From shirts that generate electricity when you move in them to fabrics that can prevent colds and flu and never needs washing. The garment industry is making huge headway in changing the clothes we wear from simply a fashion statement to a truly a functional wardrobe. "Your whole body can be equipped with an array of sensors," Bruce Thomas, co-director of the Wearable Computer Laboratory at the University of Australia, tells CNN.
"If clothes could talk, they could tell us so much about our bodies," says Dr. Shirley Coyle, an engineer based at the National Center for Sensor Research at Dublin City University, Ireland.
"They are an interface between our bodies and the environment and in the future will prove a vital tool in health care. We are creating clothing with sensors that does not intrude on the comfort of the patient with wires."
"This is an entirely new area, but every day we are discovering ways of adding new functions to textiles. It has so much potential. Our clothes will definitely play a very different role in the future," says Dr Coyle.
