Informed by my professional background, my technology speculations typically centre on the potential impact of information technology and telecoms on the future of travel. But advances in areas such as fabrics and product design can have as great an impact on our personal travel experience.
My wife and Ihave just spent a sunny Bank Holiday weekend walking the Stour Valley path, a 60-mile regional route through the East Anglian countryside.
The prospect of carrying all your material possessions on your back focuses your mind on the details of clothing and equipment. And taking a metaphorical rummage through my rucksack, it’s remarkable how much has changed over a decade, or in some cases just the last couple of years.
Even the rucksack itself is of a new design, using modern materials to maintain strength and durability, while providing a cooling air gap between pack and T-shirt-clad back. Inside are the inevitable fleeces, contoured socks and lightweight fabrics, not to mention indispensable innovations such as trousers that unzip into shorts.
We actually trusted the weather forecast and left our waterproofs at home, but that’s another area where there has been a revolution in fabrics and functional design, not to mention parallel advances in branding and fashion. I believe I even read recently of a material with thermal properties that change with the temperature. The same jacket could then adjust from summer chill to winter freeze, rather as variable-tint lenses accommodate different light intensities. If I’m mistaken in this recollection, then view it as a firm prediction of future advances.
The generally undemanding nature of Suffolk rambles means that we were also able to leave at home that other high-tech accessory, the walking pole. Walking poles are an excellent example of how a mix of modern materials, design and marketing can create a market almost overnight to such an extent that no mountain walk is now complete without the click-clack of metal on rock.
Given the distances involved on our weekend walk, boots were a further consideration. Revolutionary changes in materials and design mean that the latest lightweight boots seem more closely related to carpet slippers that the traditional leather hiking boot. Nevertheless, although our boots were well worn in, it must be confessed that we suffered with blisters and sore feet.
Even here technology may one day come to the rescue. Electro-textiles allow sensing and processing capabilities to literally be woven into a fabric (see box right). An early application may be in hospital mattresses, where bed-sores could be prevented by giving advance warning of the pressure points. Hiking boots that warn of impending blisters would be a logical next step.
A final item in my rucksack was the omnipresent mobile phone. Like the traditional medicinal hip flask (which regrettably did not feature on our kit list), this is strictly for emergency use only. Emergencies such as checking a bus time or the opening hours of a pub.
As electro-textiles develop, the processing and interfaces for mobile phones will also be woven directly into fabrics. One day, it will even be possible to call into your local dealer, and have a phone embroidered into your favourite sweatshirt. Ensuring it can survive the washing machine and tumble dryer will be just another development challenge!
The Design for Life Centre at Brunel University is a world leader in Electro-Textile material design.
The small team of designers and engineers have created a switching and sensing fabric material that is at the cutting edge of global electro-textile technology.
One result is that the wearer friendly materials can be made up into clothing that can control electronic circuitry for the benefit of the wearer, yet can look and feel no different to existing garments.
The centre’s director Chris Chapman explained: “The most obvious applications would include creating new methods for access to computers and information technology for people not previously empowered to benefit from the latest technology. It could be used for a range of unobtrusive aids and monitors, which would help carers and rehabilitation.”
Successful samples have been produced and preliminary tests carried out which demonstrate the feasibility of the technology. The results at this stage are encouraging. Fabric structures have been demonstrated which can perform a good range of basic electrical and electronic functions. These may then be combined, as building blocks, to suit many applications.
The Design for Life Centre Web site can be accessed at http://www.brunel.ac.uk/research/dfl/text/home.htm