Introducing the Program – Rethinking the PCB: Wearables That Work: Health, Safety & Performance
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Why Should You Join TechBlick's The Future of Electronic Textiles RESHAPED?
The Future of Electronic Textiles RESHAPED conference and exhibition (21 & 22 OCT 2026, Estrel Congress Centre, Berlin) is where technologies and applications meet, accelerating the industrialisation of smart and electronic textiles. The event is co-located with Electronics RESHAPED, Sustainable Electronics RESHAPED, and Perovskite Connect.
Smart textiles prove their worth on the body — monitoring health, protecting workers, and performing in environments where conventional electronics fail. In this article, we highlight talks around the theme of wearables that work: health and physiological monitoring, and safety-critical wearables for demanding environments. In a companion article, we cover the manufacturing platforms, materials, and standards behind these products.
Explore the full agenda now and register to join the event — one pass gives you access to all four co-located shows, the exhibition, and the TechBlick on-demand library.
Health & Physiological Monitoring: From Lab Accuracy to Daily Wear
Danish Technological Institute (Denmark) – Zachary J. Davis provides a comprehensive overview of DTI's smart wearable technologies, spanning the full value chain from e-textile manufacturing and standardized IPC test methods (wash durability, abrasion, tensile and stretch behavior, climate exposure) to functional demonstrators: a printed EMG electrode sleeve targeting musculoskeletal disorder prevention with a detachable wireless unit; a cardiovascular monitoring platform fusing impedance cardiography, ECG, and a six-axis IMU in a wearable vest for human activity recognition; and a fully washable printed e-textile heater with integrated material-based temperature control — to name a few.
QUS Body Connected (Austria) – Susanne Bracun presents the biometric t-shirt: delivering medical-grade data accuracy in daily-wear textiles. The challenge QUS addresses is the hardest one in wearables — achieving clinically meaningful signal quality not from a chest strap or clinical electrode, but from a comfortable garment worn all day. The detailed abstract will follow in the agenda.
Datwyler (Switzerland) – Datwyler offers a glimpse inside: how next-gen wearables are unlocking internal physiological and mental insights. Building on its expertise in high-precision elastomer components and wearable sensor technologies such as dry electrodes, the talk explores how body-worn devices are moving beyond step counts toward genuine physiological and cognitive-state monitoring. Full talk details to be published in the agenda.
Safety-Critical & Extreme-Environment Wearables
Feraru Dynamics (United Kingdom) – Andrei Feraru presents wearable technology for health and safety at work. Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) remains one of the most prevalent occupational diseases in construction and heavy industry, yet risk assessment still relies on estimated exposure values disconnected from real-world behaviour. HAV-Sentry is a textile-embedded wearable measuring hand-transmitted vibration directly at the palm in real time — integrating MEMS acceleration sensing, grip force measurement, and cloud analytics in a compliant gauntlet. The talk traces the journey from engineering research through Rolls-Royce experience to industrial deployment, examines how UK and EU regulatory landscapes shape adoption, and closes with a vision of PPE evolving from passive protection to active sensing.
Protex – Helena Almqvist presents specialized wearables: integrating flexible heaters and sensors for extreme environments — where garments must deliver electronic functionality reliably in conditions that would destroy consumer wearables, from severe cold to demanding industrial settings. The detailed abstract will follow in the agenda.
Fraunhofer IZM (Germany) – Malte von Krshiwoblozki presents electronic textiles for soldier systems. Since 2017, Fraunhofer IZM has been developing e-textiles for soldier applications, focusing on textile-based energy and data transfer, physiological health monitoring, and human–machine interaction. The talk provides an overview of past and current developments and outlines general requirements and future needs in one of the most demanding application domains for smart textiles.
Join Us in Berlin
Wood, cellulose, natural fibre, and dissolvable boards; additive copper on biopolymers; carbon-accounted production lines — the PCB is being reinvented before our eyes, and Berlin is where the people doing it will be.
Your pass also includes the co-located Electronics RESHAPED, Electronic Textiles RESHAPED, and Perovskite Connect — four world-class events, one venue, one ticket.
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