Wearable and textile technologies (EdTech)

Wearable and textile technologies are digital technologies that can be integrated into clothing or worn by a person to collect data, share information, or respond electronically in a certain way.

Digital textiles include conductive thread that are essentially wires within the fabric that can transmit electrical signals or interpret signals, such as when someone touches a conductive thread. Because humans have a slight electric charge in their bodies, any touch on a conductive thread could be interpreted as a signal to a wearable device to respond in a certain way. For instance, a shirt with conductive threads and lights, as well as a small microcontroller can be programmed to light up with small lights sewn into the clothing when someone touches the shirt's sleeves.

Wearable technologies are a fun way for learners within an educational setting to create a project or design practical or fashionable clothing or wearable products to meet a design challenge or serve some practical purpose. Clothing is something that everyone (typically) wears every day, so it is a commonplace set of items with which people can be quite creative. Thus, electronic-embedded clothing, wearable devices, or e-textiles are a useful set of creative tools for educators looking for engaging activities for participants in educational settings, particularly with problem-based and project-based learning approaches.

Wearable and textile technologies are highly related to physical prototyping and microcontroller programming technologies in their capacity to allow people to create usable, interactive products.

Common types of wearable technologies functions and sensors that can be integrated into clothing:

• eTextiles and conductive threads, which allow for human touch to be an input, or to carry an electrical signal or power to components throughout the clothing
• Outputs that people can interact with, such as lights, speakers, vibration, displays
• Pressure sensors
• Switches and buttons
• Environmental data sensors, such as light sensors, temperature sensors, cameras, microphones
• Proximity and movement sensors and detection (electromagnetic detection, bluetooth, near field communciation, RFID).

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