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Autonomous Sensor Networks pp 127–158Cite as

Smart Textiles: Technology and Wireless System Network Applications

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Part of the book series: Springer Series on Chemical Sensors and Biosensors ((SSSENSORS,volume 13))

Abstract

In the last two decades, many research groups and industrial companies have been and are putting much efforts in developing and using fabrics in which electronics, digital components as well as computing can be embedded. These fabrics are identified as E-textiles (e.g., electronic textiles or smart textiles). Starting from the established concept, which asserts that future systems need to be more suitably interfaced with the humans with minimal discomfort and maximum acceptability, the possibility enabled by the E-textile platforms of developing wearable and intelligent technology in terms of everyday textiles and clothes, has made them one of the most important and interesting front-end between the biological and the technological world. One field of application of these innovative textiles is the ambient intelligence, where the use of wireless system network (WSN), body area network (BAN), or wireless body/personal area network (WB/PAN) has made it possible to integrate information coming from the environment, context awareness, and the habits of people during their activities, opening new areas of research on mental and emotional status as well as human behavior in different cultural environments. This chapter is focused on the research literature of the textile-based systems and aims at showing how and where they are currently used. Starting from the textile apparel, i.e. the technology used today for their construction, the chapter reports on the characterization, integration of electronic components and, finally, briefly it illustrates some E-textile-based WBAN platforms applications on network architecture for health care and lifestyle.

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Abbreviations

BAN:

Body area network

DOFs:

Degrees of freedom

EAPs:

Electro active polymers

HIPAA:

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

IBC:

Intra-body communications

PA:

Personal activity

PC:

Personal computer

PDA:

Personal digital assistant

PHS:

Personalized health systems

PPG:

PhotoPlethysmoGram

PPy:

Polypyrrole

PSKA:

Physiological signal based key agreement

PVC:

Polyvinylchloride

SFIT:

Smart fabrics and interactive textiles

TDMA:

Time-division multiple access

WB/PAN:

Wireless body/personal area network

WEALTHY:

Wearable Health Care System

WHMS:

Wearable Health Monitoring Systems

WSN:

Wireless system network

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Engineering, Interdepartmental Research Centre “E. Piaggio,”, University of Pisa, Via Caruso 16, 56100, Pisa, Italy

    Antonio Lanatà & Enzo Pasquale Scilingo

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  1. Antonio Lanatà
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  2. Enzo Pasquale Scilingo
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Correspondence to Antonio Lanatà .

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  1. , Department of Physics, Chemistry and Bio, IFM - Linköping University, Office M314, Linköping, 58183, Sweden

    Daniel Filippini

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Lanatà, A., Scilingo, E.P. (2012). Smart Textiles: Technology and Wireless System Network Applications. In: Filippini, D. (eds) Autonomous Sensor Networks. Springer Series on Chemical Sensors and Biosensors, vol 13. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/5346_2012_29

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