Clothing with a Purpose

Last semester, as a part of my Pcomp project I was working on creating a jacket that would keep a person warm based on the dynamic weather feed that it was receiving wireless from a computer. I wanted to work further to eliminate the excessive electronics and computer related components and yet achieve a similar effect. I researched further during the break and understood the concept of heat transmission and how that can be done without crossing the threshold value of the material and cause it burn. I played with ceramic discs and thin copper wires to see how these respond when electric was given to them. At high current inputs, I was able to heat these but a simple 9v battery did not heat up. Around the same time I got in touch with a company that creates heating elements for industrial use. Though they had no mention of the technology used in their products. Looking at their products it seemed that it has to be some kind of cloth that dissipated heat when current was supplied to it. Carbon gauze had similar properties and it could be woven into sheet-like form. I got in touch with the company and went down to Stratford to pick up samples.