Smart Clothes to Change Everyday Life

B R U S S E L S, Belgium, Dec. 8, 2000 -- Clothes that tell you you’ve forgotten your keys or warn you when your wallet is stolen.

A jogging suit that puts you through your paces.

It’s not the stuff of science fiction, but a five-yearproject by the Brussels-based research group Starlab to come upwith a form of “intelligent clothing.”

“[The tracksuit] monitors you starting to run. It configuresdata on your heartbeat. It plays a certain type of music andadapts the rhythm of the music to push you harder or slow youdown,” said Walter Van De Velde, head of the scientificthink tank whose embryonic designs could revolutionize clothing.

“The mobile phone function in the clothing sends the data bye-mail to your sports club, which receives the report on yourtraining by the time you’ve taken your shower.”

For the uninitiated, Van De Velde’s outline evokes theworkout from hell: a relentless personal trainer and no way ofcheating the results.

But intelligent clothing need not just be practical, itcould also indulge nostalgic yearnings, Van De Velde says.

“I like the idea of clothing as memory, which accumulatespart of the impression of the place you are staying, say, onholiday. It would record the freshness of the air, thebackground noise, it would take snapshots like a tourist.”

He even suggests “sound perfume” to revolutionize heat sensors, which wouldpick up the wearer’s mood, detecting panic or embarrassment, andplay music via small speakers to match it.

“The sound of the wind blowing could represent turbulence,”Van De Velde suggested. “As you relax it becomes gentler.”

Artificial Intelligence

Founded by Van De Velde two years ago, Starlab has so farreceived funding from the U.S. space agency NASA, nationalgovernments and the European Commission.

Known as the project’s godfather, Van De Velde left BrusselsUniversity, where he was co-director of the artificialintelligence unit, to help establish the new firm.

Almost one year into its research, Starlab’s i-Wear showedoff its first prototype at its elegant headquarters — an ornateformer embassy where some 60 scientists from 28 countries workon projects ranging from artificial brains to time travel tointelligent clothing.

At this initial stage, the prototype resembles a shirtcomposed of several layers with heat sensors and microphonestucked away in the cuffs and collar to measure light and sound.

The researchers explain that by putting a computer chip inyour car keys, which is then picked up and read by another inyour shirt, the garment could easily recognize if this item wasmissing and alert the wearer.

“We looked at everyday objects — batteries, mobile phones,laptops — and decided to integrate their function — sound,power, communications — into clothing,” Van De Velde said.

Truly Marketable?

In its first phase, the i-Wear prototype still looks weigheddown with gadgets, but the researchers are aiming for a seamlessappearance and more sophisticated mechanism.

“In the long term, we are looking to integrate computingcapabilities into the fabric and fibres themselves,” Van deVelde said. “The way the threads are woven would createdifferent circuits.”

He said scientists had already considered ways to “charge”these fibres such as using washing powder to deposit aconductant which would start generating power once it wasexposed to light, or coating fibres with the same substance.

But would intelligent clothing sell?

Already, 10 international brands have sponsored Starlab’si-Wear project and reaped the fruits of the research.

Among these are well-known names such as sportswear’sAdidas, clothing manufacturer Levi Strauss and luggage makerSamsonite.

“I believe there would be a market for young people, whowould be interested in it, less as a useful thing, but as agadget,” Van de Velde admitted.

“It remains to be seen if it’s useful for everybody.”