AI-Enhanced Wearable Tech May See Integrations in Cars, Furniture, and Even Spacesuits

Wearable tech is gaining a lot of traction as technology advances, consumers become more conscious about their health, and government initiatives promote well-being.

Fitness trackers and smartwatches are the most popular wearable devices, and they are seeing increasing demand, with studies showing that 35% of US adults are using wearables. When it comes to age groups, wearable usage is as high as 40% among 18- to 34-year-olds and 25% for adults over 65.

But that’s not the extent of wearable tech. A growing segment of wearable technology is electronic textiles (e-textiles) or smart textiles. 

E-textiles refer to combining electronics with textiles to form “smart” textile products. These e-textiles carry the ability to record, analyze, store, send, and display data in some capacity.

Given that we are in contact with textiles for the majority of our lives, it makes sense to make our clothing intelligent. 

Heated clothes and blankets are some of the most popular products in this category, boasting significant commercial markets. But the variety of e-textiles is pretty broad, covering everything from bed linen to clothing and bandages to industrial fabrics, with new products emerging all the time.

Innovations in Next-Gen Wearable Technology

Many approaches have been taken to develop and design E-textiles, including the use of conductive polymers and shape-memory polymers. Smart textiles also make use of fabric that allows electronic components like sensors, batteries, and lights to be embedded in them. 

In these smart clothes, the connection between energy and textiles is very significant, as all of them virtually involve some kind of energy transfer. This could be either between the material and the human body or between the material and an external stimulus.

Now, the ability of smart textiles to respond to external effects depends on factors like temperature, moisture content, and pressure. These factors are primarily related to the material and depend on the type of fiber, its properties, construction, and yarn structure.

Then, there are devices like solar cells, light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors, and photovoltaic devices that are integrated into textiles and need energy to operate. They also allow e-textiles to harvest and store energy.

Today, smart textiles are widely utilized in healthcare management to monitor physiological signs, pressure, and body acceleration. For this, sensors are used to analyze biofluids. Sensors in electronic textiles are used for signal transformation and can monitor the wearer’s heart rate, blood pressure, and movement. They can even connect with mobile apps via Bluetooth to control temperature. 

E-textile products are also being actively explored to capture body motion, regulate body temperature, track health data, improve safety, prevent diseases, and provide personalized treatments.

While not as popular as other wearable tech like fitness trackers or smartwatches, smart textiles are still making progress in real-world adoption. A prominent recent example of this is the dress that went viral on TikTok for changing its color from white to pink under the sun. 

The New York-based fashion brand PH5 uses its innovative yarns to knit these dresses that turn bright pink and blue in the sun. These dresses are part of PH5’s UV Reactive collection, which also includes color-changing skirts, shirts, and cardigans. 

This isn’t entirely new, though, as similar color-changing garments have existed, like the heat-responsive Hypercolor clothing from the 1990s.

Other examples of smart clothing include the LED gown worn by singer Katy Perry, which lights up in colors and patterns. Then there’s solar-powered clothing, which incorporates solar panels in coats and dresses to harness solar energy to charge mobile devices.

Fitness apparel brands are also utilizing sensors to track muscle activity, breathing, and heart rate to provide fitness enthusiasts and athletes with valuable data. Here, brands like Under Armour and Hexoskin offer the general public smart compression garments to optimize performance and recovery. 

There are even posture-correcting shirts that feature sensor-based systems and haptic feedback to detect poor posture and send reminders to adjust it.

Even artificial intelligence (AI) is being increasingly used in wearable technology to collect and analyze health data and provide alerts and recommendations to users. AI-enabled wearables can help with the early detection of conditions like hypertension, customize treatment plans based on unique data, and notify users of changes in key health metrics. Smart insoles and smart clothing are seen utilizing AI.

High-tech clothing, however, comes with challenges in terms of ensuring the comfort and flexibility of the fabric. On top of that, the fabric must be able to withstand what a typical textile goes through, like weaving, washing, and wrinkling, without getting damaged. 

These issuers present a big issue for e-textile to overcome, which researchers are constantly looking to address to make smart clothing viable. Just last year, researchers at Boston University created a new textile metamaterial for more accurate data collection with greater flexibility.

Metamaterial is a material that is designed to have attributes that are not found in nature. It can also be patterned onto clothing to develop a battery-free network of sensors, monitor vital body signals, and maintain function even underwater exposure.

