In a world that has been motivated by technology and fashion trends, clothing has evolved to wearable technology, including textile-based accessories. Over the last few years, there has been a drastic increase in the number of wearable technology devices in the market. Wearable technology has been designed to ensure that daily tasks are more comfortable and more convenient (Bonato, 2010). In the workplace, wearable technology has been put into use in various ways, such as monitoring and tracking operations. They have increased the level of safety within the workplace, such as stress monitoring and fatigue. Wearable technology entails gadgets that the users can track their fitness level and health information as well as monitoring their location. For instance, they have offered users the ability to view messages more quickly, eliminating the need to carry other devices.
Wearable devices have promoted conveniences to employees as well as efficiency at work by offering access to the readily available information. In the healthcare sector, healthcare providers have relied on wearables to detect those already prone to health (Berglin, 2013). These devices have been linked to the consumer mobile devices to enable the healthcare providers to monitor as well as reach the patients in case of any challenges with their health.
Rather than having to deal with wearable technology and digital accessories that have health sensors, imagine having a smart shirt that can collect the same amount of information as well as wearable technology. Considerably, smart clothing should be the future of fashion and technology in the marketplace. Smart clothing is similar to any other garment, but the technologies lie within the fabric.
Smart garments are clothes that have been enhanced with technology to boost the functionality of the garments through modern technology (Dias, 2015). They are unique from other wearables since they do not require additional accessories to operate and charge. Smart textiles have actuators and integrated sensors which have a vast potential of benefiting the society in the future (Dias, 2015). Ideally, smart textiles can monitor an individual’s health status and remind them of extra fitness activities. The wearable devices have been faced with some limitations. For instance, most people may encounter challenges with the devices and abandon them. However, smart clothing will offer specific benefits to the users as compared to the current wearables. This is because smart clothing is more comfortable, convenient, washable, comfortable, reliable, and durable. Additionally, electronically, embedded clothing will be useful to a large segment of the population, such as the elderly, children, parents, and people with illnesses such as chronic illness.
Through advanced analytic systems and conductive textiles, smart clothing systems will allow the wearers to identify and quantify real-time data from their bodies. The most significant advantage of smart clothing is that it increases the area being monitored since a richer biometric data is being recorded. This means that data collected goes beyond heart rate and motion tracking, such as adding data on facets like respiration rate. Smart clothing is the next innovation for wearable technology, which has massive potential for medical and health applications. It will offer new techniques for delivering information as well as therapeutic benefits to patients and athletes (Dias, 2015). Additionally, smart clothing will lead to better medical adherence by offering essential information for the patient to eliminate the health crisis.
In conclusion, smart clothing is interactive textiles with many potential applications and the ability to interact with the body to offer new ways of sensing wearer’s physiology and respond to the demands of the wearer. The main advantage lies in the integration of sensors in clothes that can monitor the wearer. Through smart clothing, wearable sensors have the potential to keep the wearer informed of their well-being as well enable them to engage in the management of their health actively.
