Abstract:

Into the 21st century, soft intelligent wearable textile products became popular. However, after several years’ development, the definition and the market requirements on this technology and products are blur and outdated currently. Low-end products with insignificant value-added products entered the market freely while the latest soft wearable intelligent textile technology is limited in the research lab, which could not be applied into the new prototype research and development. It can be forecasted that there will be a huge market demand on this high value-added textile products. Therefore, focusing on this problem and the conflicts between the upstream manufacturers and the downstream consumers, the current art-of-state and the latest technic breakthrough of functional fiber science were reviewed, and the concept of soft wearable intelligent textiles was redrfined. The characters of soft and flexible connection among electric components, the interaction between clothing and human through textile media, and electric textile components are considered as the three keystones for the further development. Additionally, when transferring lab-research result into commercial products, various design and technic factors are evaluated and comprehensively integrated and a comprehensive design strategy is come up, which can facilitate the industrial transformation of traditional textile industries.

Key words: intelligent soft wearable technology, conductive fiber, textile and fashion design, functional fiber