Na-Young Kim, Hwan Kim, Juk-Young Kim, Young-Mi Kwon, Journal of Internet Computing and Services, Vol. 12, No. 5, pp. 21-28, Oct. 2011
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Keywords: conducting thread, serial communication protocol, fabric area network, RS485, RS232, USB

Abstract

Recently medical and entertainment applications using conducting textile are suggested, but the data of conducting threads are not characterized, classified and verified. Only the data sheet published by manufacturing companies is available. Thus we need to verify the performances of the threading threads in communication. And we need a guideline if the existing communication protocols can be used for the conducting threads communication or the new specific communication protocols have to be developed for the communication. This paper classifies the characteristics of conducting threads made by domestic and overseas companies. Based on the criteria we classified conducting threads into three classes: class A, class B and class C. Further we carried out experiments to verify the adaptability of existing simple serial communication protocols such as RS232. Six different conducting threads are used in experiments and the length of each thread was 0.5m, 1m, 2m and 3m. The data transmission rate and error rate are collected and analyzed. RS485 is very prone to error due to static electricity from human and environment. So it may not be appropriate as long-distance communication protocol up to 12km which is possible in theory. RS232 shows stable and error-less data transmission ability even though every conducting thread didn’t show transmission capability over RS232. USB protocol shows high data rate transmission but the distance cannot be exceeded over 2m. Additionally, USB requires stable power supply. But if the power is supplied through conducting thread, its function is not.

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