In low risk pregnancies, the continuous monitoring of the foetal health is based on traditional protocols for counting the foetal movements felt by the mother. Although the maternal perception is a relevant characteristic for the evaluation of the foetal health, this kind of monitoring is hard to accomplish and being subjective can induce into errors due to mother’s anxiety and lack of concentration. Furthermore, the majority of foetal fatalities occur during the last weeks of low risk pregnancies. Therefore, it is important to obtain a universal electronic obstetric tracing, allowing for the identification of sudden changes in the foetus health, by continuously monitoring the foetus movements. The Smart-Clothing project aim has been the development of easy-to-wear belts with a telemedicine system for this purpose. One of the tried solutions is the Flex sensor belt system, which guarantees real-time and continuous foetal monitoring while creating effective interfaces for querying sensor data and store all the medical record (which can later be accessed by health professionals). Another developed belt has piezoelectric sensors incorporated onto it. The piezoelectric sensor belt has shown a high capacity to detect foetal movements, isolating them from external interferences.

The occupational health and safety of workers in industrial plants are increasingly compromised through exposure to thermal, physical, and psychological stressors. Wearable sensors embedded in garments have been introduced as a promising technology for real-time, continuous health monitoring without compromising workers' mobility or comfort. This paper reviews recent literature on wearable sensor technologies embedded in textiles, with a focus on their applicability in industrial settings. The paper identifies the key physiological parameters commonly monitored (e.g., heart rate, skin temperature, respiratory rate, and skin conductance), the materials and sensor types used, as well as the methods of integration into garments. Based on the findings, a conceptual model for a smart textile monitoring system tailored to industrial workers is proposed. The aim is to support the development of ergonomic, accessible, unobtrusive, and effective solutions that promote occupational health and prevent work-related illnesses.

O objecto de estudo em análise é o design de figurinos para a performance artística, envolvido num campo de acção onde a moda tem carácter de obra de arte, contribuindo para evocar emoções. Para tal, o uso de novas tecnologias têxteis é fulcral na criação da forma significante, que será dinâmica e interactiva, coadjuvando o performer na sua actuação, numa ligação cada vez mais estreita entre aquilo que ele expressa e o que o vestuário caracteriza. A problemática em causa assenta no facto de o potencial dos protótipos inteligentes e semi-inteligentes não ter ainda sido direccionado para responder verdadeiramente a estímulos psicológicos do utilizador e comunicar deliberadamente emoções específicas. O contributo realmente cognitivo do vestuário em questão está em encerrar a comunicação bidireccional performer/público, emoldurada pelos estímulos do meio ambiente, e na qual o figurino ganha significado. A combinação entre tecnologia e cognição sumaria a co-experiência em que se vêem envolvidos naquele campo de acção. É então necessário compreender interligações e níveis de interacção entre superfície têxtil e o seu suporte (o corpo), fazendo convergir territórios simultaneamente funcionais e emocionais, para permitir a elaboração de figurinos que reajam a estímulos, colocando o utilizador e o meio ambiente como actuadores de funções específicas. Para aliar ciência e técnica, numa prática do design que englobe conceitos como design de interacção, co-design e design participativo, é apropriado recorrer a uma metodologia mista, não intervencionista e intervencionista e de base qualitativa. Num vestuário que une forma e fundo, objecto e contexto, performer e expectador, a inovação está no contributo recíproco para os campos do design e da engenharia têxtil. Espera-se, com esta investigação, aproximar a inteligência têxtil àquela que lhe deu origem (a humana), conjugando noções de materialidade e imaterialidade. Com o dinamismo do vestuário e a interacção por este proporcionada a reflectirem um enfoque na redefinição do corpo como espelho da mente, desafiamos os limites conceptuais e plásticos da moda.

Electronic textiles and functional fabrics are among the key constituents envisioned for wearable electronics applications. For e‐textiles, the challenge is to process materials of desired electronic properties such as piezoelectricity into fibers to be integrated as wefts or wraps in the fabrics. Nylons, first introduced in the 1940s for stockings, are among the most widely used synthetic fibers in textiles. However, realization of nylon‐based e‐textiles has remained elusive due to the difficulty of achieving the piezoelectric phase in the nylon fibers. Here, piezoelectric nylon‐11 fibers are demonstrated and it is shown that the resulting fibers are viable for applications in energy harvesting from low frequency mechanical vibrations and in motion sensors. A simulation study is presented that elucidates on the sensitivity of the nylon‐11 fibers toward external mechanical stimuli. Moreover, a strategy is proposed and validated to significantly boost the electrical performance of the fibers. Since a large fraction of the textile industry is based on nylon fibers, the demonstration of piezoelectric nylon fibers will be a major step toward realization of electronic textiles for applications in apparels, health monitoring, sportswear, and portable energy generation.

This paper presents a wireless sensor network for smart electronic shirts. This allows the monitoring of individual biomedical data, such the cardio-respiratory function. The solution chosen to transmit the body’s measured signals for further processing was the use of a wireless link, working at the 2.4 GHz ISM band. A radio-frequency transceiver chip was designed in a UMC RF 0.18 μm CMOS process. The power supply of the transceiver is 1.8 V. Simulations show a power consumption of 12.9 mW. Innovative topics concerning efficient power management was taken into account during the design of the transceiver.

