Your Heart on Your Sleeve: Advances in Textile-Based Electronics Are Weaving Computers Right into the Clothes We Wear

In this article, we give an overview of these items and discuss the associated technological trends. In the first section, the history of wearable electronics is summarized, with special emphasis on I/O systems and substrate and packaging issues. Interconnections for wearable devices are introduced in the second section; they can be split into wireline and wireless approaches, as well as permanent versus detachable connections. In the third section, wearable health care systems on a chip (SoCs) and systems on textiles (SoTs) are explained in connection with their appropriate applications. Since wearable health care applications are a good match with wearable technologies, most of the dedicated chips have been developed for health care monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment. A final section presents anumber of conclusions regarding wearable electronics.