Clothes represent a person’s personality, style and preferences. They can enhance beauty and create mesmerizing aura. But who thought clothes can also be mind-readers and sense your mood like a close friend, partner or family member? Recent developments in smart textiles introduce mood-sensing clothes and emotional clothing that detect emotions and assist in mental well-being.
Technology that makes it possible
Biosensor: Sensors are implanted into the clothes close to skin. Mostly it is seen in wearable health-detecting smart garments. Human-computer interaction and smart sensing technologies are used.
Smart colour-changing materials: The colour of clothing changes according to mood or health condition of the wearer. Smart colour-changing garment monitors an athlete’s endurance and body temperature.
Phase-change materials and stimulus-responsive hydrogels: These materials change their temperature, colour or shape according to changes in the external environment. They can respond to any external stimulus.
Fibre-optic fabrics and nanomaterials: The use of fibre-optic fabrics and nanomaterials aims to improve the functionality and comfort of smart clothing.
Interactive textiles: These textiles can receive stimuli or signals from the wearer, respond to it and create suitable adaptations.
Smart Pacer jumpsuit: A built-in sensor can monitor changes in body dynamics and converts it into a musical melody.
Adapters of this Technology
GER mood sweater by SENSOREE: The GER mood sweater by SENSOREE converts wearer’s feelings into light. Soft Galvanic Extimacy Responder (GER) sensors and LED lights are embedded in the collar of the sweater and hands respectively. Due to electrical conductivity of skin, the sensors pick up data about wearer’s excitement levels and converts it into light spectrum. Blue expresses calm, pink signifies excitement, yellow indicates ecstasy, and red shows nervousness or being in love.
Daan Roosegaarde’s Intimacy 2.0: Wearer’s emotional state is expressed according to heart rate or body heat. Smart e-foils with adjustable opacity are integrated in the fabric. It monitors the wearer’s vital signs. The clothing gradually becomes transparent with the wearer’s accelerating heart rate. It expresses how close proximity and interaction can have an impact on intimacy. It also has potential applications in healthcare.
Iga Węglińska’s Emotional Clothing: Polysensory silhouettes offer biofeedback and sensory substitution. These materials react dynamically to body changes such as temperature, heart rate, and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR).
A top in the collection turns from black to translucent based on body temperature and heart rate while another one has pink LED lights that respond to stress levels according to sweat levels.
This clothing line is based on the concept of biofeedback- a therapeutic technique which helps us understand our bodies better by sensor-based feedback. The theory of extended mind which postulates that material objects can serve as external elements in our perception acts as an inspiration for this idea.
References:
- https://btw.media/all/tech-trends/wear-your-mood-emotional-tech-for-the-modern-wardrobe/
- https://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/10617/can-clothes-read-your-mood
- https://sensoree.com/artifacts/ger-mood-sweater/
