With the help of wearable systems, developed by EU-supported researchers, emergency workers, disaster crews and maybe even extreme sports fans could one day be receiving timely, life-saving instructions from their clothes. This is how the European integrated project ProeTEX (Protection e-Textiles: Micro-Nano-Structured Fibre Systems for Emergency-Disaster Wear) sees the future.

Launched earlier this month, ProeTEX aims to develop a set of integrated garments for emergency disaster personnel. The clothing will be capable of monitoring physiological and environmental parameters, while improving worker safety, coordination and efficiency, they say.

Wearable systems developed by ProeTEX will monitor the users’ health – i.e. vital signs, biochemical parameters, activity and posture – and even generate and store power. Outer layers of the garments, for example, could measure what the team call environmental insults”, such as high temperatures and toxic gases. The smart textiles will also be capable of communicating data to the central control unit of a rescue operation.

Led by the Italian National Research Centre (through its S3 nanoStructures and bioSystems at Surfaces), the four-year, €12-million project has assembled 23 European partners from universities, research institutions, and the textiles and healthcare sectors. This Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) funded consortium will also include three partners representing the end users who will test and validate the applications.

ProeTEX’s coordinator, Annalisa Bonfiglio of the University of Cagliary, Italy, says the resulting smart garments will have significant societal benefits and will help drive a wide range of key technology developments”, particularly in textile-based micro-nano-technologies.