• Journal of Fashion Business
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.88-97
• /
• 2013

'Smart Clothes', which incorporate topnotch digital technology into fashion, are a leading fashion runner in this digital era. The purpose of the study is to first help develop a practical design for outdoor backpacks which are equipped with eco-friendly solar cells that facilitate recharging diverse smart devices during outdoor activities; and, secondly, to offer some practical data from the actual appropriation tests that will be used for manufacturing such products. This trial study finds out how to conjoin some practical IT devices with fashion items and mainly focusses on designing outdoor backpacks which are loaded with solar cells for recharging electric devices, and, later, experiments on designed backpacks with some smart phones to see how it works. According to the desired purposes of backpacks, all the features can be adjusted and modified such as the kinds of solar cell panels, materials, sizes, positions of attachment, weights, etc. Smart Clothes are highly functional and fashionable items that satisfy both practical and emotional purposes, and are being actively developed to serve consumers. This study proves that Smart Clothes or Smart Wear will have practical uses for outdoor activities and will possibly lead our smart lifestyles.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.209-221
• /
• 2020

Recently, following the commercialization and market entry of smart clothes with diverse functions, smart clothes have been changing from technology-centered products to user-centered products. However, the analysis of consumer demand centered on actual commercialized products is lacking. Therefore, this study classified commercialized smart clothes by function and analyzed the demand and requirements of smart clothes according to sports/outdoor clothes consumption behaviors. As a result, consumers were classified according to their sports/outdoor clothes consumption behaviors into an outdoor leading group with high consumption propensity, an outdoor pursuit group with medium consumption propensity, and an outdoor following group with low consumption propensity. Among the commercialized smart clothes, those with a heartbeat measuring function, those with a heating function, and those with a light-emitting function were presented and demand analysis was conducted. According to the results, the outdoor leading group and the outdoor pursuit group had higher levels of awareness, preference, and purchase intentions than the outdoor following group. In addition, the outdoor leading group showed the highest level of purchase price acceptance while the outdoor following group showed the lowest level of purchase price acceptance. However, this study has a limitation that the acceptance for smart clothes were analyzed with consumers who had experience in sports outdoor clothes consumption. Therefore, in future, studies will be conducted with a wide range of consumers.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.808-817
• /
• 2016

Recently, the wearable computing technology with bio-sensors has been rapidly developed and utilized in various areas such as personal health, care-giving for senior citizens who live alone, and sports activities. In particular, the wearable computing equipment to measure vital signs by means of digital yarns and bio sensors is noticeable. The wearable computing devices help users monitor and manage their health in their daily lives through the customized healthcare service. In this paper, we suggest a system for monitoring and analyzing vital signs utilizing smart healthcare clothing with bio-sensors. Vital signs that can be continuously acquired from the clothing is well-known as unstructured data. The amount of data is huge, and they are perceived as the big data. Vital sings are stored by Hadoop Distributed File System(HDFS), and one can build data warehouse for analyzing them in HDFS. We provide health monitoring system based on vital sings that are acquired by biosensors in smart healthcare clothing. We implemented a big data platform which provides health monitoring service to visualize and monitor clinical information and physical activities performed by the users.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
• /
• v.66 no.2
• /
• pp.61-75
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study was to develop interactive smart clothing based on visual and tactile sensitivities to promote non-verbal communication between people with hearing impairments. The study analyzed various cases of interactive smart clothing, different non-verbal communication tools, as well as results of user demand survey to extract essential factors. Then these factors were categorized into technology or design concept. The technological aspect of the development considered the following factors: the usability, detachability, purposiveness, and economic feasibility. The design aspect considered the following factors: the usability, detachability, formativeness and wearability. A prototype was designed considering the user's requirements. The developed prototype had sensors, Bluetooth technology, and gave access to wireless communication in order to enable non-verbal communication between people with hearing impairments.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.697-707
• /
• 2019

This review paper deals with materials, classification, and a current article investigation on smart textile sensors for wearable vital signs monitoring (WVSM). Smart textile sensors can lose electrical conductivity during vital signs monitoring when applying them to clothing. Because they should have to endure severe conditions (bending, folding, and distortion) when wearing. Imparting electrical conductivity for application is a critical consideration when manufacturing smart textile sensors. Smart textile sensors fabricate by utilizing electro-conductive materials such as metals, allotrope of carbon, and intrinsically conductive polymers (ICPs). It classifies as performance level, fabric structure, intrinsic/extrinsic modification, and sensing mechanism. The classification of smart textile sensors by sensing mechanism includes pressure/force sensors, strain sensors, electrodes, optical sensors, biosensors, and temperature/humidity sensors. In the previous study, pressure/force sensors perform well despite the small capacitance changes of 1-2 pF. Strain sensors work reliably at 1 ㏀/cm or lower. Electrodes require an electrical resistance of less than 10 Ω/cm. Optical sensors using plastic optical fibers (POF) coupled with light sources need light in-coupling efficiency values that are over 40%. Biosensors can quantify by wicking rate and/or colorimetry as the reactivity between the bioreceptor and transducer. Temperature/humidity sensors require actuating triggers that show the flap opening of shape memory polymer or with a color-changing time of thermochromic pigment lower than 17 seconds.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.1097-1115
• /
• 2015

