This article is contributed by Naushad Zubair.
The fashion industry is transforming with the rise of smart threads. These tech-infused textiles enhance garments' functionality and pave the way for sustainable and ethical fashion. Let's dive into how smart threads are revolutionizing the industry and the exciting trends they're bringing.
What is the smart thread in textile and fashion?
These are conductive threads that can transmit electrical signals. They are often made by coating conventional fibers with conductive materials like silver, copper, or nickel, or by incorporating metal fibers directly into the thread. This allows for the seamless integration of electronic circuits, sensors, and other components directly into the fabric [1].
Another way we can define smart threads - Beyond simple conductivity, smart threads can incorporate various smart materials or miniaturized components within their structure. This includes sensors, actuators, energy harvesting materials, a microcontroller, and memory.
Enhancing Fashion with Smart Threads
Smart threads are revolutionizing fashion by integrating technology directly into garments, leading to a range of innovative applications.
1. Smart threads enable interactive and responsive clothing, allowing wearers to control devices directly from their garments through touch-sensitive textiles. Additionally, they facilitate light-up fashion with LED-embedded fabrics that can change colors and patterns, offering dynamic aesthetic possibilities.
2. These intelligent threads also play a crucial role in health and fitness integration. They are essential for fitness wearables that monitor physical activity and heart rate, providing valuable insights for personal well-being. Furthermore, smart threads are integral to medical textiles, which track various health conditions and provide support for rehabilitation.
3. The advent of smart threads brings about a new era of personalized fashion. They enable customization, allowing the look and functionality of garments to be altered via dedicated apps or direct fabric interaction, offering a truly bespoke clothing experience.
4. Beyond individual utility, smart threads contribute significantly to sustainable production in the fashion industry. They enhance sustainability by reducing waste through optimized material usage, minimizing fabric waste during manufacturing. They also improve energy efficiency by monitoring real-time energy consumption, thereby helping to reduce the overall energy footprint of textile production.
5. Smart threads ensure comprehensive traceability throughout the garment supply chain. This is achieved by using RFID tags to track a garment's journey from raw material to finished product. Threads act as miniature RFID tags. Moreover, integrating blockchain technology creates an immutable record of the garment’s lifecycle, ensuring transparency and promoting ethical sourcing practices.
Related read | Latest Developments in Smart Garments
Key Points on Smart Threads and Wearable Tech
- Conductivity to carry electrical signals.
- Flexibility and comfort, maintaining the feel of traditional fabrics.
- Health monitoring with embedded sensors to monitor vital signs.
- Fitness and performance tracking with real-time tracking of fitness metrics.
- Integration with devices like smartphones and other gadgets.
- Sustainability and efficiency, optimizing material use and energy consumption.
- Traceability and transparency with RFID and blockchain for ethical sourcing and production.
How Smart Threads Work in Textiles:
Smart threads turn fabric into a functional and interactive medium. Here's a simplified explanation:
Sensing: Threads embedded with sensors detect changes in the environment or the wearer's body. For example, a shirt with smart threads might detect heart rate, body temperature, or even the presence of certain gases.
Data Transmission: Conductive threads act as wires, transmitting the collected data from the sensors to a small, often flexible, electronic unit embedded within the garment. This unit might contain a microcontroller to process the data.
Processing and Response: The electronic unit processes the data. Depending on the design, it might:
Transmit the data wirelessly (e.g., via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi) to a smartphone, computer, or cloud server for analysis and real-time feedback.
Trigger an immediate response within the garment itself through actuators (e.g., change color, provide localized heating or cooling, illuminate LEDs).
Power: Smart textiles require a power source, which can be small batteries, energy-harvesting systems (like solar cells or kinetic energy converters), or even direct power from the body.
Related article | How Conductive Thread Works
Future Prospects of Smart Threads
The future of smart threads holds immense promise, with several key advancements on the horizon. We can anticipate enhanced applications across various sectors, including more sophisticated medical textiles for advanced health monitoring and treatment, highly interactive fashion that seamlessly integrates with our digital lives, and seamless incorporation into augmented reality experiences. As the technology matures and becomes more widespread, we expect significant cost reduction, making smart thread-enabled products more accessible to a broader consumer base. Furthermore, continuous research and development will lead to substantial durability improvements, ensuring these innovative textiles are more resilient and easily washable, overcoming current limitations and paving the way for their widespread adoption in everyday life.
Related read | Color-Changing “Smart Thread” Turns Fabric into a Computerized Display
Sources:
[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9416033/