A Smart Textile for Measuring the Impact of Energy used in Competitive Contact Sports

Technological advances that combine electronics with textile fabrics are becoming more of a reality into modern day wearable apparel. This has fashioned the concept of wearable electronics. More products have become available with some new and innovative applications. There are garments available that are capable of monitoring ECG and blood pressure in order to provide an early warning sign of cardiovascular disease. Another area of significant interest is the potential to develop garments for contact sports that can measure an impact of force when struck by an opponent. These include activities such as martial arts and boxing. These garments would replace subjective point scoring by a human judge, with an objective system that is far more accurate and precise. The aim of this research was to develop a concept for electro-conductive and intelligent textiles that could be incorporated into a range of sporting clothing. These could be worn by athletes providing measurable data to determine who is the rightful victor within a contest. Advances in the technology of electro-conductive textiles combined with modern clothing manufacturing techniques, have made these garments a distinct possibility. This has significant potential to the sporting bodies and to the competitors who participate. Greater accuracy and less chance of human error during a competition could be achieved