From runners to swimmers, this sophisticated network of sensors seamlessly integrated into clothing that constantly tracks body signals in real-time provides them a wealth of information without interrupting activities, noted study co-author Xia Zhu.

The researchers also designed a body-area network (BAN), which is made up of patches of textile metamaterial created from the very same cables bringing you the internet. These patches can be stitched into clothing seamlessly.

Leveraging AI to Boost Smart Clothing Capabilities 

While heating e-textiles such as electric blankets and heating pads are widely used for thermal comfort, easing aches and pains, and energy conservation, prolonged heating raises concerns about heat-related illnesses such as burns or hyperthermia.

The elderly, in particular, are more susceptible to heat-related injuries due to decreased heat sensitivity. As for those in nursing homes or living in assisted living communities, they can’t always be monitored by healthcare providers, leaving them vulnerable to high temperatures.

Also, despite all the advances in this field, achieving consumer satisfaction has been a difficult task because of diverse thermal needs. 

In order to address these specific issues, researchers from the School of Fashion and Textiles, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence in Design have designed a “smart” jacket that comes with color-changing and heat-generating yarns and environmental sensors.

The intelligent thermochromic heating e-textile, which aims to boost thermal comfort and reduce overheating risks, shows great potential for wearable healthcare applications.

Published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces¹ earlier this year, the study called “Intelligent Thermochromic Heating E-Textile for Personalized Temperature Control in Healthcare” details the wearable tech which involves the fabric integrating conductive yarn, polymeric optical fiber (POF) and temperature-induced discoloration yarn (TIDY) to visualize temperature changes and ensure efficiency.

So, the new e-textile created by the researchers for the intelligent heating jacket involves two types of thermochromic yarn and silver-coated yarn. It is the silver-coated yarn that warms the jacket with less bulk and more flexibility than conventionally used carbon fiber. 

The system is also fitted with ambient sensors, microcontrollers, and Bluetooth connectivity to offer comprehensive intelligent heating solutions. 

The team further equipped the jacket with an AI-based temperature control system that enables the new fabric to optimize for personal comfort as it can warm the wearer without overheating. It also provides immediate temperature readings for easy monitoring and color indicators for elderly caregivers. 

The AI model is trained on data obtained from 50 wearability test subjects belonging to different genders, ages, and body types to determine the optimal heating temperature. The subjects identified perfect heat settings for themselves in environments with different humidities, temperatures, and wind speeds.

When tested, the jacket showed promise, with yarns accurately indicating heating temperature. The woven illuminative heating fabric also demonstrated the color-changing effect with the fabric surface changing from pale purple to hot pink in a lit environment via TIDY in response to changing temperature. 

The changing color of the yarn from purple to pink indicates a heating temperature above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), which allows for easy temperature monitoring during the day and provides a safety feature to wearers.

The polymeric optical fiber yarn meanwhile gave off a red, yellow, or blue glow in dark environments to indicate temperatures of 50 C (122 F), 40 C (104 F), and 30 C (86 F), respectively.

According to the readings from a table in the study, the fabric created by the researchers showed much higher softness, flexibility, stretchability, and thermal insulation compared to commercial woven POF and knitted POF textiles. Polymeric optical fiber (POF) is made of plastic polymers and is used for data communication and sensing applications. 

Furthermore, its AI component predicted a comfortable temperature and provided constant heating for the wearer, even when the environment changed.

The results suggest the developed fabric is suitable for applications in personalized heating and healthcare textiles, ensuring comfort and adaptability. The real-time adjustment in temperature, meanwhile, makes it highly beneficial in providing consistent warmth for elderly users.

However, a jacket is just one of the use cases of the e-textile, as in the future, the team will see its potential in various other applications, including heated car seats, furniture, and even spacesuits.

Prominent Publicly Listed US Companies in E-Textiles

E-textiles have vast potential, and this is reflected in their global market size, which stood at around $1 billion back in 2019 and has since grown to almost $5 billion in 2024. It is further projected to surpass $29 billion by 2033. This integration of technology into fabrics is attracting increasing demand from sectors like consumer electronics, sportswear, and healthcare.

Let’s take a deeper look into a prominent name in the sector that’s at the forefront of integrating advanced materials and technologies into textiles.

1. DuPont de Nemours, Inc. (DD -2.25%)

The technology-based materials and solutions provider DuPont de Nemours has been making a lot of advances in developing conductive inks and flexible materials that are essential for e-textile applications.

