The Smart Car Seat

Smartex has collaborated with leading automotive companies. This project aimed to the implementation of an automotive system able to monitor the distribution of weight, to control the air bag activation and to modify the support to suit the passenger posture. In Fig. 1 and Fig.2 are shown the distribution of loads in the case of a person and of an object on the seat cover, respectively.













MEGA

The Wearable Garment Sensor for Dancers
(Multisensory Expressive Gesture Applications project, IST-1999-20410, funded by EU and now closed)

The work was centered on the modeling and real-time analysis, synthesis, and networked communication of expressive and emotional content in non-verbal interaction by multi-sensory interfaces, from a multimodal perspective. Music, voice and movement (including dance) are first class channels for conveying expressive and emotional content. Real-time, quantitative analysis and evaluation of expressive content in different performances of the same musical score, or in different performances of the same dance fragment are examples that were studied by the project. The project approach implied a new and original consideration of the role that the physical body and the physical world play with respect to interaction. Such interaction mechanisms are not limited to single humans, but they may be extended to groups of humans, such as a group of actors on stage or a group of visitors in a museum or a group of music performers, considering the group as a whole entity.

The role of the company was to develop a prototype of a wireless dedicated wearable garment sensor system for dancers.





ARIANNE

Feasibility study of yarns and fabrics with annexed electronic functions
(IST-2001-39262, EU funded project)

Starting date: 01/01/2003; closing date: 31/12/2003; total EC funding: 76,500 Euros.



The project concerns a feasibility study of textile circuits made with an electronically functionalised yarn, aimed to the develpment of a textile yarn with electronic functions (a "textile transistor") and to the study of the electronic behaviour of the fabric seen as a complex electronic network whose complexity and final behaviour is determined both by the electronic properties of the yarn and by its topology in the fabric.

The project is divided into some fundamental lines:

  1. Project and feasibility study of fibers and yarns endowed with electronic properties;

  2. Elaboration of a circuital model of the yarns which takes into account its electronicproperties;

  3. Determination of the yarn topology in a fabric and simulation of the electronic properties of the fabric with the aim of defining its electronic transfer function.






Left: section of a cylindrical TFT;

Right: scheme of a woven fabric where the vertical lines are made by the cylindrical yarns and the horizontal are conductive wires that represent source and drain contacts









FIRB

Development of technologies for implementation of electronic components and devices on textile substrates
funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research)

The goal of this project is the implementation of tecnologies for building electronic structures on a textile substrate.
The possibility of designing active electronic devices integrated on a textile substrate allows to think of the same structure as a wearable system, or more generally as a system suitable for covering surfaces of whatever shape and able to elaborate electronic signals. Such technology has many applications in a variety of fields, such as biomedicine, sport, multimediality.
The need of mantaining the mechanical flexibility of textiles reduces the possible materials and technologies suitable for the aims of the project: electrical conductivity and its modulation cannot be obtained through traditional semiconductors (such as silicon and inorganic semiconductors). Necessarily there is the need for materials whose mechanical properties do not differ too much from those of textile substrates.
Conductive polymers, at present investigated in the field of molecular electronics, are the best candidates for accomplishing such needs.
After solving the problem of materials, suitable structures and architectures are to be studied. The problem is complex and the goal appears to be achievable in, at least, two ways: the electronically functionalized fabric can be obtained by depositing the selected materials on it, according to a predetermined geometry, or, the fabric can be obtained starting from a functionalized fiber. This project aims to explore both solutions. According to the first idea, deposition on fabric, the project will concern technologies, already availble for one the partners, which will be applied to the deposition of organic semiconductors on a textile. In particular, we will consider the use of microsyringes (pressure and/or volume controlled) and ink-jet heads for the deposition of polymers diluted in volatile solvents. Alternatively, the soft lithography approach to the deposition of geometrically defined structures on a surface will be explored. Such technique is applied, at present, both on planar substrates and on cilindrical surfaces. This allows to think also to the soft lithography functionalization of fibers. At the same time of the deposition technologies, we will consider the problem of designing proper structures according to their electronic functions. We will realize simple passive circuit elements, like resistors and capacitors, and we will explore the possibility of obtaining also active electronic devices, like field effect transistors. Several exemples of Thin Film Transistors have been successfully realized in the last years both on rigid substrates (like silicon) and on flexible substrates (polymeric). We will try to realize such a device on a fabric, which, if necessary, will be preliminarily covered by suitable layers for sake of homogeneity. Moreover, we will explore the possibility to obtain electronic active properties directly on a fiber. Parallel to the exploration of all possible deposition techniques, the assessment of electronic properties of the obtained structures and the maintainance of elasto-mechanical properties typical of a fabric will be always taken into primary consideration.

 

Left: longitudinal section of an electronic ribbon-like textile structure; Right: scheme of a woven fabric where the vertical lines are made by the textile ribbons and the horizontal are conductive wires that represent source and drain contacts.