Smart textile clothes developed for paraplegic patients

Dan Rogers - 29 Jan 2010

Electronic textiles employing plastic electronic fibres could be used in the underwear and socks of paraplegic patients in Swiss hospitals.

The TecInTex project is producing plastic electronic strips that can be woven into patients' clothing to sense motion and activity.

The project, which is being coordinated by the ETH Wearable Computing Lab, is working with the textile industry in Switzerland to ensure materials can be adopted in patient clothing.

Healthcare experts are also being included throughout the project and the demonstrators developed when the initiative ends in December 2011 could be trialled by the Swiss Paraplegic Centre, which is a partner in the project.

Kunigunde Cherenack, senior research fellow at the ETH Wearable Computing Lab, states: 'The demonstrator work project is focusing completely on the medical sector and so we are able to work with the University Hospital Zürich and the Swiss Paraplegic Centre.'

'We're working at a very early stage with people about using these in hospitals - we don't want to start off by using chrome and end up making something that would be toxic, for instance.'

Monitoring

The clothing could be used to analyse movement and protect the health of paraplegic patients.

Says Cherenack: 'We are developing a sock with optical fibres to measure blood flow, which could be used in the rehabilitation of people with medical issues relating to the legs.

'[The underwear] could have pressure sensors or wireless smart electronics, which would detect if people were sat too long in one position and could thus prevent bed sores.'

Cherenack's work group is creating plastic electronics that can be cut and woven into a textile.

The research group is aiming to create fibres that can be woven in a conventional way and meets the material standards of the textile industry, working alongside smart fabric manufacturer Sefar and industry bodies the Swiss Textile Federation and Swiss Texnet.

Cherenack remarks: 'The textile industry is extremely critical of many materials that are termed "smart textiles" - they say that they do not drape properly and are not smooth or soft enough to be proper textiles.'

However, the research team is currently facing the issue of integrating electronic fibres without causing damage, as well as maintaining durability through wear and washing.

Cherenack admits: 'You can encapsulate most of the threads and make them washable, but at some point you have to have conductors and metal parts and that is a weak point for smart textiles. I have a few ideas for solutions but no answer yet.'