Smart textile behaviour encompasses changes over time, which are triggered upon a sensed stimulus. With a focus on dynamic qualities, this research sought to study how gradual and reversible transitions of smart textiles can be influenced by the activation variable – stimuli magnitude. Taking into account an analysis of different external stimuli for the same property change, the experimental work was conducted with Colour Change Materials, namely textiles screen printed with thermo, photo and hydrochromic pigments. The results attained demonstrate how stimuli magnitude can affect textile temporal expressions, in this case: hue, saturation and lightness, as well as pace change. In addition, different considerations also arose in respect to each stimulus’ energy type and interdependencies between stimuli types. Contributing to the understanding of dynamic qualities of smart textiles and chromic materials’ properties, this research also discusses further alternatives to explore textile behaviour towards new design possibilities for smart textiles as dynamic interfaces.

This paper presents a smart suit, water impermeable, containing sensors and electronics for monitoring handicapped people at hydrotherapy sessions in swimming-pools. For integration into textiles, electronic components should be designed in a functional, robust and inexpensive way. Therefore, small-size electronics microsystems are a promising approach. The smart suit allows the monitoring of individual biometric data, such as heart rate, temperature and movement of the body. Two solutions for transmitting the data wirelessly are presented: through a low-voltage (3.0 V), low-power, CMOS RF IC (1.6 mm x 1.5 mm size dimensions) operating at 433 MHz, with ASK modulation and a patch antenna built on lossy substrates compatible with integrated circuits fabrication. Two different substrates were used for antenna implementation: high-resistivity silicon (HRS) and Corning Pyrex #7740 glass. The antenna prototypes were built to operate close to the 5 GHz ISM band. They operate at a center frequency of 5.705 GHz (HRS) and 5.995 GHz (Pyrex). The studied parameters were: substrate thickness, substrate losses, oxide thickness, metal conductivity and thickness. The antenna on HRS uses an area of 8 mm2, providing a 90 MHz bandwidth and ~0.3 dBi of gain. On a glass substrate, the antenna uses 12 mm2, provides 100 MHz bandwidth and ~3 dBi of gain.

Smart textiles have become a promising area of research for heating applications. Coatings with nanomaterials allow the introduction of different functionalities, enabling doped textiles to be used in sensing and heating applications. These coatings were made on a piece of woven cotton fabric through screen printing, with a different number of layers. To prepare the paste, nanomaterials such as graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) and multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were added to a polyurethane-based polymeric resin, in various concentrations. The electrical conductivity of the obtained samples was measured and the heat-dissipating capabilities assessed. The results showed that coatings have induced electrical conductivity and heating capabilities. The highest electrical conductivity of (9.39 ± 1.28 × 10<sup>−1</sup> S/m) and (9.02 ± 6.62 × 10<sup>−2</sup> S/m) was observed for 12% (<i>w</i>/<i>v</i>) GNPs and 5% (<i>w</i>/<i>v</i>) (CNTs + GNPs), respectively. The sample with 5% (<i>w</i>/<i>v</i>) (CNTs + GNPs) and 12% (<i>w</i>/<i>v</i>) GNPs exhibited a Joule effect when a voltage of 12 V was applied for 5 min, and a maximum temperature of 42.7 °C and 40.4 °C were achieved, respectively. It can be concluded that higher concentrations of GNPs can be replaced by adding CNTs, still achieving nearly the same performance. These coated textiles can potentially find applications in the area of heating, sensing, and biomedical applications.

The aging of population worldwide and the increasing of average life expectancy of the world population become a social and economic problem for society. It's necessary to provide solutions which can maintain the independency of elderly and their mobility, along more time, avoiding the unnecessary perma-nence in hospitals and institutions for the elderly. The use of IoT using textiles is a very interesting approach because of the proximity of people to these materials. This work reviews the development on IoT using textiles to increase the mobility of elderly people and concludes that this is a field of growing interest. Although, there is few investigation, especially in what concerns studies focusing on the im-portance of improving the mobility of the elderly. There are studies that lead to the possibility of promoting this physical capability but have not been designed for that purpose, but we believe that approach of the problem of mobility of elderly people using the IoT based on clothes should be treated with specificity, because the consequences of this not happening, will affect not only the elderly but the whole society.

A Moda no século XXI, emerge sob uma nova forma de expressão e de comunicação resultante da interação entre o Design e a Tecnologia. Desta simbiose, surgem novos e fascinantes mundos visuais, onde o aleatório é trabalhado em analogias artísticas que trazem consigo dois conceitos, “Ser digital” e “Mobile”. Nas sociedades atuais, assiste-se à globalização da eletrónica portátil, aos avanços no campo da tecnologia de miniaturização sem fios e em rede e fomenta-­se o uso diário de dispositivos eletrónicos portáteis. As possibilidades oferecidas por determinadas linguagens de programação, nomeadamente o Processing - e microprocessadores, como é exemplo o Arduíno, alteraram o papel e o trabalho do Designer de Moda colocando-o perante uma mudança de paradigma que vai levar a novos domínios da criação artística e à adoção de novos materiais e materialidades. A tese que aqui apresentamos teve como base esta realidade, reflete o nosso percurso de investigação que se objetivou na exploração das potencialidades criativas dos materiais com características computacionais - de controlo, de interação e de projeção gráfica e auditiva, hoje comummente designados por Tecnologia Wearable - quando aplicados ao Design da Moda.