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AbstractWhen we attempt to read visual messages in styles of dress within mass media such as film, it can help enlighten understanding of ourselves and nuanced messages we portray from a diverse range of cultures. Explained in qualitative methods, this paper explores pre- and post-World War II Japanese transnational dress through Mizoguchi 1956 film Akasen Chitai (Street Of Shame) and Imamura 1961 Buta to Gunkan (Pigs and Battleships), comparing how the clothed female body is reflective of political shifts in pre- and post-WWII Japanese culture. In order to contextualize and thus gain a clearer understanding of Japanese culture from both Japanese and Western perspectives, it is necessary to reflect on some of the history of Japan’s textiles pre-WWII and the garments produced by showing visual examples of them. In film, women’s bodies represent not only their own gender, but the role of men in society as well, which is true in real life. Imamura clearly looks at the human body as a context for society, applied specifically to how the female body is represented through what clothing and textiles she wears on her body, when and why; enabling the audience to decode cultural meanings as well as wider global, social and political significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes methods for evaluating the thermal properties of textile materials, clothing composites, and clothing using an integrated measurement system that includes a hot plate, a multi-purpose differential conductometer, a thermal manikin, a temperature gradient measurement device, and a device for measuring the physiological parameters of the human body during the exact evaluation of garment thermal comfort. In practice, measurements were taken on four types of materials widely used in the production of conventional and protective clothing. The measurements were carried out using a hot plate and a multi-purpose differential conductometer, determining the thermal resistance of the material both in its uncompressed form and when a force was applied that was ten times greater than that needed to determine its thickness. Using a hot plate and a multi-purpose differential conductometer, thermal resistances of textile materials were assessed at different levels of material compression. On hot plates, both conduction and convection had an impact on thermal resistance, but in the multi-purpose differential conductometer, only conduction did. Moreover, a reduction in thermal resistance was observed as a result of compressing textile materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless technologies are essential components of wearable devices for applications ranging from connected healthcare to human–machine interfaces. Their performance, however, is hindered by the human body, which obstructs the propagation of wireless signals over a wide range of directions. Here, we demonstrate conformal propagation and near-omnidirectional radiation of wireless signals near the body using clothing integrated with spoof surface plasmonic (SSP) structures. These structures, fabricated entirely from conductive textiles, induce wireless signals emitted by nearby antennas to propagate around the body as surface waves and radiate as propagating waves in directions otherwise obstructed by the body. We describe the procedure for designing textile-based spoof surface plasmon waveguides, radiating elements, and impedance matching sections for operation in the 2.4–2.5 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band. Using a tissue phantom model of the human torso, we experimentally demonstrate 2.62 greater angular coverage by a dipole placed near the body compared to without the clothing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An activity classifier based on an abstract model of the human body is suitable for use in an e-textile monitoring system without the need to retrain the recognition model to accommodate different users, sensor types, or garments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]