Humans can be quite paradoxical. It’s not uncommon for us to shiver in the colds of winter, wishing for summer to come and wanting winter back once we start sweating. Wearable tech has tried to solve this, from heating pads to electric blankets, but they could lead to hypothermia or burns after prolonged use. Ideally, the solution would be something more adaptable to our needs without having to worry about overuse. Recently, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Hong Kong Science Park have been exploring the possibility of merging heating e-textiles with AI.
The AI jacket
For this study, researchers designed the heating e-textile as a jacket embued with silver yarn instead of the wires you would typically find in heating products. This yarn controls not only the temperature of the user but also changes color to alert others around if something is going wrong. Elderly and other vulnerable users often cannot tell if they are experiencing an overheating issue, so this indicator will help alert other people, such as nurses or caregivers if there are any problems.
For instance, if the wearer’s temperature is getting higher than expected, it turns from purple to pink (at 30ºC or 86ºF). At night, the polymeric optical yarn glows blue (at 30ºC or 86ºF), yellow (at 40ºC or 104ºF), or red (at 50ºC or 122ºF). The AI jacket has been tested on a range of 50 people from across ages, body types, and genders to ensure adaptability. They also did this in environments with varying temperatures, humidity, and wind speeds.
Future applications
We can already theorize how future versions of the AI jacket will adapt to your needs, but this is a start to solving the problem of dealing with shifting temperatures.
Before you go: Testing Out Fieldsheer’s Adventure Heated Jacket [Review]
For now, the jacket has had a successful demonstration, and researchers are optimistic that the e-textile on which it is built could be adapted for various uses, from heated seat cars to space suits. This jacket’s practicality is wide already, and I am curious to see how far it can go.
Photo credit: The feature image is symbolic and has been taken by Simon Migaj.
Source: Ching Lee, et al. (American Chemical Society)
