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Components of the ConText infrastructure in the Berlin Open Lab. Components of the ConText infrastructure in the Berlin Open Lab. © DFKI
15.03.2023

Smart Home: Textile-based solution for seamless integration of IoT devices

A growing number of people are equipping their homes with smart, networked devices. However, the required connections are not always located where they are needed. The solution: smart textile surfaces that make walls and floors in the living area usable for cable-based power supply and communication. The innovative technology was developed by a consortium led by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in the ConText project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

A growing number of people are equipping their homes with smart, networked devices. However, the required connections are not always located where they are needed. The solution: smart textile surfaces that make walls and floors in the living area usable for cable-based power supply and communication. The innovative technology was developed by a consortium led by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in the ConText project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

There are many ways to make living environments intelligent. Thanks to the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), living objects can be connected with each other in such a way that they make our everyday lives easier in many ways. However, private households generally lack comprehensive low-voltage and communication connections to install IoT components such as temperature sensors, microphones, or light signals where they are needed. As a result, the devices usually operate on batteries and wireless technologies, which makes them susceptible to interference and failures.

Textile-based power supply, communication, and interaction
But how can the desire for creativity and flexibility in the use of smart home systems be met while at the same time dispensing with unfavorable energy supply and data communication? This was the question addressed by a consortium of industry and research partners in the ConText ("Connecting Textiles") project, which has now been completed. Inspired by the possibilities of smart textile materials, such as those already used in the manufacture of smart clothing, the partners investigated the potential of electronic textiles for cable-based low-voltage power supply and communication in indoor spaces. In an exploratory and use-oriented process, they developed an infrastructure that takes advantage of wired connections while integrating invisibly into textile surfaces. The so-called Connecting Textiles not only enable the flexible attachment of actuators and sensors in living areas by means of freely positionable patches, but also power supply and communication with smart home systems. In addition, the developed infrastructure provides haptic interaction modalities for intuitive control of IoT devices.

Demonstrators provide infrastructure via textile wallpaper
Demonstrators produced in the project implement the Connecting Textiles using a wallpaper as an example. The wallpaper consists of several layers: a magnetic backing layer that increases the adhesion between the patches and the wallpaper, a functional layer with woven-in conductor tracks that distribute the current vertically through the wallpaper, and a decorative top layer. To create the conductive traces, the partners investigated various woven and non-woven materials, such as those used today for standard wallpaper, as well as different processing techniques, including screen printing and weaving. Woven samples proved to be the most suitable for the functional layer due to their comparatively high conductivity. The electrical contacting of a wallpaper strip is made via the baseboard, which also connects adjacent wallpaper strips to enable large-area applications. The strip also contains the necessary electronics as well as functions that monitor the current flow to detect possible damage to the wallpaper or incorrectly applied strips.

User-oriented development of intuitive interaction elements
Functional patches serve as the central interaction elements of the Connecting Textiles, which can be flexibly attached to the wallpaper either with the help of magnets or by means of microneedles mounted on the back. The patches can either contain an IoT functionality, e.g., a sensor, or connect one or more IoT devices to integrate them into the smart home system. Control and configuration of the devices can also be done directly on the wallpaper via an additional interaction patch fabricated by screen printing on textile. Pattern recognition software captures the basic patterns of gesture interactions and allows control gestures and interaction sequences to be defined by the user. The interaction concept was developed and evaluated in the project in a participative way with the direct involvement of users.

Dr. Serge Autexier, ConText project manager at DFKI's Cyber-Physical Systems research department: "Thanks to the commitment and very good collaboration of the project partners, we have succeeded in demonstrating the feasibility of Connecting Textiles as a flexible, adaptable and easily configurable interaction medium that can be seamlessly integrated into Smart Homes. This not only opens up new possibilities for the confection of functional textile surfaces, but also for the development of novel IoT applications and the creative design of personalized human-environment interaction beyond the application context of home environments.”

One of the demonstrators developed in the project is integrated into the infrastructure of the Bremen Ambient Assisted Living Lab (BAALL) of DFKI as part of the Smart Home environment.