Through constant innovation, the company is enabling connectivity, smart technologies, and next-generation semiconductor chips, transforming mobility by advancing electric vehicles, addressing water scarcity with solutions for clean water, and enabling sustainable buildings.

The company operates through a couple of main segments, with its Electronics & Industrial segment supplying differentiated materials and systems for a variety of consumer electronics, including mobile devices, monitors, PCs, and electronics used in a variety of industries, as well as the fabrication and packaging of semiconductors and integrated circuits. It also provides thermal management and electromagnetic shielding solutions in addition to metallization processes.

Its Water & Protection segment solutions for water purification and separation and worker safety. The company also provides materials to the energy, aerospace, medical packaging, and building industries.

DuPont also delivers fabrics, fibers, and nonwovens for performance, protection, and versatility. With its high-performing materials, which include KEVLAR, NOMEX, TYVEK, and TYCHEM, DuPont offers ballistic and cut protection, safety from fire dangers, breathable barrier protection, and chemical protection.

These materials boast all kinds of features. Kevlar is a heat-resistant, synthetic, and lightweight fiber that delivers high tensile strength. Nomex is an inherently heat-and flame-resistant fiber, while Tyvek is lightweight, durable, and water, abrasion, and bacterial penetration resistant.

Now, with a market cap of $35.25 billion, DuPont shares are currently trading at $84.32, up 10.58% YTD. The company has an EPS (TTM) of 1.77, a P/E (TTM) ratio of 47.74, and the dividend yield it pays is 1.80%.

Earlier this month, DuPont reported financial results for Q4 2024, which showed net sales of $3.1 billion, which saw an increase of 7%, which was the same as organic sales compared to a year-ago period. Region-wise, organic sales growth was highest in Asia Pacific at 11%, followed by 5% growth in the US & Canada, and then 1% organic sales growth in EMEA.

Talking about this “strong financial performance,” CEO Lori Koch noted the continued strength the company is seeing in electronics end-markets and the Water & Protection segment.

GAAP EPS from continuing operations in the quarter was -$0.17, while adjusted EPS was $1.13. Cash from operating activities came in at $564 million, and transaction-adjusted free cash flow was $455 million. 

During this period, DuPont also showcased its extensive range of advanced circuit materials and solutions for AI at the Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA) Show.

“As a powerhouse in advanced interconnect and thermal management solutions, we are dedicated to enhancing data computation and enabling data transfer speed and reliability, both of which are critical for AI functionalities.”

– Yuan Yuan Zhou, Global Business Director, Advanced Circuit & Packaging, DuPont

For the full year 2024, DuPont reported net sales of $12.4 billion, GAAP EPS of $1.77, adjusted EPS of $4.07, and free cash flow of $1.8 billion.

“I am pleased with our solid fourth-quarter results, which capped off a strong year of financial performance, and we look to carry this momentum into 2025.”

– CFO Antonella Franzen.

For the first quarter this year, the company estimates its net sales to be just over $3 billion and adjusted EPS to be $0.95 per share. 

As for the full year 2025, the estimates are $12.8 to $12.9 billion in net sales, operating EBITDA in the range of $3.325 to $3.375 billion, and adjusted EPS to be between $4.30 and $4.40 per share.

Conclusion

Since going mainstream half a century ago, wearable technology has gained a lot of ground in terms of both adoption and advancement. It has rapidly evolved from basic fitness trackers to sophisticated healthcare solutions, which promise greater convenience and enhanced well-being. 

In wearable tech, smart textiles, in particular, are pushing the boundaries of innovation by integrating advanced materials and intelligent systems into fabrics. Significant progress in fibers and technology has transformed our everyday clothing items into responsive tools that allow us to regulate temperature, monitor health and the environment, provide protection, and personalize comfort.

The latest research from Hong Kong researchers marks a significant step in the e-textile field that incorporates thermochromic yarns, polymeric optical fibers, and AI-driven temperature control. With its intelligent heating jacket, the research offers a promising solution for not just the elderly and other vulnerable populations but even potential applications in other industries. The study also highlights the importance of continued research in combining AI with fabric technology.

This is all just the beginning, though. As technology becomes even more advanced and researchers refine these innovations, we can expect smart clothing to become a common occurrence in our daily lives, much like how other wearable tech like smartwatches have become, leading to a more intuitive and health-conscious future.

Click here for a list of top wearable health tracking companies.