NZers put hardware in menswear

By SIMON COLLINS science reporter

A joint venture part-owned by New Zealand sheepfarmers has developed a flexible fabric that can be used as a computer keyboard or to operate a headset.

The new "smart textiles" can also be used for car-seat covers that adjust the seat to fit the driver's body, for soft toys that purr or snarl, and to alert a nurse when a hospital patient risks bedsores by lying too long in one position.

The general manager of textiles for the Lincoln-based wool research group Canesis, Dr Nigel Johnson, said the new textiles should bring in "many millions of dollars" in licence fees and other income for New Zealand's 12,500 sheepfarmers.

The farmers own 34.5 per cent of Canesis (formerly the Wool Research Organisation) through a company called Wool Equities, formerly the Wool Board, and share ownership of the other 65.5 per cent with local wool processors.

The group began researching smart textiles at Lincoln about five years ago and recently formed a joint venture, Softswitch Ltd, with a British company.

A ski jacket made by US-based Burton Snowboard, incorporating Softswitch controls for a Sony headset stereo, was displayed at an Apec science ministers' conference in Christchurch yesterday.

The electronic controls are built into the fabric of the arm of the jacket, allowing skiers to adjust the headset without having to take off their gloves.

Another jacket incorporates a microphone in the lapel, again with fabric-based controls. It could be used by firefighters or anyone else who needs to make radio contact in extreme conditions.

The fabrics are made of a plastic-based material which conducts electricity better the harder you press on it.

Skiers listening to CDs, for example, can turn the volume up by pressing harder on their sleeves.

Dr Johnson said the "intelligent" ski jacket retailed at US$1000 ($1480), and was too expensive to be sold in New Zealand.

But he predicted that products like it would start to appear in mass markets around the world within two years.

Canesis is using a grant from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology to make new intelligent textiles out of New Zealand wool. So far its commercial partners in the field are only in the US and Britain. Dr Johnson said he had talked to New Zealand companies without success.