Fabric Area Network - An Ubiquitous Wireless Communications Infrastructure for Intelligent Wear

摘要

Different parts and pieces of clothing can now communicate wirelessly with each other to form a data communication and sensing network for m-services. This paper describes the architecture and technology of the Fabric Area Network (FAN), and how a network of wireless links is implemented on clothing. The use of state-of-the-art near-field inductive RF technology limits the short- or no-range electromagnetic fields to the surfaces of the clothing and not into the human body. Thus, safety of operation and security of data can be more easily controlled. Energy to power on-clothing, embedded or epidermal battery-less devices like biosensors, actuators, man-clothing-interfaces, etc can be supplied via the wireless link. Many peripheral devices and applications for e-commerce/m-commerce can be built around the FAN infrastructure. Working prototypes illustrate the principle of the infrastructure.