"SMART FABRICS": A FUTURISTIC CONCEPT

Taken from the article by Deborah Nason contributing editor of the Business Journal

E-textiles, a futuristic concept with tremendous commercial potential, is on the verge of becoming reality-and two of its world-class players are based in the Blue Ridge Region.

Both Virginia Tech and Plastics One have conducted research and collaborated with internationally known organizations for several years. And potential partnerships are being explored with textile mills in Danville to mass-produce these materials.

The term e-textiles, or "smart fabrics," refers to fabrics that have electronics, data communication and power woven into them through normal manufacturing processes.

The Virginia Tech e-textiles laboratory is one of a handful of academic research groups world-wide that is dedicated to e-textiles.

Led by world-renowned researchers Tom Martin (assistant professor) and Mark Jones (associate professor), the lab is home to such cutting-edge projects as:

• Garments that can automatically map the wearer's location;
• A shape-sensing garment for gait analysis and gesture movement recognition;
• A keyboard glove to sense key strokes made by finger motions;
• A "computational fabric" for speech recognition and other applications.

"Our main thrust is wearable applications," says Martin. He speaks about potential military applications for e-textiles. "Right now the budget for a soldier uniform is about $100," he says. "But if you look at applications like medical [monitoring] and [wearable] radios," that budget will change.

In the future, the military "will no longer be looking for the cheapest uniform, but for the most functional uniform."

Civilian medical monitoring is another potential application, says Jones. "There is a large number of patients with cardio-pulmonary problems," he says. If they could wear clothes that monitor their conditions, "think of the cost savings by avoiding hospitalization."

According to a 2002 report by market research firm Venture Development Corporation (VDC), "Smart fabric products will be reaching the market for health care/medical, public safety, military and sporting applications . . . These products will be designed to monitor the wearer's physical well-being and vital signs such as heart rate, temperature and caloric consumption, among many others." VDC estimates that global shipments of wearable computers will exceed $563 million in 2006.

Roanoke-based Plastics One has been involved with e-textiles since 1998, when it was approached by major consulting house Foster Miller to collaborate on a USB cable built out of e-textiles. "The full project took off in 2002," says senior R&D engineer Steve Heckman, "followed by a wearable antenna."

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the Defense Department has been the driving force behind e-textiles since 2001. According to a November 2001 EE Times article, "DARPA said it will devote 'tens of millions of dollars' to the so-called e-textiles program over the next five years." Indeed, DARPA has been one of the major funding sources for Virginia Tech's research activities.

The article continues, "DARPA aims to spur development of new kinds of yarns, fabric interconnects and CAD tools for weaving into textiles the equivalent of a printed-circuit board. Those systems will include sensors, actuators, photovoltaic devices, batteries and storage."

Heckman and Plastics One Vice-President John Richardson read about Virginia Tech's involvement with e-textiles in a newspaper article a few years ago. They were surprised to learn they had colleagues in their own back yard. Both Tech and Plastics One have had an informal information-sharing relationship over the past several years. "The folks at Plastics One are masters of connection technology," says Tech's Jones.

"The proximity is helpful," says Richardson. "If [Tech researchers] have a product or concept that they want to take to market, they'll likely take it to us."

Commercialization of e-textile technology is moving forward, although slowly. Josh Edmison, a graduate student with Tech's e-textile lab, based his masters thesis on a prototype "Hokie Suit," made of smart fabric. He researched the ability of the garment to perform gait analysis and activity context awareness. The point was for "the garment to figure out what you're doing," he explains.

Edmison recently secured a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant in conjunction with Virginia Tech engineering professor Thurman Lockhart and fellow graduate student Dan Lehn, in order to refine and add more functionality to the Hokie Suit. Right now, they are in phase one of the grant, working on the feasibility of the project. "It may or may not go to phase two [product development]" says Edmison.

The limitless potential of e-textiles is "one of the good things about it," he says. "But what's not so good is that the technology has not matured yet. Bringing the ideas to reality-that's the step that's five to 10 years out. There are still some interesting technical challenges."

"We're pretty close," says Tech's Martin. "I have a student who is developing a prototype weave, and in the next couple of months, we'll be able to test its feasibility." After that, he estimates it would take two to five years for the manufacturing process to become commercially viable.

"We're not product guys," says his colleague Jones. "Our interest is in the technology." So who else needs to jump on the bandwagon? "Someone who knows how to build a company," he replies. The two researchers suggest the companies that should get involved with e-textiles are those that manufacture medical electronics, novel types of sensors, industrial protective materials or even furniture. Edmison adds, "One of the difficulties of moving from academic research to a product is being able to identify a market need.

Instead of us pushing technology on the market, it would be helpful if businesses could help us understand where the technology could apply." Plastics One is in the marketplace and Richardson sees the potential for the region. "You have two organizations [Tech and us] on the front line. We're playing with the big boys-and we're just as knowledgeable as anyone else out there." Explains Heckman, "Virginia Tech focuses on design and we focus on the process of building it."

Plastics One, which designs and manufactures components for original equipment manufacturers, is "poised to connect with someone who wants to fund [a commercial e-textile product]," says Richardson. "We've already gotten to the point of knowing what works and what doesn't. We're just waiting in the wings."

Web site: www.plastics1.com

Location: 6591 Merriman Road S.W., Roanoke, VA 24018 (540) 772-7950.

Reference:

Deborah Nason. "E-textiles: The gathering storm" (May 16,2005) Vol 17, No.9. The Blue Ridge Business Journal