ICT in the IOT era is the core basis of modern society. This study investigated and analyzed the recent commercialization trends of smart fashion products internationally and domestically, to utilize them as the basis of data for developing user-friendly smart fashion products that can meet the needs of consumers. Keyword research using the most representative search engines, Google and Naver was conducted for searching for various wearable items commercialized actively since 2010. The final 78 products were classified by the physical area, and the key features and benefits were analyzed. Smart fashion products were classified as four physical types for the head and face, torso, arms and hands, and ankles and feet. Smart fashion products for each body part were developed in various ways, such as hats, glasses, lenses, virtual screens, earphones, headsets, clothing, watches, wrist bands, gloves, rings, wallets, bags, anklets, shoes, socks, and insoles. The main features were music playback, bluetooth, a camera based on NFC, virtual effects, health and safety protection through measuring heartbeat and momentum, and social network sharing of all kinds of information, based on inter-working with a smartphone. These functions represent the physical, social, and emotional interactions among users and their surroundings, as well as the users, themselves. The research results are expected to be used in future studies on planning user-friendly and marketable products through in-depth analysis of the design characteristics of smart fashion products as well as consumer responses.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.292-303
• /
• 2011

This research suggested a draft proposal for a smart jacket design, which has applied wearable technologies to provide convenience in daily life. The smart jacket combined with a vest was the casual item for autumn and winter. The heating device was composed of the heating element, battery, controller, electric wire, connector, switch, and charger. A stable electronic conductor fiber of good heating effect with a flexible zigzag form has been selected for the heating element. The lighting device has been made in a way that attaches the LED and its power controller in the same mechanical device. As the result of the wearing test, the heating effect turned out to be effective in the order of: back, both the back and abdomen and only the abdomen. When wearing a smart jacket, the back and abdomen have been selected as favorable body parts for heating. Pockets and hems are selected as the adequate place to attach the LED lighting, and the brightness of LED lighting has turned out to be suitable and useful. Based on the test results, the first draft proposal has attached the heating element only in the back and its controller located in the inside pocket of the vest. In addition, the LED has been attached to the front pocket of the jacket. As to the second draft proposal, heating elements have been placed in the back and the abdomen. Each controller for the heating elements has been placed in the front and inside pocket of vest, and the LED lighting has been attached to the hem of the jacket. The smart jacket combined with a wearable device was assessed by functioning categories. The user showed a high satisfaction in the heating and illuminating function of a smart jacket.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.469-476
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study is to derive design guideline for logo design development of smart clothing using flexible plastic optical fiber. In a criterion of guideline derivation for logo design, the first, it is a question of whether it indicates an appropriate degree of brightness across the front of flexible plastic optical fiber. The second, it is a question of whether it indicates relatively an uniform brightness characteristic across the front of flexible plastic optical fiber. For this, the brightness characteristic of flexible plastic optical fiber according to the angle changes and the length of flexible plastic optical fiber was analyzed by the 'Experiment 1'. To deduce guideline for the logo design of the actual garment, the brightness characteristic of flexible plastic optical fiber about the main morpheme of the capital letter of alphabet was analyzed by the 'Experiment 2'. Based on the results of the two experiment, this study derived design guideline and limitations for logo design of smart clothing visualized by the flexible plastic optical fiber.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.97-108
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study was to propose a product planning and design direction for smart fitness wear that will improve the impact of personal training based on researching the requirements of smart fitness wear and its acceptance level, as well as the functional demand. The study conducted in-depth interviews with professional fitness trainers and derived five categories and thirteen keywords by analyzing the categorical data analysis using the interview data. In addition, we surveyed general consumers to measure the acceptance level of smart fitness wear and the functional demand for product development. The results revealed that the difference in the acceptance level of smart fitness wear generally depended on the characteristics related to exercise involvement and exercise-related culture rather than on the demographic characteristics. With regard to the difference in the functional demand of smart fitness wear, the results showed that professional trainers focused on the scientific improvement of the effect of exercise while general consumers focused on the function that considers the sustainability of exercise. Based on the results, we proposed product planning and design directions such as 'mounting of heart rate sensing, muscle activity sensing, motion angle or posture sensing, and motion sensing', 'development of concepts and contents for expert line, ordinary line', 'compression wear design', and 'differentiation of product development according to exercise areas'.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.38 no.6
• /
• pp.845-856
• /
• 2014

This study focused on the production and usability evaluation of smart outdoor jackets that are designed to provide convenience to middle-aged people by embedding devices for lighting and location tracing. The results were as follows. 1. Jacket power supplier was a assembled system composed of battery, charger, controller and switch. A solar cell was attached on the upper arm, and a wire type EL on the center line of a raglan sleeve along with a GPS on the left sleeve with a transparent vinyl pocket. The total weight of the jacket embedded with devices was 385-520g. 2. Operation of function, activity, acceptability, safety, convenience for device use, appearance, practical maintenance were selected based on an analysis of evaluation criteria of previous smart wear research. Criteria were narrowed to three major categories of satisfaction, appearance and maintenance. 3. Use satisfaction criterion consisted of wearable device functionality and physical, psychological use convenience. The evaluation indicated actual functionality. EL functions were especially effective and necessary. Convenience of use showed that a smart jacket was thought to be safe and the size was moderate regardless of age and gender. Outer appearance was satisfactory and respondents praised the color. The practical maintenance evaluation indicated that there was no challenge in doing the laundry since the solar battery and GPS were detachable. The practical use of smart outdoor jackets confirmed by fabric that was washable and dried quickly.