Ebook: Intelligent Textiles for Personal Protection and Safety

Terrorism has become an integral part of everyday life in recent years and has dramatically affected the quality of life for individuals in society. Technology is the key to combating terrorism and protecting ordinary citizens, first responders and soldiers, among others, from danger. The area of intelligent or smart textiles is a rather new but rapidly emerging discipline with a high potential for payoff in the fight against terrorism.

This Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) was organized to fill the critical need to bring together the leading experts in the field to make an in-depth assessment of existing knowledge in the area of intelligent (smart) textiles for personal protection and safety, and to identify directions for future research. An important outcome or “deliverable” of the Workshop has been the “Research Roadmap” for the future in keeping with NATO's goals for the ARW program. This first-of-its-kind ARW in this field also provided a forum for young scientists and engineers to interact closely with the invited experts and participate in developing the Research Roadmap that is expected to advance this emerging discipline through collaborative research between NATO and Partner countries.

This book contains the papers presented by the Invited Speakers at the ARW. Each chapter in the book provides an in-depth assessment of one particular facet of this emerging discipline. The chapters build on each other further reflecting the integrated and interdisciplinary theme underlying the ARW.

As Co-Directors, we would like to express our sincere thanks and appreciation to all who contributed to the success of the ARW: to NATO for the generous grant; to the fellow members of the Organizing Committee, viz., Professor Danilo De Rossi of the University of Pisa, Italy, Professor Lieva Van Langenhove of Ghent University, Belgium, and Ms. Sungmee Park of the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA; to Dr. Carla Hertleer of Ghent University, Belgium, for her help during the ARW planning stage; to Ms. Judith Kenis, Ghent University, Belgium, for coordinating the logistics that resulted in a productive and enjoyable ARW; to the Invited Speakers, Participants and Discussion Leaders for providing the stimulating intellectual content of the ARW; again to Ms. Sungmee Park for her extensive help in the preparation of this book for publication; and finally, to the IOS Press staff for their assistance in the timely production of the book.

Sundaresan Jayaraman, Paul Kiekens, Ana Marija Grancaric

December 2005

Terrorism has become an integral part of everyday life in recent years and has dramatically affected the quality of life for individuals in society. Technology is the key to combating terrorism and protecting ordinary citizens and first responders from danger. Textiles are pervasive and the array of polymers, fibers and manufacturing technologies enable the creation of large shape-conformable surface areas that can serve as viable platforms for sensors – human worn and environmental – to detect, possibly prevent, and protect against the devastating results of acts of terrorism. In this paper, we present a typical “terrorist incident response scenario” and discuss the need for a systems approach to enhancing personal protection and safety. We discuss the various types of threats, identify the types of individual protection needed for the various threats, and discuss the threat-specific parameters that need to be monitored. Finally, we present the need for – and identify unique aspects of – research in the various building blocks of this emerging discipline of intelligent textiles for personal protection and safety.

Sensors are pervasive – from homes to battlefields, and everywhere in-between. They are facilitating information processing anytime, anywhere for anyone. Likewise, textiles are pervasive and span the continuum of life from infants to senior citizens. The invention of the Jacquard weaving machine led to the concept of a stored “program” and “mechanized” binary information processing. This development served as the inspiration for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine – the precursor to the modern day computer, which has since spawned the growth of sensor networks in recent years. In this paper, we explore the potential synergy between sensor networks and textiles, and identify the need to bring about a seamless “integration” between the two domains. We then present the i-Textiles (Interactive Textiles) paradigm and its role in realizing this type of integration for creating a technological solution to enhance individual protection and safety. We discuss the design of the Wearable Motherboard in the context of sensor networks. Finally, we present an overview of the major applications of i-Textiles-based sensor networks and conclude the paper with a look at the future of the paradigm of “fabric is the computer.”

