Advanced Textile Technology ›› 2024, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (2): 18-26.

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Progress in wearable products to improve animal welfare

  

  1. 1a. Institute of Design Innovation and Fiber Science; 1b. School of Fashion; 1c. School of Foreign Languages,Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430073, China; 2.Wuhan Textile and Apparel Digital Engineering Technology Research Center, Wuhan 430073, China
  • Received:2023-07-16 Online:2024-02-10 Published:2024-03-12

提高动物福利的可穿戴产品研究进展

  

  1. 1.武汉纺织大学,a.设计创新与纤维科学研究院;b.服装学院; c.外国语学院,武汉 430073;2.武汉纺织服装数字化工程技术研究中心,武汉 430073
  • 通讯作者: 刘雅婷,E-mail:sendohlyt@163.com
  • 作者简介:沙莎(1987—),女,黑龙江哈尔滨人,副教授,博士,主要研究方向为针织数字化设计。
  • 基金资助:
    武汉市科技局国家重点实验室支持专项(2022013988065215)

Abstract: To improve the level of animal welfare and reduce the risk of animal diseases, this paper presents wearable animal products from the perspective of animal emotional needs, physiological needs and intelligent disease diagnosis.
The first is the analysis of pet clothing based on the pets' emotional needs. The design takes into account the needs of owners and pets, such as easiness to wear and take off, dirty and wear resistance, easiness to store, etc. At the same time, it should also reflect the practicality and convenience of clothes, pay attention to science, rationality and humanization, so that the owners can experience the sense of care and participation in the process of wearing for pets, so as to get a kind of emotional satisfaction. The emotional needs of pets are mainly reflected in "separation anxiety". To address such problems, it is necessary to explore feasible treatment methods in terms of materials, structure, color, etc. of animal clothing. Second, animal clothing is based on physiological needs. At present, the main objects of animal clothing design are pet cats and dogs, and different varieties have great differences in body shape, which makes it necessary to produce various sizes of clothing in production, and is easy to cause economic losses and bring difficulties to production and sales. In addition, the animal clothing materials used are generally the same as those of the staff, but due to the great differences in the physiological characteristics of humans and animals, the existing animal clothing materials can not fully adapt to the functional requirements of animals in different specific environments. Finally, smart wearable devices are used to diagnose animal diseases of animal behavior and vital signs. With the gradual expansion of the smart wearable field in the market of pet products, smart wearable products have an important application value in monitoring physical and mental health and vital signs. In terms of wearable products that monitor animal behavior, most wearable clothing include sound sensors and acceleration sensors. This kind of monitoring method has high monitoring accuracy, but the equipment generally has low battery life and needs to be replaced frequently. And there is a large number of animals in the farm, so the frequent replacement of products brings great inconvenience to the staff. In addition, in the aspect of wearable products for monitoring animal vital signs, wearable sensors are usually used to measure animal body temperature, which can achieve high accuracy. However, the stress reaction of animals may lead to the displacement of the sensor, which in turn affects the measurement accuracy. At the same time, the high cost and endurance of the products are also one of the main reasons that affect its application.
The research shows that the development trend of wearable products for animal welfare can be summarized into three aspects. First, animal clothing should better meet the spiritual needs of animals, so as to alleviate the common psychological problems of pets. On this basis, a method of combining flexible garment materials and adjustable garment structure is proposed to solve the problem of multitype production. Second, based on the needs of animal living environment and physiological characteristics, the functional clothing fabrics are developed, so as to improve the welfare level of animals and better protect and help them. Third, the use of energy conversion technology to achieve wearability can reduce the number of wearable clothing changes for animals. At the same time, we will also explore the use of functional materials to replace the sensors in biological wearable devices, such as thermochromic materials, to realize the temperature detection of biological wearable devices, so as to solve the problems of expensive and frequent replacement of biological wearable devices.

Key words: animal welfare, psychological need, diagnostic technology, clothing design, functional fabric

摘要: 为提高动物福利水平,降低动物疫病风险,从动物情感需求、生理需求和智能化疾病诊断角度出发,对动物可穿戴产品进行分析研究。在消减动物心理问题、监测动物行为和生命体征等方面,综述了可穿戴产品在提升动物福利方面的方法原理。分析发现:目前的技术水平虽然在理想状态下能够提高动物福利,但实际环境干扰因素多、产品续航低、穿戴时容易引起动物应激反应等问题,远不能满足动物在特殊环境下的功能需求。最后指出动物可穿戴产品所面临的挑战和未来的发展方向,以期为动物福利水平改善提供一定的理论指导。

关键词: 动物福利, 心理需求, 诊断技术, 服装设计, 功能面料

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