Flexible Network Infrastructure for Wearable Computing Using Conductive Fabric and Its Evaluation

Numbers of devices are distributed in the environment in wearable and ubiquitous computing systems, and all of such devices need power supply and communication ways as well as flexibility of placement. Both wireless and wired communication systems intrinsically contain the problems in power supply or flexibility of placement. In this paper, we introduce the flexible network infrastructure for wearable computing systems, named as TextileNet, and experimental results of its evaluation. TextileNet uses the wear both of sides of which are made of conductive fabric as electrodes. On this year, the power is supplied from a battery, and the devices are attached by sticking so that electric contact can obtain the suficient power and communication way on the wear's surface. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of the TextileNet system.