The recent AATCC Review feature explores these non-utilitarian uses of e-textiles and wearable electronics ("wearables"). But utilitarian functions for e-textiles don't have to be drab and dreary either. Whether they're for frivolous fun or serious function, the purpose of e-textiles is to improve people's quality of life.

Making Life Easier
One of the main aims for developing smart fabrics and clothing is to "improve the inherent disadvantages of traditional clothing," says Faming Wang, a graduate student at the Thermal Environment Laboratory of Lund University. "Take electrically heated clothing (EHC) for example: it is thin but can keep the consumers warm and comfortable. Traditional cold protective clothing is bulky and heavy, and may limit human body activity and finger dexterity, reduce human performance, and increase work load and muscular strain. With EHC, we can easily solve these problems."

Solving problems and making life easier is a job for e-textiles—not just clothing, but any textile product. "E-textiles can make life easier," says textile artist, Lynne Bruning. "A handbag can be illuminated by an inside light when opened. Keys linked to a purse with an RFID chip can make the purse vibrate if you try to leave home without the keys. Wallets RFID-linked to a purse can make the purse beep if you try to leave home without the wallet."

Making Life Better
E-textiles are not just for convenience, but can make life better in substantial ways—like keeping people out of the hospital and in their own homes. "An outstanding opportunity for wearables is that they make non-invasive contact sensing possible. For example, conductive bed-sheets that detect medical problems," says Clive van Heerden of Philips Design. "Monitoring health-related issues non-invasively is liberating. If it can be part of the fabric, it can integrate more easily into people's daily lives. Otherwise, people are trapped or strapped into machines. Even if those machines are portable, it's marginalizing because it looks strange, and makes people feel self-conscious. If the sensor is an integral part of their clothing or furnishings, it becomes effectively invisible and unobtrusive."

Making Life Richer
Adaptive technology clothed in e-textiles can serve to enrich the life of a disabled person. Lynne Bruning's Bats Have Feelings Too is a "sonar garment to [help] the visually impaired navigate the built environment. It's made from a Lilypad main board, LV-MaxSonar ultrasonic range finder, and a LilyPad vibeboard. The range finder can be set to locate a solid object...in front of the user and turn the vibeboard on—alerting the user to stop before walking into a solid object," says Bruning.

Unlike a lot of adaptive technology for the disabled, the "sonar" technology is housed in an attractive jacket—not just a useful tool, but a stylish accessory. "Adaptive technology has to look good as well as function," says Bruning. "If the adaptive device is integrated and looks good, it keeps people feeling good about themselves."

The Thumping Threads group at the University of Michigan designed a jacket to "give deaf or hard of hearing individuals a new perspective on the sonic realm," says group member Robert Alexander. "Sound is translated into tactile information through a series of vibrating motors along the spine. We've seamlessly woven this technology into the jacket such that it can be worn inconspicuously to a live concert or a film screening." The jacked was designed to allow the translation of sound to vibration within a wearable garment.

Again, the designers focused on creating a stylish, as well as useful garment. "We wanted a garment that was both functional and fashionable," says Alexander. "While the technology alone lets the user feel sound through a set of vibrating motors, the combination of fabric and technology creates a smart fabric that can do what no other ordinary fabric can. We created an article of clothing that is not only a unique sensory experience, but also a stylishly modern garment," says Alexander.