One of the most innovative product design and development firm, Cambridge Consultants has created a new generation of wearable technology that will change the face of smart wear entirely. It’s called XelfleX, a type of smart textile that can turn clothes into active motion sensors using fiber-optic threads to track movement of the wearer making the cloth inherently smart.
Wearer’s will only need to add a small electronics pack which would clip onto the fiber in a pocket and communicate with an accompanying app on the smartphone.
Xelflex can be best used for fitness and sports coaching due to its water-resistant and robust nature. Moreover, each fiber optic thread can hold up to ten sensors, which identify flexing joints and similar physical movements, making it the perfect physiotherapy tools for helping patients recover post injury, surgery or neurological problems. Its other applications also include motion capture for gaming, film making and virtual reality applications due to its inherent ability to make multiple accurate angle measurements.
Xelflex Can Turn Clothes into Active Motion Sensor
Xelflex inventor Martin Brock of Cambridge Consultants says that the company wanted to create wearables that people could actually wear. The garment is sensor in Xelflex, which makes it smart clothing itself and that too available at a low-price in addition to its durability, usefulness and attractiveness.
Cambridge Consultants have utilized their extensive experience in industrial fiber-optic sensors and low-cost impulse radar to develop Xelflex. When a pulse of light is transmitted down on optical fiber, a good amount of light is scattered constantly along its length. By bending the fiber, an increase in scattering and reflection occurs which can be measured.
By combining the fiber in a tight-fitting piece of clothing, joint movements can alter the amount of bending at a defined sensor point in the fiber. Initial light pulse is transmitted by an LED in the electronics pack with the help of 10 sensors. Algorithms are then used to convert sensors into guidance so that the users can comprehend the data by giving feedback on their posture and movement and by coaching them on how they can improve more. The smart textile technology is the latest example of how wearable technology can help to make way for advanced sport technique training for any athlete.
Xelflex basically shows the benefits of cross-fertilization technology, an intersection between two completely different sectors and the innovations that result from it. The company has combined their extensive knowledge in wearable technology and industrial sensing and control to create the next generation of wearables.
Xelflex will be demonstrated by Cambridge Consultants along with other technologies such as KiCoPen concept – a battery-less connected injection pen at the 2015 International CES in Las Vegas Convention Center.
