INDUCTIVELY HEATED CLOTHING

摘要

Induction heatable clothing items such as footwear (22) and apparel (160) are provided which include a clothing body having an induction heatable element (36, 108, 112, 114, 116) and preferably having heat retentive material containing phase change material, wherein the element (36, 108, 112, 114, 116) is operable to be heated when subjected to an alternating magnetic field. The clothing items (22, 160) are heated using induction heaters (26, 84). In preferred forms, wireless temperature sensing is used to control heating of the items (22, 160). To this end, the heating elements (36, 108, 112, 1 14, 116) may be provided with RFID tag/temperature sensor assemblies (58, 60, 110), and the induction heaters (26, 84) are equipped with correlated RFID reader/writer devices (80). Alternately, microwire temperature sensors (120) may be used with the induction heaters (26, 84) having microwire detectors. In other embodiments, temperature monitoring is achieved using impedance detection feedback control.