TESC

The heated vest

The fishing vest

Model of human body impedance and placement of the electrodes.

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Smart Clothing

TESC, Technologies Enabling Smart Clothing

The objective of the project is to research basic solutions, what have to be noticed when designing a smart clothing. Project started in summer 2000 and it lasted for three years.

The heated vest

The result of the first year was an electrically heated smart clothing. It warms the user of the clothing safely to desired temperature while maximum peak load of the batteries is low as possible. Hardware of heated clothing can be divided to four articles; heated clothing, measurement unit, power control unit and power source. The heated clothing is based on a vest with long sleeves and it contains digital temperature sensors and electrically heated carbon fabric panels for heating. The temperature sensors measure the skin temperatures of the user. The power control unit uses these measurements for controlling heating power of the heating panels. The user interface of the system is implemented on a handheld Palm Pilot III. Via user interface the user can set the set values of heating, put heating on or off and control performance of measurements. The electric power for the system is taken from high energy density nickel-metal hydride batteries.

The measurement unit performs both temperature and humidity measurements by sensors, and also transfers information between Palm Pilot and power control unit. The heating panels which heat the clothing consists of electric conductive woven carbon fabric.

The vest itself with the sensors is machine washable, but its printed circuit boards and sensitive heating panels have to be detached before washing. After washing the clothing must be dried to avoid short circuit.

Data transfer has been accomplished with cables now, but next research area will focus possibilities of wireless data transfer. Also appearance of vest will change.

The fishing vest

The result of the second year was the fishing vest, which can trace its position and help in navigation. Positioning has become an important function in personal devices allowing users to access information according to place and time, in addition to aiding navigation. Personal Position Manager (PPM) is a wearable application that is especially intended for fishing, but it is suitable for any activity where positioning is needed. The system is constructed using a fishing vest and the functionality encompasses navigation help and notebook properties.

The basic function of the system is to record good fishing places, so that fishers can find the best catch places again. It is also possible to ask the route to a desired destination point that is saved earlier into system memory, to record continuously the last 10 km of travelled route, and to follow a route travelled.

The fishing vest is implemented and tested in actual environment during the spring 2002. The system has been found easy to use.

The wearable bioimpedance measurement system

The result of the third year was the wearable bioimpedance measurement system for Smart Clothing. Bioimpedance of a human body produces a great deal of information about the changes of the body during different kinds of activities. According to the measured impedance for example the amount of water in the body can be derived. This kind of information would be very useful e.g. for athletes. At the moment the impedance measurement systems, intended for measuring the human body, are quite complex, expensive, and they are not designed for measuring a mobile user.

In this research a wearable bioimpedance measurement system has been implemented. The measurement system has been integrated into an outerwear jacket and trousers. Many tests have been carried out. From the measurement results the behaviour of the total body water value can be calculated.

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Updated , Hokkanen Mirja