Smart Clothing Will Be Developed by EU in Cloud Computing

The European Union (EU) has launched a project for the development of smart clothing with wearable technology in cloud computing (cloud computing is a synonym for distributed computing over a network and means the ability to run a program on many connected computers at the same time), at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI-Rhineland-Palatinate) in Kaeserslautern, in southwest Germany.

The project titled ‘Easy-IMP’—Collaborative Development of Intelligent Wearable Meta Products in the cloud—was launched in September 2013, with an investment of € 4.4 million for over three years, and the EU has developed an interdisciplinary team of experts in sensor technology, computer science, web programming, biomechanics, rehabilitation and sports, to find new methods and tools for creating the smart clothes.

According to a statement issued by DFKI, a typical example of such type of clothing is to provide a common platform that can be used and customized by downloading apps for a variety of applications. A part of this concept has been utilized in Easy-IMP smart clothing, where the garment can be configured via a smart phone to detect motion or vital data of the user and to use in conjunction with an app for personalized services. Additionally, the system will be connected to cloud services, so that the data can be easily shared and used in social networks.

The applications of such type of smart clothing can be found in the areas of sports fields such as personalized training, performance tracking, remote coaching technique or correction, as well as in gaming and medicine fields such as rehabilitation, ambient assisted living for the elderly and handicapped persons.

Besides the DFKI as project coordinator, eleven other organizations are also part of the consortium affiliated with the project, including Interactive Wear AG (Germany), University of Lumiere Lyon (France), Athens Technology Center (Greece), Biomechanics Institute, Valencia (Spain), the Federation of European Sporting Goods Industry (Belgium), and Rehabilitation Institute Ljubljana (Slovenia).