Advances in microelectronics, nanotechnology, and fiber technology are converging to create a whole new class of fabrics.  These fabrics glow (as the tablecloth in the photo above shows), act as sensors, process data, and perform a variety of other functions that one might not ordinarily expect from a material that can be cut, sewn, draped, and worn.  The possibilities opened up by this new technology are vast.  In clothing alone, they range from self-illuminating costumes for operatic singers to shirts that monitor their wearer's vital signs and transmit the data to a physician or researcher to bras that provide support when and where it is needed.  Beyond clothes, smart textiles are being developed for automobile seats that can control the activation of airbags in response to the size, weight, and posture of the seat's occupant as well as for carpets that can monitor the condition of the floor they cover or provide directions to the people walking on them.

European firms, especially Italians, are among the leaders in this growing field, although American companies, including Dupont, and universities, including MIT and Georgia Tech, are contributing to the development of smart fabrics and products utilizing them as well finding new and interesting ways to exploit their possibilities.

Luminex -- a collaboration between an Italian electronics firm (Caen spa) and two firms in the textile sector (FIT spa, an Italian company and Stabio, a Swiss firm).  Luminex makes the glowing fabric pictured above.  Note:  This is a visually stunning web site.

"A Fabric Glowing with Emotion:  Light-Emitting Luminex Cloth Makes D.C. Opera Debut," feature on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, February 24, 2003.  Story about a production of Aida in Washington, DC, using Luminex cloth in its costumes.  (Text and audio)

Smartex -- an Italian firm that makes "smart" electronic textiles.  Projects include a smart car seat and a wearable health care system.

Philip Ball, "Shoes and Sheets Get Wired," Nature Science Update (December 6, 2002).

E. Rehmi Post and Maggie Orth, "Smart Fabric, Or Washable Computing" (MIT Media Lab, 1997).  "Wearable computers can now merge seamlessly into ordinary clothing. Using various conductive textiles, data and power distribution as well as sensing circuitry can be incorporated directly into wash-and-wear clothing. This paper describes some of the techniques used to build circuits from commercially available fabrics, yarns, fasteners, and components."

"Smart Fabric Delivers Wearable Keyboard," News in Science, Australian Broadcasting Company (November 13, 2000).  Report on Elektex, a smart fabric made by the ElekSen Company, a UK firm.

"Infineon: Smart fabric based on neural chip network," ITWorld.com (May 5, 2003).  "Researchers at Germany's Infineon Technologies AG have demonstrated how a self-organizing network of chips woven into large textile surfaces, such as carpets, could someday be used to monitor buildings, provide emergency direction services and more."

"'Smart Fabric' or Interactive Textile Products Market Seen on the Horizon." Press release about a study by Venture Development Corporation.  The study forecasts that worldwide sales of smart fabric products will reach nearly $50 million by 2006.

"Smart Fabric Quilt," a project of Meredith Brice Copland, an Australian artist.  The quilt presumably was (is?) displayed in a gallery in Montreal.  Unfortunately, the site does not have any pictures of it.

School of Textile and Fiber Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta.  Among its research projects is a "smart shirt."

Elise Co's luminescent raincoat at the MIT Media Lab.  The raincoat glows in patterns reflecting the droplets of rain that hit it.