ConText was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) from July 1, 2019 to Dec. 31, 2022.

Project partners included:

  • DFKI - Research Department Cyber-Physical Systems, Bremen
  • DFKI - Research Department Interactive Textiles, Berlin
  • Robert Bosch GmbH, Renningen
  • German Institutes for Textile and Fiber Research Denkendorf (DITF), Denkendorf
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Applied Materials Research (IFAM), Bremen
  • Norafin Industries (Germany) GmbH, Mildenau
  • Peppermint Holding GmbH, Berlin    
  • Innovative Living Institute GmbH & Co.KG, Mülheim an der Ruhr (subcontracted)
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Smart Home wallpaper power supply AI Smart textiles
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German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence

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Photo: NTU
04.11.2022

Clothing embedded with 1,200 tiny solar panels

  • The future of wearable tech

Textiles embedded with more than a thousand miniature solar cells - which are capable of charging a smart watch or mobile phone - have been developed by researchers at Nottingham Trent University.

Research overseen by Dr Theodore Hughes-Riley, associate professor of Electronic Textiles at the Nottingham School of Art & Design, has led to the development of a woven textile embedded with 1,200 photovoltaic cells.

The e-textile is an advanced prototype which could be incorporated into a piece of clothing such as a jacket, or used as part of an accessory such as a backpack. The cells combined together are capable of harnessing 400 milliwatts (mWatts) of electrical energy from the sun – enough to charge a basic mobile phone or smartwatch.

  • The future of wearable tech

Textiles embedded with more than a thousand miniature solar cells - which are capable of charging a smart watch or mobile phone - have been developed by researchers at Nottingham Trent University.

Research overseen by Dr Theodore Hughes-Riley, associate professor of Electronic Textiles at the Nottingham School of Art & Design, has led to the development of a woven textile embedded with 1,200 photovoltaic cells.

The e-textile is an advanced prototype which could be incorporated into a piece of clothing such as a jacket, or used as part of an accessory such as a backpack. The cells combined together are capable of harnessing 400 milliwatts (mWatts) of electrical energy from the sun – enough to charge a basic mobile phone or smartwatch.

Fitted with strong but very flexible wiring, it is designed to be exposed to the same forces as everyday clothing and can be washed in a machine at 40°C with other laundry.

The solar cells - which measure only five millimetres in length and 1.5 millimetres in width - are embedded in a waterproof polymer resin and cannot be felt by the wearer.

“This prototype gives an exciting glimpse of the future potential for e-textiles,” said Dr Hughes-Riley, of the university’s Advanced Textiles Research Group (ATRG).

“Until now very few people would have considered that their clothing or textiles products could be used for generating electricity," explains Hughes-Riley. “And the material which we have developed, for all intents and purposes, appears and behaves the same as any ordinary textile, as it can be scrunched up and washed in a machine. But hidden beneath the surface is a network of more than a thousand tiny photovoltaic cells which can harness the sun’s energy to charge personal devices. Electronic textiles really have the potential to change people’s relationship with technology, as this prototype shows how we could do away with charging many devices at the wall. This is an exciting development which builds on previous technologies we have made and illustrates how it can be scaled up to generate more power.”

The material - which measures 51cm by 27cm - is breathable and chemically stable as all the solar cells are made from silicon. Tests showed that the material generated a power output of 335.3 mWatts in 0.86 sunlight. Under 1.0 sun it would generate up to 394 mWatts.

The project team included Dr Neranga Abeywickrama, who worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in Energy Harvesting and Management in Textiles, and PhD candidate Matholo Kgatuke, research associate in the Weaving of Electronic Textiles.

Ms Kgatuke, of the Nottingham School of Art & Design, said: “This project shows how e-textiles can be at the forefront of sustainability and that they have the potential to reshape our existing conceptions of technology. We have combined long-established weaving techniques with modern technology to create future products which may change people’s perceptions of clothing and electronics.”

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Nottingham Trent University solar energy energy generation Electronic Textiles
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Nottingham Trent University

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