Jacket uses AI to keep you comfortable

Electronic textiles, such as heating pads and electric blankets, can keep the wearer warm and help ease aches and pains. However, prolonged use of these devices could cause heat-related illnesses, including hyperthermia or burns. Recently, a group of researchers designed and tested a “smart” jacket equipped with environmental sensors, heat-generating and color-changing yarns, and artificial intelligence (AI) to control temperature and prevent overheating. Their results are published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. 

Some electronic textiles, or e-textiles, have sensors that can monitor the wearer’s heart rate, blood pressure and movement, or can connect via Bluetooth to mobile apps that control temperature. Yet, even with technological advances, users can still be injured by these products. Older people are especially prone to heat-related injuries because of decreased heat sensitivity, and residents of nursing homes and assisted living communities are vulnerable because their temperatures cannot always be easily or frequently monitored by healthcare providers. Jeanne Tan and collaborators believed they could improve e-textile safety by combining AI-driven systems with thermochromic yarn to create a fabric that warms the user without overheating and provides immediate temperature readings for easy monitoring.

The researchers created an intelligent heating jacket from their new e-textile containing heat-generating, silver-coated yarn and two types of thermochromic yarn. The silver-coated yarn warms the garment with less bulk and more flexibility than traditionally used carbon fiber. The AI-based temperature control system incorporated into the jacket was trained on 50 subjects with a range of ages, genders and body types who identified their ideal heat settings in environments with varying temperatures, humidities and wind speeds. The color-changing yarns added a safety feature to the jacket, with one yarn transitioning from purple to pink to indicate a heating temperature above 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) to allow for easy temperature monitoring during the day. In dark environments, the other, polymeric optical fiber yarn gave off a blue, yellow or red glow to indicate temperatures of 86 F (30 C), 104 F (40 C) and 122 F (50 C), respectively.

In a demonstration, the thermochromic and optical fiber yarns in the jacket accurately indicated heating temperature, and the jacket’s AI component predicted a comfortable temperature and provided consistent heating for the wearer, even when the environment changed. In the future, the team says their e-textile technology could be used in various applications, from heated car seats and furniture to spacesuits.

The authors acknowledge funding from the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence in Design under InnoHK Research Clusters, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

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