Intelligent clothing harvests energy from RF fields

Temperature, heartbeat and breathing monitoring solutions based on Bluetooth technology have previously been developed by AITEX, however, these need to be smaller and the sensors need to have a longer battery life. To meet this requirement, AITEX is now considering passive electronics that can be embedded into textiles. In medical and sport applications users require electronics which can be embedded comfortably and do not require maintenance. Passive electronics are therefore more suitable for the intelligent clothing. By using the ANDY100 RFID chip, sensors can be embedded without the requirement of batteries.

These developments are part of the AMBIENTEX project, which AITEX is working on in conjunction with AIDO. Supported by the Conselleria d’ Economia, Indústria, Turisme I Ocupació de la Generalitat Valenciana through IVACE, the project is co-financed by EU FEDER funding.

“Future solutions could monitor the user’s heartbeat or breathing for sports and healthcare applications,” said Josue Ferri, Information and Communication Technologies Projects Technician, AITEX.