Electronically functional fibre technology development for ambient intelligence

Most of everyday clothing consists of textile fibres woven together to produce a fabric. Their primary purpose is structural and aesthetic. Fibres can have added functionality by the integration of computing power into the material that forms them. The purpose of the “fibre computing” concept is to integrate this new dimension of functionality into fibres, thus turning everyday objects into intelligent artefacts. The objective is to make large flexible integrated systems for wearable applications and high-tech-textile products by building functional fibres with single crystal silicon transistors at its core. The concept of wearable computing opens entirely new possibilities in areas such as medical monitoring and telemedicine, sports and athletics, entertainment and expressive musical/dance performance (Gemperle 1998). It offers the potential of harnessing a very high degree of applicable functional processing power for the user in a particularly convenient manner through the placement of non-invasive sensors around the body. However, a key barrier to this are the challenges associated with the unobtrusive deployment of effective sensors. Even current state of the art (VivoMetrics), in integrating electronics into wearable systems comprises of previously packaged integrated electronic components, interconnected with each other by means of conductive fibres and enclosed by protective material/casing. An approach more conducive to everyday living, which would enable this technology to recede even further into the background is required. The solution is the development of a novel technology for creating intelligent fibres.