What's Cool about Smart Fabric? -Kristina

The smart fabric looks quite amazing. That is a large draw of any technology now. The sleek screens of nowadays tablets and phones have made touch items the "hip" thing for our generation.

The newest smart fabric technology is able to be cleaned like normal fabric. This is a significant improvement from its previous prototypes. Most retailers realize that people eat, drink, smoke, etc. in their car and they need fabric that can be cleaned without special care and detailing. Instead of using copper wires, they are trying to use conductive plastic that can be sponged clean so the average person could clean it like in current cars.

It is now as durable as any other fabric used for car seats. When woven into a durable fabric, it is just as functional as leather or polyester. It supposedly doesn't feel any different than the fabric with which the technology is interwoven, so there would still be options of feel and look to car seat material.

This fabric has the potential to eliminate buttons on the dashboard. You wouldn’t have to look at the radio or air conditioner buttons and controls which distract drivers. Also, labels can be confusing. In many cars, the label for turning the air flow up looks like a strip of bacon. In the book, "Proust and the Squid," Wolf speaks of “visual feature analysis” and she says it takes a half second after a word appears to actually see it and then another second to comprehend and take action. That second and a half when driving at 70 mph would correlate to approximately one hundred and fifty-four feet. (70 miles per hour = 102.666667 feet per second.) That distance could easily cause a car accident. By eliminating those visual buttons and replacing them with smart fabric that doesn't need to be seen, smart fabric could eliminate a few distractions for drivers and prevent distracted driving accidents.