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The team of the Design for Life Centre at Brunel University in Surrey has developed a fabric (the<br />
Sensory Fabric) that can be used by handicapped children to make themselves understood. It should<br />
be noted here, that the researchers of the Centre, Stan Swallow and Asha Peta Thompson, lately<br />
made up their own company, named Intelligent Textiles Ltd. [41].<br />
This momentary push switch comprises electrically conductive fabrics as outer sheets and a nonconductive<br />
mesh sandwiched between the outer layers to separate the two conductors from each<br />
other. When pressure is applied to the top conductive sheet, it is pushed through the holes of the<br />
mesh resulting in an electrical contact with the lower conductive fabric.<br />
Fig. 13 Sensory Fabric switch<br />
A jacket was designed from a unique electrotextile material, which is connected with a speech<br />
computer. By touching the sensory fabric, the child can ‘speak’. In the woven fabric, a mesh of carbonimpregnated<br />
fibres is incorporated. When pressure is being exercised on it (by touching), a lowtension<br />
signal is led through the fibres to a computer chip. The chip can locate where the fabric was<br />
touched.<br />
The Sensory Fabric consists of two layers of electrically conductive textile, divided by a layer of nonconductive<br />
mesh. When the textile is pressurised, one conductive layer comes into contact with the<br />
other, as a result of which an electric stream can flow. The pressure necessary to make contact<br />
between the two outer conductive layers depends upon the size of the meshes and the thickness of<br />
the insulating layer. In this way, the fabric can be adapted to its application. The Sensory Fabric feels<br />
as an ordinary fabric and can be interwoven with a range of support fabrics.<br />
It can sense the position, shape, force or velocity of an interaction, and can replace a variety of input<br />
devices such as switches, keyboards, mice and touch pads [38, 42, 43]. Research is now also on the<br />
way (together with the Australian Wool Innovation Ltd.) to use wool in the development of the Sensory<br />
Fabric.<br />
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