Printed flexible electronics bring smarter smart clothes closer to reality

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By Matthew Griffin Industrial Revolution 13th September 2020

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Smaller and more flexible electronics and computer components will help us create even more intelligent smart clothes that can monitor our wellbeing in immense depth and detail.

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One day our clothes will be embedded with all manner of computing, electronics, energy, and sensing technologies, but unlike today’s technologies which are quite bulky, tomorrow they’ll all be next to invisible, and transparently integrated into the fabrics in your clothing.

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Now, in a step to realising this future researchers at the University of Oulu, together with their partners from VTT Technical Research Center and Polar Electro, have announced they’ve developed a new system of electrodes and electronics that can be integrated into our clothing and that can withstand our daily routines – something that’s very important given the amount of wear and tear our clothes go through whether it’s when we’re out and about or when they’re spinning round in a washing machine.

The new flexible electronic system. Courtesy: UO

“This work brings us one step closer to smart clothing ubiquity, where our apparel, in addition to monitoring our health and surrounding environment, will be changing its appearance and properties accordingly to our wishes,” says Adjunct Professor Rafal Sliz, the leader of this study.

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The results published in the recent open-access issue of NPJ Flexible Electronics provide new insights into novel methods of fabrication of inexpensive and reliable electronics that are essential for smart clothing.

“Roll-to-roll technology allows high-speed and large-area printing of the electronic subsystems analogously to newspaper printing processes,” says Olli-Heikki Huttunen, VTT researcher that supervised the printing trials.

Prof. Sliz emphasizes another aspect of the study – the ability to implement the results to create sustainable smart clothing, where environmentally friendly and biodegradable materials can replace plastics and harmful substances.

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“Although electronic devices have surrounded us for a long time, their applicability in clothing has been limited by inflexibility and vulnerability to changing conditions we face daily. This research shows how to resolve these limitations and improve our everyday life,” says Professor Tapio Fabritius, a leader of the Optoelectronics and Measurement Techniques Unit, where the research has been conducted.

Source: University of Oulu

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Matthew Griffin, multi-award winning Futurist and named Futurist of the Year 2024, has been described as a "Walking encyclopaedia of the future" by NASA and a futurist polymath. One of the world's most renowned futurists and strategic foresight experts Matthew is the 15 times author of the blockbuster "Codex of the Future" series, and is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working across the next 50 years, XPotential University, the world's first free futures and foresight university, and the World Futures Forum which works with the United Nations to solve the worlds greatest challenges. Matthew is an in demand international keynote, acclaimed university lecturer and mentor, and host of the hit Fanatical Futurist podcast.

A rare talent in his past Matthew helped build and run several multi-billion dollar business units for Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, and his ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77+ governments, and many of the world's most respected brands including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Disney, Dow, EY, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, and many others. He was also the only futurist invited to talk at the UN COP28 held in Dubai alongside world leaders.

Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.