The next technology innovation: iClothing

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Your shirt might soon be able to turn on the lights and music, in addition to wicking away bacteria and sweat. Researchers from Purdue University have developed a fabric innovation that allows wearers to control electronic devices through the clothing. According to the researchers, the waterproof, antibacterial and breathable material is based on "omniphobic tribolectic nanogenerators -- which use embroidery and fluorinated molecules to embed tiny electronic components that turn clothing into a remote control for electronic devices.

"It is the first time there is a technique capable to transform any existing cloth item or textile into a self-powered e-textile containing sensors, music players or simple illumination displays using simple embroidery without the need for expensive fabrication processes requiring complex steps or expensive equipment," Ramses Martinez, an assistant professor in the School of Industrial Engineering, said in a press statement.

Source: High-tech clothing lets you turn on electronics and repel bacteria

Hmmm. Clothing that can wick away bacteria. I wonder if it can wick away the bacterium Yersinia pestis (bubonic plague)? If it can do that, I might be worth a bloody fortune. It seems like the number of rats in Los Angeles infected with the plague is large and growing. So the plague will likely follow the path from infected rats to infected fleas to infected humans. [Most likely beginning in the homeless population] And then the disease if not contained will transition to the pneumonic version. This is the version of the Black Death that transmits between humans and is very deadly. So just as the pneumonic version of the Black Plague struck Los Angeles in 1924, we may see a repeat.

But how would "intelligent clothing" survive the first laundry wash?

Will this mania for digital decadence never cease? We're not disabled, we can get up and light a lamp on our own.

Next they'll be making underthings that open the window when you fart.

They will have to invent a way to dry clean clothing.

Many of these innovations I rarely use. I don't have a smartphone because I do not get cell phone reception where I live. But many people do, millions and millions of people love these innovations. The latest gadget, the latest innovation.

But on the other hand, this one is interesting. So when you think of a piece of clothing that allows the lights to come on when you walk in a room, I think of a bio-suit. If you can wick deadly bacteria away from the body. Perhaps you can marriage it with a small little compartment that generates strong UV light that will kill the bacteria dead in its tracks.

And sometimes this little bit of technology is interesting. I have a little card in my pocket. I walk up to my car and I press a button near the door handle and the car door unlocks. I press a button near the trunk and the trunk unlocks. I get into the car and turn a knob and the car starts. There is no key, just an electronic key. It is like magic. And it is fun.

My winter wardrobe is a woolen "car coat" that gets dry-cleaned once a year. It probably dates to the 1950s or all the way back to the 1930s. With any luck I won't need a new coat for a long time!

True "dry cleaning" doesn't work. One has to use solvents, which don't react to fabrics the way that water would. Steam works as well. I used to use steam from an outdoor kitchen ventilator to do my clothes in--wait until I saw the steam from my window, grab the laundry, go hang it all up on the fence and do it one piece at a time. Socks, shirts, coats, pants, jackets, whatever. One day I was standing under it and smelled fresh new-mown hay, in the dead of winter...it was the brim of what was a very sharp mid-1930s straw "boater" which I then had to figure out how to reshape. I wish there was a compressed-air wash for fabrics. Perhaps a sort of glorified air-brush could pull a volatilized solvent through the cloth. (OSHA wants to know our location!)

I love the Internet and modern things as well, but do like the idea of "dumb tech, smart people."d