Toronto - Canadian start-up Skiin has launched a self-heated, wire-free base knit layer which, knitted from a conductive yarn that holds 18 watts of heating power, is said to last up to eight hours.
The wearable is said to be ultra-thin and designed to deliver heat to the areas you need it most, such as the body’s core, hands, thighs, and feet. The company, which funded the development on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, claims its technology utilises intelligent heat that adapts to the wearer. As such, when the temperature drops, the base layer will automatically switch on and, when the wearer becomes too hot, it turns off.
Hin Fan, Skiin’s product manager, said: “We wanted to take the wires out of wearable technology,” adding “While developing a textile computing platform, the team discovered a way to transfer heat through the fibres of everyday fabrics. The result is SkiinCore.”
SkiinCore is said to adapt to the user’s lifestyle the more it is worn. What’s more, the garment can connect to an exclusive smartphone app which allows the wearer to manually adjust heat output.
The base layer, along with a mid-layer and inside layer developed by the company, utilise various high-performance fibre types deemed effective for each application. For example, the inside layer, which interfaces the wearer’s body, is a blend of polyester, polyamide and elastane, to be both comfortable and flexible. While the outer layer comprises wool, polyamide and elastane, to better insulate the wearer in extreme climates.
Three years were spent developing and designing Skiincore, and its prototype received the ‘Best new wearable technology device’ award from IDTechEx, along with the ‘Product Innovation Award from the Canadian Printable Electronics Symposium.
