Fabric hand research translates senses into numbers – a review

Fabric hand is the quality of a fabric assessed by the reaction obtained from the sense of touch. Fabric hand is the person's estimation when feeling fabrics between fingers and thumb. Assessment of a textile material obtained from the sense of touch is an essential consideration in fabric development and marketing. The aim of this review is to provide detailed literature on fabric hand dating back to 1930. The structure of the article consists of the evolution of fabric hand research, its definition given by various researchers, subjective and objective evaluation, artificial neural network (ANN) modeling, instruments used to evaluate low-stress mechanical properties, the relationship between physical properties and fabric hand, applications of fabric hand, the extensive literature on all the existing Kawabata equations for conventional as well as specialty textiles. The review presents a computational approach by the authors to predict the fabric hand of specialty fabrics like automotive textiles, denim, bed linen, etc.