G. STYLIOS, DANYING Research Institute for Flexiblematerials (RIFleX), Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
A collection of high fashion clothes has been designed and made up which have a number of SMART characteristics. Electric power is provided by an array of flexible photovoltaic strips which have been carefully arranged within the design aesthetic of the garment. They are connected with conductive cloth and their energy is collected via a miniaturized electric circuit and a charged Li battery cell for storage.
This energy harvesting capability is two fold; one to charge mobile phones, PDAs, etc and another to provide the necessary energy to an undergarment which is made of a woven luminescent fabric capable of changing colour. The mood changing function of the electroluminescent fabric is provided by another miniaturised circuit which has a microphone incorporated in it.
The microphone picks up our voice and by analyzing its characteristics it determines in a logic programmed in the circuitry, whether we are under stress or relaxed and it changes the colour of the garment via LEDs carefully incorporated in the garment design. The garments are made up and form part of a wider collection. Care is particularly given not to use any cabling and everything to form part of the fabric and garment designs.
