Australia : Intelligent Yarn Gets Warm Reception

The latest development in the international race to make fabrics smarter is Electric wool that could incorporate the remote control and keep an eye on the bed sheets.

The electrified wool-covered cushion that can operate the television, while another cushion dims the lights.

British scientist Stan Swallow, from Intelligent Textiles in Surrey, described it as making traditional metal and plastic technology softer to touch.

He and designer Asha Peta Thompson were in Sydney this week to show off their prototype intelligent wool products, funded by the research and development company Australian Wool Innovation. AWI hopes the technology will ultimately benefit Australia's $3 billion wool industry, which supplies around 60 per cent of the world's wool for clothing.

The smart wool is electrified by conductive fibres, made of metals and composites, that are woven into the fabric. External batteries provide the power. But the pressure points or switches within the wool are undetectable.

The cushion that doubles as a remote - which also has an inbuilt tilt device to stop pets turning on the television - looks and feels like an ordinary cushion. Another apparently ordinary piece of wool is really a keyboard.

Intelligent Textiles have also developed prototype sheets and wheelchair covers that can sense the body's movement and alert carers to long periods of inactivity in the old and infirm, Dr Swallow said.

"It's like a heart monitoring system. It's the sort of thing that can already be done on a metal surface, but you wouldn't want to lie on it," he said.

Around the world, scientists are racing to manipulate textiles to the same end.

Barry Holcombe, research scientist in CSIRO's textile and fibre technology division, said: "Manufacturers have suddenly realised we carry a lot of things around in our pockets and handbags which could be incorporated into clothing so you have them with you all the time."

Infineon Technologies in Germanyis also developing ways of powering their conductive fibre products using body heat - ridding textiles of external wires altogether.

However, much of the technology is still several years from being commercially available, Dr Holcombe said.