US firm creates self-heating smart jacket

03 Mar '18

2 min read

Courtesy: Ministry of Supply

Boston-based apparel company Ministry of Supply has developed Mercury jacket made from a mix of polyester and polyurethane that tunes its temperature in line with user preferences and is waterproof, windproof and odour resistant. Its creators claim it can be used as a regular jacket and the 100-gram carbon fibre heating elements inside are not noticeable.

When the USB chargeable 10,000-mAh battery is plugged in, the Mercury by default begins to heat up the moment the user puts it on. It is pre-programmed to respond to the wearer’s temperature and motion using a built in accelerometer and body heat sensor, so that it can make adjustments depending on the state of the wearer, such as whether he is walking or standing still, according to a press release from the company.

It uses machine learning to acquaint itself with the user’s preferences. The more the feedback it receives, the better it will get at making automatic adjustments to keep the temperature inside at the optimal level, right up to 57 degree C.

It can be controlled by a smartphone app or by voice command. It also comes with a Qi wireless charger built into one of the pockets, meaning that when the user slips his smartphone with wirless charging facility in there, it will start drawing on the jacket’s battery to stay charged up.

Other features include heated hand warmer pockets, a hood, jet black and navy colour options and the fact that the jacket is safe to put through the washing machine with the battery removed. (DS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India

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