Wear- able technology. As the name states, it is technology that you can wear.
According to Wikipedia,
‘Wearable devices such as activity trackers are best example of the Internet of Things, since “things” such as electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity are effectors that enable objects to exchange data (including data quality[5]) through the internet with a manufacturer, operator, and/or other connected devices, without requiring human intervention. ”
We managed to take advantage of this new set of computing with some interesting inventions such as the smartphone, heads-up displays, smart watches and soon to be embedded chips. Perhaps another way of wearing a wearable can come in the form of what we wear every day before we leave the house, and that is clothing. Embedding wearable technology in clothing is something that many researchers have been looking at doing for years and perhaps we are not too far from it becoming a reality. There are some products already on the market.
Here is an article from wearable that has a list of interesting wearable clothing:
https://www.wareable.com/smart-clothing/best-smart-clothing
Google’s Levi jacquard project is a particularly interesting one. Having google backing a project like that could bring with it some good high profile press.
https://www.wareable.com/smart-clothing/project-jacquard-smart-jacket-review
On a related note, a company by the name of Supreme corporation has been developing smart yarn. According to their website:
VOLT Smart Yarns is a new division of Supreme Corporation. Using exclusive and patented processes, Supreme engineers are able to create revolutionary highly-conductive custom Volt Smart Yarns with specific levels of conductivity, resistance, and strength. These Volt Smart Yarns harness the power of highly conductive copper wires to deliver yarns and sewing threads that are poised to change the world and what is possible in Smart Textiles.
The applications of this could have great potential for first responders.