Connectivity challenges in smart textiles

Smart fabrics offer the opportunity to measure, analyze and inform the trajectory of our lives. Wearables in general have a challenge when it comes to standards. While the existence of standard communication protocols like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Zigbee and USB have enabled very low cost components and increasingly miniaturized solutions, the connectivity and sensing between the product and its target us has endured a confusing array of possible paths. Often when designing a particular connector into an application or product, makers are forced to deal with constraints that the available space forces on them. Because many smart textile products are garments, manufacturers need to consider the user carefully. Perhaps the most difficult requirement to meet is washability. While many inventive startups have emerged to create new garments and other soft goods that include sensing and interactivity via flexible conductors there still remains a significant challenge in how we connect the hard world of electronics with the soft world of textiles.