Scientists are weaving new technology into an old item of apparel, giving it a dazzling array of possibilities that could save lives in the future.

Imagine a shirt that monitors your body’s vital signs in combat conditions, detects bullet wounds and can sense the presence of chemical weapons to automatically seal, clean and decontaminate itself.

Originally designed for the US Navy, the smart shirt was developed as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Advanced BioMedical Technologies Program. It consists of woven optical fibers that collect data from small sensors attached to the body. Capable of allowing any number of appropriate sensors to be plugged in and attached to any part of the individual being monitored, the shirt functions much like what Jayaraman calls “a wearable motherboard,” and can be customized to suit different applications. The military version of the smart shirt can sense a bullet tearing into the body and instantly transmit information about the location and severity of the wound, along with an emergency distress signal specifying the individual’s exact co-ordinates.

“The shirt has the capability of transmitting the vital signs to any device using the present generation of communications protocol—for example, WiFi (802.11b) or any other [radio frequency] transmission device,” Jayaraman told HSToday. “Thus, it would be possible to transmit the data from the soldier on a battlefield in Afghanistan to his nearby triage unit, or from an urban fighter in Baghdad to a command center in Fort Benning, Georgia, and so on.”

Saving lives

Being able to continuously monitor the vital signs of firefighters, law enforcement personnel or combat soldiers in an unobtrusive way could save valuable seconds, enabling medics to reach their patients within the golden hour when immediate attention can prevent loss of life.

“Law enforcement officers on inner-city beats are constantly under risk of assault and even death,” Jayaraman pointed out. “If every one of them had a smart shirt on with his or her vitals being sent to the precinct control station in real time, the appropriate rescue teams could be sent to save their lives, if something went wrong. Taken one step further, a back-end database with the officer’s medical data could be accessed in real time in the ambulance, thus significantly improving the chances of survival through timely and correct intervention.”

Capabilities

Currently, the smart shirt can monitor a variety of vital signs, including heart rate, respiration rate and body temperature, and can also record the wearer’s voice through a microphone plugged into the shirt. With an unlimited number of sensors that can be added to the wearable network, the unit cost of which is estimated at $25, it provides a lightweight and inexpensive way to integrate a range of sensing, monitoring and information processing devices designed to meet the user’s requirements.

The shirt can also transmit data to the wearer from external sources, making it possible for him to receive critical instructions.

In a test run, scientists were able to monitor the heart rate and electrocardiogram (EKG) of a racecar driver from the racing pit in real time.

Currently eyed by the firefighting industry as an extra layer of protection, the shirt could prove to be invaluable for firefighters who run the risk of dying from heart attacks during a fire or being burnt to death when a room explodes.

“A sensor to detect oxygen levels or hazardous gases can be integrated into a variation of the Smart Shirt that will be used by firefighters,” said Jayaraman. “This information, along with the vital signs, can be transmitted to the command center or fire station where personnel can continuously monitor the firefighter’s condition and provide appropriate instructions, including ordering the individual to evacuate the scene, if necessary.”

Alternate approaches

While embedding electronics in cloth to create smarter textiles is one approach, the next generation of multifunctional clothing being explored by scientists could be more inherently intelligent than envisioned. Sergiy Minko at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY, one of world’s leading experts in the field of smart materials, and his team are working on creating intelligent textiles: Fabric that has the ability to physically react to changes in the environment, such as humidity, temperature and presence of chemicals to name a few.

“Skin is a good example of a material capable of smart responses based on outside stimuli,” said Minko. “The pores open and close based on temperature and humidity, and thus help the body to regulate its internal temperature. The idea is to create materials more persistent and stable than skin, but as perfect and sensitive in terms of rapid response to their environment.”

Currently, Minko’s team has created coatings that repel water contaminated with biological and chemical weapons, and they are working to transfer the behavior from model systems to cloth. The fabric made could also respond to a variety of situations: By weaving fibers coated separately with humidity-sensitive, temperature-sensitive or magnetically responsive coatings, a single piece of cloth could be created that would react to all changes in all factors. Practical examples, though, are at least one to two years away.

Looking ahead

Jayaraman believes that the future for smart clothing lies in it transitioning from a “passive” to an “interactive” state.

“Certain individuals are susceptible to an allergic reaction when stung by a bee or spider and need a shot of adrenaline immediately to prevent illness or even a fatality,” said Jayaraman. “By applying advancements in MEMS (micro-electro mechanical systems) technology, a feedback system, including a drug-delivery system, can be integrated into the smart shirt so that the individual can receive this shot as she or he is going into this reaction. Thus, the textile is not only ‘monitoring’ the individual, but the integration with electronics is making it ‘interactive,’ i.e., being ‘responsive’ to what is happening to the individual in real time. Of course, mechanisms to guard against inadvertent administration of the drug can be built as part of the control system.”

So what are we likely to realistically see in the near future? Jeff Thacker, who holds the title of “futurist” at the EDS corporation in Plano, Texas, believes that the changes will be many.

“MEMS are a perfect augmentation to clothing that will allow detection of environmental factors that could affect the health of the wearer,” said Thacker. “We’ll most likely see chemical, radiological, biological detectors added to the soldier’s equipment to detect the presence of deadly environmental elements and notify the soldier and central command, and nano-treated uniforms that repel contaminants. There will probably be limited medical informatics that will monitor the condition of the soldier, notify central command of casualties, and small location-based detectors and communicators that allow the soldier to be tracked on the battlefield. Because of the challenges presented by modern warfare, these devices are currently being investigated by military worldwide and will be deployed to selective troops within the next 10 years.” HST