ormation on Mann's research, see www.eecg.toronto.edu/~mann.) From molecular manufacturing to processes inspired by archeological digs, researchers are finding new ways to custom-fit clothing, create clean clothing, and dye clothing. Clothes may soon shield us from pollution, find our keys, read our e-mail aloud, and release pheromones to attract the perfect mate. Or they may help safeguard our privacy, preventing access to all the RFID chips implanted in our bodies and stuffed into our personal electronic devices. Business professionals, general consumers, and youths worldwide are carrying an increasing number of portable electronic ICT gadgets: mobile phones, PDAs, digital cameras, MP3 players, gaming platforms, and SO forth. E-textiles are emerg- ing as a more versatile and elegant alternative. Shirts, sweaters, shoes, carpeting, or even wallpaper may have devices embedded in them. A smart shirt has been developed to detect bullet wounds in combat. Standard textile techniques are used to weave conductive polymer and metallic fibers into the fabric. The fibers serve as data buses and power lines between the microcon- trollers, actuators, and sensors embedded in the cloth. Manufacturers can mix and match sensors, processors, and communications devices that plug into knitted or woven garments made from cotton, polyester, and blends. Dime-size sensors plug into tiny connectors, 5 mm in diameter, called t-connectors, that look like snaps. The sensors are placed over appropriate spots, such as the heart or diaphragm. Depending on the application, the garment could have dozens or hundreds of con- nectors. A flexible data bus integrated into the fabric writes data from the sensors to the smart shirt controller, which uses a proprietary chipset in a plastic package the size of a pager. Powered by a watch battery, the controller presses into the fabric like a fastener to contact the conductive fibers. It processes the signals from the sensors to compute vital signs and wirelessly transmits the data directly to a PDA or 