very promising in the field of wearable electronics. It will be interesting to see what they come up with and, hopefully, the naturists out there won’t feel left out. For more details about Farsens sensors, visit http://farsens.com/en. For more details on AITEX, email the company at [email protected] or call +34 96 554 22 00, and visit http://www.aitex.es/en.