In order to study smart fabrics and interactive textiles, which can be utilised in health monitoring, consumer goods and automotive sector, researchers from the Southampton University have received a grant of £910,196 in EPSRC funds.
Dr Steve Beeby and his team will develop smart textiles and apparels, which can incorporate actuators, sensors, communications and processing.
These new fabrics will be developed with the help of speedy printing processes and active printed inks. The same will be powered by an array of new kinetic or thermal energy harvesting units developed by researchers at the university.
Researchers are of the opinion that, there are immense opportunities to garner bulk quantities of kinetic energy from human motion. Apparently, about 67 watts of energy can be made available from each human step. On the other side, energy can be procured from heat, provided by the human body via converting thermal gradients to electrical energy, using Seebeck effect.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India