The properties of new filtering materials for protection of respiratory tracts composed of melt- blown PP nonwovens and electrospun layers of PAN fibres are presented. The materials manufactured are characterised by the following parameters: diameter of the electrospun fibres, filtering efficiency of sodium chloride aerosol and paraffin oil mist, breathing resistance and bacterial penetration. The analysis of the influence of the electrospinning process' technological conditions on the value of the characteristics discussed is presented.

Kinesthetic and haptic interfaces between humans and machines are currently under development in a truly wearable form, using innovative technologies based on electroactive polymers. The integration of electroactive polymeric materials into wearable garments is a viable means to confer them strain sensing and actuation properties. The methodology underlying the design of kinesthetic and haptic systems with the combined use of new polymeric electroactive materials in configurations compatible with a textile substrate can provide new avenues toward the realization of truly wearable interfaces. In this chapter, the conception, early stage implementation and preliminary testing of fabric-based wearable interfaces endowed with spatially redundant strain sensing and simple actuation properties are illustrated with reference to preliminary prototypes.

In the first part of this article basic definitions of communication apparel, describing the process of conception and its main components are introduced. Building blocks that have to be used in order to realize these generations of apparel are then mentioned and analyzed from the point of view of textiles. A classification of innovative communicative and intelligent functions attributed to communication apparel is also developed together with three different approaches to camouflage fabrics creation. In the second part of the chapter, a new development methodology of flexible textile display fabric is described. The screen matrix is produced during the weaving process, using the texture of the fabric. A small electronics device integrated into the system controls the LEDs that light groups of fibers. Each group provides light to one “pixel” on the matrix. A specific control of the matrix is then performed by wireless telecommunication services, providing instant access to the downloading of various patterns and cartoons inside the clothing. Initially developed in the field of communicative clothing, this new kind of display can also be applied to any field that requires compact and flexible devices. Moreover, it is also possible to produce large-sized displays using this technology. Various applications are to be considered, namely in the fields of personal flexible displays, camouflage fabric realization and many others.

Conductive fibres have become available over the last years. Arranging them in different ways in textile structures can provide several functionalities to the textile material, like sensing. This paper will give an overview of the principles on which such sensors can be based. The sensors should have a full textile character, including resistance against multiple deformation and laundry. Research shows that for many textile structures the sensor capacity decreases during use.

Optical sensors offer a wide field of application and are of potential utility in all kinds of analytical sciences. Typical area is pollution and process control, biotechnology, protection and defense, seawater analysis, clinical chemistry and invasive biomedical techniques. The interdisciplinary nature of optical chemical sensors opens a variety of new directions in sensor development. The issue of chemical selectivity is still the most challenging. There are several on-going directions for improving the selectivity of optical chemical sensors. One way is certainly in the field of supramolecular organic chemistry, and in the synthesis of the highly selective receptor molecules which will posses a chromogenic or fluorogenic part. Furthermore, biomonitoring can serve as a basis and the first step towards the development of “living sensors”. It is already a well-established in the field of environmental analysis and there are big potentials in the area of protection (DNA chips). In addition, the development in sensor materials opens a number of new possibilities, such as incorporation of organic and biochemical specific sites into inorganic matrices and all this knowledge could be resumed in development of new optical sensors based on molecular imprinted polymers. The recent progress in miniaturized integrated optical sensors offer several advantages, such as a possibility of mass-producing, low-cost sensor chips. By placing multiple sensing regions (sensing pads) on a single chip, the multi-component sensing with on-chip referencing becomes possible.

Protective clothing enables humans to operate in adverse environments. However, protective clothing limits heat transfer and hampers task performance due to the increased weight. A good balance has to be achieved between protection on the one hand and human factors aspects on the other hand. In general, the focus is on the protection and consequently human factors aspects are underestimated. Improving ventilation through and under the protective clothing increases sweat efficiency and thus reduces heat strain. Ideally, the sizing of the protective clothing should reflect the human body dimensions. A relatively loose fit enables a wider movement range and better ventilation. In summary, in the selection and evaluation of protective clothing attention should be given to heat strain and fit issues next to the actual protection it offers.