Briefing 2021

Initial situation

Textiles surround us all the time. This qualifies them as the ideal carrier for smart technology. A completely new human-machine interaction is possible. But even away from clothing, smart textiles can develop skills that a fabric would not have been trusted to do. 

Task

Make a technical textile smart! Develop a functional prototype for a contact-based object detection, using a capacitive textile sensor. 

When an object is in contact with the fabric, it should be recognized based on its capacitance footprint. The object should be visualized and trigger additional functionalities. Aside from recognizing the contacted object, the system should also sense the change of what is inside a container. For example, the contacted object is a water glass, the system detects whether the water glass is full or empty. Therefore, the use case can vary – smart home, IoT, etc. 

In addition to the object detection functionality, multi-touch could be implemented using the same textile sensor. Speaking about use cases – just think about the possibility to interact with your winter jacket or table cloth via multi-touch. 

Perspectives

  • We are providing the textile sensor which could be adapted for specific needs.

  • In addition, we can supply you with a smart textiles kit and offer advice during the development process.

  • If an exciting constellation emerges during IMM, then a longer-term collaboration in the course of interdisciplinary projects involving intelligent textiles, electronics, data processing and visualisation would also be conceivable on our part.

Intro videos

#IMM2021 online kick-off invitation from Benjamin Poredos (Smart Textiles Platform Austria).

Briefing pitch @ #IMM2021 online kick-off from Benjamin Poredos (Smart Textiles Platform Austria) on April 15th, 2021.

Next steps

  • Register for our challenge! We will contact you as soon as possible to arrange a first meeting where we can agree on the next joint steps.

  • From June 21st to June 24th, we will also be at the future tech bootcamp with our technology and experts and look forward to developing exciting solutions together with you.

Contact persons

The main contact person at the Smart Textiles Platform Austria for the project is Benjamin Poredos.

About Smart Textiles Austria

The Smart Textiles Platform Austria in Vorarlberg is a worldwide unique merger of textile companies, whose competences cover all steps of the textile value chain. Besides initiating cooperative projects and opening funding of national and international agencies. The platform promotes cross-border technology transfers, for example in form of the "Smart Textiles Summer Camp”. Furthermore it stimulates an intense cooperation between textile companies as well as with other industries.

The Platform aims at developing new solutions and products by using technical textiles. To restrict this extensive field, the focus now lies on smart textiles, sensor textiles, wearables, and light weight construction. All the know-how concentrated in Vorarlberg helps to efficiently and effectively produce textile composites for example.

More about Smart Textiles Platform Austria

Current main briefings 2021

Additional Future Tech Bootcamp briefing specials 2021

BRIEFINGS OF PREVIOUS YEARS