An Assessment of the Transformative Impact of SMART Materials and Systems as a Key Driver of Innovation in the Development of Wearable Technologies

This thesis sets out to provide a critical context and analysis of the development of SMART materials and systems as a new way to group, define and understand the systemic impact of smart materials, including conductive fabrics and other materials capable of carrying charges or memory, in tandem with and intricately related to the systems and networks of influence, creation, distribution and analysis that shape them and give them ‘charge’ as a key driver of innovation in the development of wearable technology. The main field of knowledge of the thesis is that of SMART materials and systems: newly defined and contextualised in these pages to be those that have the ability to sense and react at a visible or molecular level to changes in their environment (O’Mahony, Braddock, 1994; van Hinte,1998). Conductive materials, sensors and other such technological developments are now capable of being incorporated into and onto fibers and fabric, and of being designed and tested as part of a large wearable technology domain. SMART is defined and printed in upper case in order to designate a very specific use of the term, to include those that are soft, flexible and textile in their behaviour or nature. It excludes those devices that are small or miniature in size, and inherently hard in their nature as well as non-textile-like in their behaviour. In this thesis, the term wearable technology is used to refer specifically to garments and footwear with embedded electronic devices that perform as a SMART interface or communications system (rather than according to the broader use of the term to include devices and accessories such as spectacles and watches). Such items are more closely aligned as ‘products’ rather than as ‘wearables’ by their type and the relative rigidity at this time of their main hardware materials (plastic, glass); for this reason, they are excluded from the definition for the purpose of this thesis. This is a practice-informed thesis that draws upon a firm knowledge base mapped out in the six books published prior to undertaking the PhD. Taking up knowledge gained from that prior research, this thesis forms the basis for a broader discussion and analysis using a mixed-methods approach to the sequential process of literature review, expert interviews, questionnaires and case studies, framed with a methodology of theoretical praxis: applying the practice of qualitative narrative with actor network theory (ANT) to the study. The research presented in this thesis is used to prepare the groundwork and provide a framework for the development of a toolkit to explore the likely future direction of SMART materials and systems as a primary driver of innovation in wearable technology. It is hoped that this body of work, and in particular the methodology proposed in the culminating toolkit, will be a useful tool to industry and academia.