Smart Fabric Prototype Demo at Plastic Electronics Conference

European Union’s Framework Programme for research at the 2nd International Plastic Electronics Conference & Showcase, October, 24 & 25, 2006 – Where Science and Industry meet Eindhoven, September 22, 2006

At the Plastic Electronics Conference on the 24th and 25th of October, the University of Cagliari, Italy will be demonstrating a prototype of its innovative undergarment, made from smart fabrics. These fabrics, which have semiconductors built into their fibres, can be used as sensors to detect the life-signs of the wearer, without any need for probes or stick-on sensors. Contact with the skin is all that’s needed.

Further phases of the project will look at a top garment which can sense environmental conditions, like temperature or toxic gases, again without needing discrete sensors. The eventual aim is to transmit these readings to an external monitor, so that, for example, a team of firefighters could be medically monitored while they work and given warnings or alarms if their surrounding conditions deteriorate.

The University of Cagliari work is part of the ProeTEX project, just one of many funded under the European Union’s Framework Programme for research, now nearing the end of its sixth phase.

Organic electronics projects funded through Framework Programme 6, are the responsibility of the Directorate-General of Information Society and Media and its Director, Dr. Rosalie Zobel. She will be a keynote speaker at the conference and will review the results of the Framework 6 projects under the title ‘Organic & Large Area Electronics. European R&D Activities under the Framework Programme 6′.

Other interesting projects falling within Framework Programme 6 include FlexiDis, a project to develop flexible displays, OLLA (Organic LEDs for ICT and next generation Lighting Applications), PolyApply, a project dealing with materials, device structures, processing technologies and circuit design, ROLLED project developing a low cost roll-to-roll process for flexible OLED devices, and NaPa (Nanopatterning Methods). All these project consortia will be present at the Plastic Electronics Event in Frankfurt and will be presenting demonstrators and prototypes at the showcase.