Wearable electronics is emerging as a key to breaking into lucrative markets, with high-tech snowboard jackets among the latest smart devices.
Recent studies by the Venture Development Corporation predict worldwide sales worth over 1 billion Euros ($1.63 billion) for the “intelligent textile materials” market by 2007. Last year, Infineon, for example, announced a “smart carpet” prototype. (See Electronics News 22 May 03 page 13).
“This basic technology opens up new markets and sales channels for us,” Infineon’s Dieter May says.
To this end, Infineon has now developed a chip module suitable for integration into a pioneering snowboard jacket from O’Neill. Dubbed “The Hub”, electrically conductive fabric tracks are woven into the jacket; connecting the chip module to a fabric keyboard and built-in helmet speakers.
The chip module contains an MP3 player and a Bluetooth module via which the snowboarder can control a mobile phone. If the snowboarder wants to make a phone call, the stereo system acts as the headset. The microphone is integrated in the collar of the jacket.
Another company, Deja View, a US-based developer of wearable digital video camcorders, has used NAND Flash SD memory cards from Toshiba to enable an “after the fact” recording feature.
This feature constantly writes both video and audio to a removable SD memory card with up to one gigabyte of storage. By the time a user presses the record button, up to 30 seconds of video and audio have already been captured, enabling users to record events even if they missed the first moments of the action.
Because NAND has a fast record and erasing speed, the camera can continually record the most recent 30 seconds of action monitored by the camera.
Deja View claims its fully-functional video camcorders are small enough to be attached to a user’s hat, glasses, or clothing. Based on a number of patent-pending technologies, the devices are less than an inch long.