ENVIRONMENT
Stuart Jones
Research Fellow, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, UK

Smart Textiles and the built environment

In ubiquitous computing, one of the key questions is: how, in a distributed network, do you get data from the user to the computer and vice versa? Within this question there are other specificities: is the user’s identity important to the transaction? What kind of transaction is taking place within what kind of computer modality (data management, environmental control, affective computing etc.)?

Smart textiles can play an important role in all these potential scenarios. For the identified user, smart clothing with appropriate transmission capabilities can be the means of identification, allowing them access to data and facilities at different locations and allowing the network to operate in different modes and levels depending on information coming via their clothing and their databased profile; some sorts of messages or sensations could be sent to the user via their clothing, depending on its reception and performance capabilities. In more open situations, smart textiles in the built environment can provide a key interface in a general sensing environment, where other technologies might be video and audio sensing. They could register pressure, movement, temperature, electrical charge, sweat chemistry. Data such as body temperature, skin electrical charge, sweat chemistry would be particularly useful in the field of affective computing, where the computer system assesses emotional states in order to modulate its response. In responsive environments, the ability of textiles to change their appearance or texture would be a useful part of the environment’s expressive repertoire.

These capabilities have wide potential application: in leisure/pleasure environments; in the aware home or office, where the environment can assess user needs and respond appropriately; in medical and sports laboratories, where the assessment of physical states in a range of situations is essential. Applications could also be found in automotive/travel, and retail environments.

Links to Research Bodies Working within the field of Environment

Intelligent Environments in the Everyday