The State of Smart Fabrics and Opportunities for Printed Electronics

Markus Strecker is Engineering Director at adidas Wearable Sports Electronics, a leader in the development and commercialization of wearable sensors for use in fitness and health monitoring. The group develops apparel products that integrate sensors directly into the fabric of garments.

He has degrees in solid state electronics from the University of Darmstadt, Germany and from Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France. He is a confirmed expert in sensor technology and systems engineering. Throughout his career he has worked for several international high-tech companies as Motorola applying his passion for the transfer of technology research into products. Within Infineon Technologies he was Head of Engineering of the wearable electronics team, which launched first products in 2004. He was co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) of Interactive Wear AG, a company with focus on wearable electronic solutions for the garment and textile accessory industry.

Textronics, Inc. of Wilmington, Delaware, is a leader in the development of wearable sensors for use in fitness and health monitoring.

The Company develops apparel products that integrate sensing fibers directly into the fabric of garments, allowing for the measurement of electrical, optical or magnetic signals without using cumbersome electrodes attached to the body. This includes heart and respiration measurements, vital statistics and motion detection. Textronics is part of The adidas Group. The first adidas branded intelligent apparel collection using sensing fibers will be brought to market in Fall 2009.