SENSORY FABRICS

Much of the development work that has been carried out on Gorix E-CT has concentrated on heating, there are however numerous other areas where Gorix Ltd have collaborated with academic institutions and offered Gorix E-CT to be experimented with in an attempt to move the frontier of science that little bit further on. One such pioneering effort has been carried out at the Design for Living Centre at Brunel University - Egham, Surrey where Dr Stan Swallow and Asha Peta have worked toward creating new and innovative products, the team has recently been complimented by appointment of Andy Wolfenden who's recent Gorix work has concentrated on innovative temperature controlled clothing.

The Design for Life Centre, within the Department of Design at Brunel University, exercises human-centred, inclusive product design. Fundamental research into physical ergonomics, impairment, cognitive development and interaction technologies is allied to a complete product development process, resulting in Millennium Award-winning products in the biomedical, ergonomic and assistive technology fields.

DfL's exploration of human-machine interaction and wholly new types of interface sensor technology has resulted in the development of Sensory Fabric. Through this new technology, a pressure sensitive capability can be near-invisibly incorporated into textiles without significantly increasing their cost or compromising any of their properties. In conjunction with Gorix, DfL is developing the broad portfolio of applications that result from embedding a smart, reactive capability into the many fabric-swathed surfaces of the human environment.

Gorix E-CT has been used in several sensory applications where the combination of Gorix E-CT and textiles that have varying insulating qualities can create a surface that is sensitive not only to touch, but also a changing level of additive or subtractive electrical resistance.

Other academic collaborating has seen Gorix E-CT used for such diverse applications as Baby Movement Monitoring Systems and Textile Keyboards - a key goal in the field of Wearable Computing. Attempts have been made to integrate Gorix E-CT into Sensory / Responsive Gloves that can either be used as teaching aid or warning device for visually impaired children. Another Gorix Glove made use of the material as a switching surface and created a key pad from the finger sections achieving all 26 letters of the alphabet by contacting the thumb pad with the appropriate finger section in turn.

Voice synthesiser circuits have been hooked up to garments to deliver messages when certain areas of the clothing is touched; this application can take either a teaching / communications path or form part of a warning security system detecting either touch, pressure or temperature change on the garment.

The ability to sense over a very large area is also something that Gorix E-CT could be scaled toward, also to locate contact or pressure with pin point accuracy is a field worthy of further investigation.

Investigations are also underway to explore the effects on Gorix E-CT of high frequency in both active and passive roles.